Times Like These in This Issue… PATRICIA M
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aprIL 2009 | VOL.24, NO.4 Times Like These IN THIS ISSUE… PATRICIA M. HYNES, PRESIDENT City Bar Justice Center Annual Gala I am proud that the New York City Bar is among the organizations taking the April 7th lead in helping homeowners survive the worst economic crisis in generations. page 5 Times like these remind us why we went to law school in the first place. For many of us, it was to make a difference. Documentary: The Journey for Justice: Since last spring, the City Bar Justice Center has been working with the Federal The A.P. Tureaud Story Reserve Bank of New York to provide homeowners facing foreclosure with April 15th volunteer attorneys. A recent grant from the New York State Housing Trust Fund page 5 has allowed the Justice Center to add another staff attorney to the project. Further assistance is available from the Justice Center’s Consumer Bankruptcy Project, which has received a grant from the New York Getting Appointed to a Criminal Justice State Department of Banking to provide Chapter 13 help to homeowners. With increased support, the Act Panel Justice Center hopes to mobilize more private attorneys to help. April 16th As the accompanying article on the Justice Center’s foreclosure volunteers illustrates, there’s never page 5 been a better time to get involved in pro bono work. The time to make a difference is now. Pleasure, Pain, Physicians and Police: The Law of Controlled Substances and the Practice of Medicine On the Front Lines of Foreclosure April 29th page 8 44th Street Notes recently sat down with City Bar that it’s essentially like a big law firm.” He was Justice Center Project Director Lynn Armentrout referring to the project’s collaborative nature, Hedge Funds in the Current Environment – CLE and six volunteer attorneys for the Lawyers bringing together attorneys with expertise in a April 22nd Foreclosure Intervention Network, a project variety of areas beneficial to foreclosure clients, page 12 providing free legal services to homeowners such as banking law, construction and litiga- facing foreclosure. The project is co-sponsored tion. Even this brief roundtable became at times Out with the Code, in With by the Justice Center and the Federal Reserve like a workshop, as participants offered advice on the Rules – CLE Bank of New York. one another’s cases, providing new insights and April 14th solutions to varied and often complicated issues. page 12 While most of the foreclosure project’s volunteers Also as in a large law firm, the project’s lawyers are solos or from small firms, something interest- are being offered ongoing training, including an Hot Topics & Recent ing happens when they get together. As one Developments in upcoming civil procedure class with renowned Foreclosure – CLE volunteer, Joseph Parenteau, put it: “The great NYU Law Professor Oscar Chase. April 20th thing you have going here with this operation is page 15 continued on p.2 CONTENTS on the front lines of foreclosure: continued from p.1 Edward Reisner Times Like These 1 We asked the volunteers what motivated them to step up in the face of the foreclosure crisis Ed Reisner has volunteered to On the Front Lines and how the experience has affected them take on not one but three cases of Foreclosure 1 personally and professionally. for the project, including one involving a client who did not City Bar Events 4 Howard Yaruss even know his house had been foreclosed and Calendars 10 Howard Yaruss brings extensive sold because he was in prison while it happened. experience working in the Reisner emphasized the satisfaction he has CLE Courses 12 financial industry to the gotten from helping his clients avoid eviction, Committee Reports 17 foreclosure project. Currently and also from doing something to help solve he is handling the case of a 69-year-old woman the country’s larger economic crisis, saying, April 2009 CLE who owned her home free and clear before “It feels good to be promoting our new Registration Form 18 falling for an Internet scam. Yaruss was struck President’s agenda.” by how “disenfranchised” foreclosure clients Upcoming Career Denise Quarles Development & seem. “I can see how a lack of financial educa- Networking Events tion and available mortgage options, and the Denise Quarles has represented and CLE Courses back page inability to afford an attorney, makes clients healthcare professionals in feel so helpless and frustrated,” he said. disciplinary, licensing, employ- City Bar Leaders ment and malpractice matters in Government back page Joseph Parenteau for eight years. She became interested in the Joseph Parenteau was recruited foreclosure project when one of her healthcare to the foreclosure project by clients came to her with a real estate case and Michael Campbell of the she felt powerless to help. While her pro bono Federal Reserve Bank of New clients can require as much attention as her York, one of the project’s co-sponsors. With a paying clients, she said it’s worth it to know 44TH STREET NoTES background in both finance and construction you’re “making a difference.” Editor law, Parenteau brings a unique perspective Eric Friedman and skill set to foreclosure cases, including one Michael Campbell, Associate Editor Federal Reserve Bank Christina Bruno in which a contractor hired to repair a home of New York Graphic Design allegedly went too far and tore it down to Curio Design LLC the foundation. “There’s a certain amount of The Justice Center is especially Marketing Director guilt and penance involved in the work,” said pleased to have Mike Campbell Adele Lemlek handling a case, because he was instrumental in Advertising Parenteau. “Any finance lawyer should be Alison Fidler 212.382.6753 doing something. It’s really time to step up.” the implementation of the Lawyers Foreclosure Daniel Seid 212.382.4742 Intervention Network as a representative of the Executive Director Melissa Weinberg Federal Reserve Bank of New York, a co-spon- Barbara Berger Opotowsky Melissa Weinberg came to the sor of the program. Campbell expressed how 44th Street Notes (ISSN 10791019) is published monthly except July and August foreclosure project with 13 years meaningful it has been for him to see these for $25 per year by The Association of the of litigation experience and cases and the people involved in them up close, Bar of the City of New York, 42 West 44th Street, New York, NY 10036-6604. Periodicals is currently defending a young and said, “The clients light up when you call.” postage paid at New York, NY. Postmaster: Send address changes to 44th Street Notes, woman who was the victim of a predatory 42 West 44th Street, New York, NY lending scheme. “While all these cases garner 10036-6604. For subscription information, please call 212.382.6656. sympathy, you know that without the volunteers these people would not be getting the necessary “I’m proud to tell my other clients This publication is printed with soy-based environmentally friendly inks on legal representation,” said Weinberg. She finds that we are volunteering to help 50# paperfect, which is produced from that her clients are “grateful someone’s actually renewable resources, such as eucalyptus save homes, and they are happy to leaves, that have little or no negative listening.” She also noted, “I’m proud to tell my impact on forests, and is approved by other clients that we are volunteering to help hear that we are doing something The Forest Stewardship Council and the save homes, and they are happy to hear that we Rainforest Alliance are doing something to address this issue.” NYC Bar Members: to address this issue.” To change your address, please contact 212.382.6665 or [email protected]. — Melissa Weinberg www.nycbar.org 2 | 44TH STREET notes | april 2009 www.nycbar.org © The New Yorker Collection 2001 Leo Cullum from cartoonbank.com. All Rights Reserved. photo: Karen Shernit On February 23rd, the City Bar Justice Center held an immigration clinic for clients of Victor Espinal, who was arrested in January for allegedly practicing law without a license. Fifty-four volunteer attorneys and 11 translators, paralegals and coordinators helped approximately 125 clients determine next steps in their cases, as The New York Times and Spanish-language media covered the event. www.nycbar.org april 2009 | 44TH STREET notes | 3 CITY BAR EVENTS Unless otherwise noted, pro- Understand Your Fiduciary Moderator: Cynthia B. Rubin, grams are free of charge; open Responsibilities as a Retirement Flemming Zulack to all members, their guests and Williamson Zauderer, LLP the general public; and held at Plan Sponsor Speakers: the House of the Association. A program for members who offer Hon. Jacqueline Silbermann, Program information is subject retirement plans to their employees Blank Rome LLP; Susan Bender, to change. Please check our Bender Burrows & Rosenthal, LLP 1 WEDNESday, 6 PM – 8 PM website at www.nycbar.org for Registration is necessary for this event. The fee, the latest program information. If you offer your employees a defined which includes breakfast, is $15 for members, contribution plan (profit sharing and/or $25 for non-members. Please register online at 401(k) plan), you have responsibilities www.nycbar.org under ERISA. Join us for a discussion Putting ADR on Your RADAR about naming a plan fiduciary, duties as International Pro Bono 1 WEDNESday, 9 AM – 10:30 AM an ERISA fiduciary, liabilities for breaches of fiduciary duty, minimizing exposure Opportunities While most ADR organizations require to liability, prohibited transactions, 2 THURSday, 5:30 PM – 7 PM 10 years of law practice before joining their reporting and disclosure obligations, and ranks as an arbitrator or mediator, there customized solutions.