WASHINGTON LAWYERS' COMMITTEE Committee Honors
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WASHINGTON LAWYERS’ COMMITTEE UPDATE VOL. 12, NO. 2 FOR CIVIL RIGHTS AND URBAN AFFAIRS FALL 2006 D.C. Prisoners’ Legal Services Project Joins Committee On September 19, the Washington Lawyers’ Committee Board of Directors voted to merge the D.C. Prisoners’ Legal Services Project into the Committee’s ranks. As a result, the Committee will add Project Director Phil Fornaci and attorneys Deborah Golden and Ivy Lange to its staff. The staff of the Project, now called the D.C. Prisoners’ Project, brings to the Committee nearly 20 years of experience with the foremost private prisoners’ rights legal advocacy organization in the District of Columbia. This wealth Roger W. Wilkins, 2006 Wiley A. Branton Award recipient, addresses of experience will highlight and Luncheon attendees. complement the Committee’s long- standing interest and work in Committee Honors Marc Fleischaker, Roger prisoners’ rights and prison reform issues. Wilkins, Leadership Conference on Civil continued on page 13 Rights at 2006 Branton Awards Lunch Inside this issue ... On June 13, the Washington Marc L. Fleischaker, Chairman Major Settlements ................................6, 7, 15 Lawyers’ Committee honored of the law firm of Arent Fox Director’s Corner ............................................ 2 attorney Marc Fleischaker, civil PLLC, and Roger W. Wilkins, civil rights lawyer and journalist Roger rights lawyer, Pulitzer Prize-winning New Cases ..................................................... 15 Wilkins, and the Leadership journalist, and George Mason Wiley A. Branton Conference on Civil Rights during University Professor of History, Outstanding Achievement Awards .... 8-13 its 2006 Wiley Branton Awards jointly received the Wiley Branton John Burke Memorial Fund .......................... 5 Luncheon at the Grand Hyatt Award for Lifetime Achievement in Hotel. Nearly 900 Committee recognition of their long-time Arrivals ............................................................. 17 supporters, with 75 law firms advocacy for civil rights. Corporate and Foundation represented, attended the luncheon. continued on page 18 Contributors ................................................. 20 Corner WASHINGTON LAWYERS’ COMMITTEE distinguished careers. This year’s Labor Support Program as part of luncheon also allowed us to our Immigrant and Refugee Rights acknowledge the unique contributions Project. In the face of acute issues of the Leadership Conference on Civil confronting our local community of Rights to the passage of virtually every immigrant workers, it is especially piece of modern civil rights legislation. reassuring to see such a strong We are delighted that so many friends response from the many firms that and supporters were able to have stepped forward to offer pro Director’s participate in this year’s event. bono support for this effort. We are especially pleased to As a final matter, it is also a welcome D.C. Prisoners’ Legal pleasure to acknowledge with sincere Services Project as a major part of the appreciation the support received in Committee’s structure. With its unique response to the Committee’s recently Roderic V.O. Boggs record of accomplishments in concluded 2005/2006 Law Firm Executive Director addressing the legal needs of D.C. and Individual Funding Drives. Washington Lawyers’ Committee prisoners, this program is a vital part Nearly 100 area firms and over 730 for Civil Rights & Urban Affairs of our city’s legal services network. We individuals provided generous gifts look forward to being able to assure to the Committee during the This issue of the Committee’s the continuation and expansion of its campaign. This support forms the UPDATE reports on this year’s important mission for many years to core element of the Committee’s highly successful Wiley Branton come. overall 2006 budget of $3 million, Luncheon which provided an and the Committee could not opportunity to recognize two As a fine example of the maintain its programs without it. A individuals, Marc Fleischaker and Committee’s response to an emerging special word of thanks is due to the Roger Wilkins, who have both need, we are very pleased to note the many Committee Board Members exemplified a special commitment to excellent progress being made in and Trustees who played active roles civil rights throughout their establishing the Committee’s new Day in our outreach efforts. Committee Governance and Development The Committee today operates with a staff of 28, including seven project directors, four senior lawyers, and three staff attorneys. The Committee is governed by a 50-member Board of Directors. Board members are drawn from leading area law firms and they are led by two Co-Chairs. The Directors and Co-Chairs are supported by a 90-member Board of Trustees and a team of Firm Representatives from nearly 100 participating law firms. The Committee’s operating budget for 2006 is approximately $3 million. Funding for this budget is provided by a combination of law firm and individual giving, foundation funding, and the proceeds from the Annual Wiley A. Branton Luncheon, as well as attorneys’ fees and gifts of fees received in Committee litigation. The Committee’s 2005/2006 Funding Drive concluded September 30, 2006. It provided approximately $1.1 million in law firm, individual and event funding. Nearly 100 firms and over 730 individuals contributed to this total. Foundation funding is expected to provide approximately $250,000 by the end of the foundation fundraising year, which concludes December 31, 2005. As the Committee begins its year-end funding cycle and announces its new campaign, it will make a special effort to secure increased funding through a year-end appeal to law firm partners and associates. In addition, the Committee will also be expanding a special campaign to secure endowment funding for its general support and specific projects. Individuals and firms interested in providing support for the Committee and participating in its fundraising efforts should contact Da’aga Hill Bowman, Director of Foundation Outreach and Public Information at (202) 319-1000, ext. 155. Contributions to the Committee may also be made online at www.washlaw.org. Page 2 FALL 2006 UPDATE History of the Washington Lawyers’ Committee From its inception in 1968, the plans covering federal and local Housing Litigation Project to address Washington Lawyers’ Committee has government construction projects. denials of equal housing opportunity. seen its basic mission as mobilizing Committee cases, co-counseled by Shortly thereafter, it played a key role the resources of the private bar to over a dozen area law firms, won in working with a coalition of local address issues of discrimination and precedent-setting victories against clergy to create the Fair Housing poverty in our community. The many of the region’s largest unions Council of Greater Washington. For primary motivating force behind the and contractors, opening significant the past 20 years, the Committee creation of the Committee and its employment opportunities for represented the Council and over 100 counterparts in other cities was the thousands of African-American individuals in dozens of cases that publication of the Report of the workers. have established a national standard National Advisory Commission on for effective advocacy and secured During the same period, the Civil Disorders, which identified hundreds of thousands of dollars Committee began a special outreach discrimination and poverty as the and broad injunctive relief for victims campaign directed at minority and root causes of the riots that erupted of housing discrimination. In many women federal employees. Working in cities around the nation during the of its cases, the Committee worked with employee task forces at scores late 1960’s and in Washington, D.C. in with the Fair Housing Council in that of agencies, the Committee provided April 1968 following the assassination organization’s groundbreaking efforts representation in dozens of major of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to utilize paired testers to investigate cases winning many of the first allegations of discrimination. In Over the past 38 years, the judgments upholding the claims of 1999, the Fair Housing Council and Washington Lawyers’ Committee has federal workers under the newly the Fair Employment Council expanded from a small staff enacted provisions of the 1972 Civil merged to become the Equal Rights addressing a limited number of Rights Act. The Committee has built Center. matters into a larger organization on this early record to bring class operating multiple projects that actions affecting over 25 federal Public Education Projects address a broad range of civil rights agencies, and dozens of private In 1978, the Committee and poverty issues. sector defendants, securing millions established a program to assist of dollars of back pay and damages, Equal Employment parents seeking to improve the quality and injunctive relief for thousands of Opportunity Project of public education in the District of workers. Columbia, with over a dozen law The Committee’s first The Committee takes special firms offering general counsel program—its Equal Employment pride in its role in winning landmark assistance to parent groups at local Opportunity Project—was appellate rulings upholding the use of schools in the Anacostia section of established in 1971, at a time when paired testers to investigate denials of the city. Two years later, these parents the Washington area was beginning equal employment. The Committee’s