The Scales of Justice Awards are given annually to Dorsey attorneys for exceptional pro bono efforts. The following are a few of the recipients of the 2009 Scales of Justice awards for pro bono contributions made in 2008. We congratulate every one of them.
Eve Brackmann and the Children’s Rights Team in Southern California through terrific lawyering were able to save their client’s children from the world-wide cult called the Children of God a/k/a The Family International. Amy, a pro-bono client of Dorsey & Whitney, LLP, is the mother of three children, all U.S. Citizens. Her ex-husband is the father of all three children. At the time Dorsey took the case in June 2007, the children were 8, 10, and 13 years old.
Amy and her husband were both born into a notorious worldwide cult called The Children of God, a.k.a. The Family International. By all accounts, this cult currently has approximately 10,000 members living worldwide from Thailand to Brazil, including the U.S. When Dorsey took the case, Amy and her estranged husband were both living in the U.S., although both had been shuttled all over the world by the cult throughout their childhoods and young adult lives, which is reportedly one of the many ways that this cult keeps people from joining mainstream society. Amy had managed to leave the cult and was living nearby to her husband, who was running a communal cult home. They were separated and followed an informal custodial arrangement with the children.
Then in January 2007, Amy began speaking out in the national media about the horrendous abuse that she and many others had suffered as children growing up in the cult at the hands of its notoriously cruel, sadistic leader and his cohorts. Allegedly in retaliation, her husband cut off Amy's access to their three children, and he then filed for divorce and full custody of all three children. At the same time, Amy received reports that her children were being abused and threatened by other cult members residing in the father's communal cult home; and she began to worry that the father might kidnap the children away to Brazil. Such kidnappings had been reported in prior similar cases, and it was widely believed that the cult encouraged and facilitated them. According to many ex-members, the threat of losing one's children is another way that the cult has kept people trapped and prevented them from leaving or speaking out about abuse.
Amy was unable to afford a lawyer, so Eve Brackmann led the Dorsey team which provided full representation throughout the case on a pro-bono basis. Immediately after taking the case, Dorsey requested and obtained temporary orders giving Amy full custody of all three children, with monitored visitation to the father. The family court also ordered a full custody evaluation to be conducted, with father to bear the cost subject to reallocation at trial. After a four-month custody evaluation, extensive written discovery, several lay- and expert-witness depositions, discovery motions resulting in significant sanctions against the father and his attorney, numerous ex-parte applications for interim relief on various issues (such as enrolling the children in school), a nine-day, pre-trial evidentiary hearing, and several rounds of settlement negotiations, the case was set for a ten-day trial starting October 28, 2008.
During the course of the evidentiary hearings, the father was impeached numerous times (at one point, the judge even commented negatively regarding his credibility), and the Dorsey team exposed on public record many negative and damaging facts about the cult. Finally, after a history in the case of little or no compromise, on the eve of trial the father offered to settle giving full custody of all three children to Amy. She accepted this offer and then allowed Dorsey to negotiate further for a detailed custodial arrangement, incorporating comprehensive safeguards for the children's safety and requiring the father to take his fair share of responsibility for time and financial resources. The father must also bear the significant cost of the custody-evaluator's fee.
Throughout the course of the litigation and afterwards, several other ex-cult-members commented that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of current and former members of the Children of God/Family International were watching Amy's case. This is because many of them are also battling for parental rights after leaving the cult, and many others have reportedly expressed fears that they must risk losing their children if they wish to leave. Also, many recount being told from childhood that mainstream society is full of evil people who will only hurt them and never help them. Dorsey's pro-bono work for Amy proved these lies wrong and helped to empower many people.
Amy has continued to speak out against the cult. She has been the subject of articles in national publications, such as Jane, and she has appeared on the Montel Williams Show, Larry King Live, and an E! News segment. Amy has expressed her deepest gratitude to Dorsey for its pro-bono program, and to the Dorsey team that worked on her case, and to Ronda Middleton of the family law firm of Sheasby & Middleton, who also assisted as co-counsel on the case.
John Schochet in Seattle has skillfully litigation cases to change the lives of a disable homeless man, a disabled Vietnamese army veteran, resolved an interstate custody dispute, and now represents a Native American prisoner concerning religious accommodation.
John Schochet has worked tirelessly on many pro bono cases with a focus on the Ninth Circuit matters since coming to Dorsey in 2006. A few of these matters are summarized here.
John successfully mediated Robinson v. Kitsap, a pollution lawsuit. Our client, a disabled glass blower who was homeless for a number of years, used money from a Social Security settlement to purchase an old fire station in Bremerton, Washington at a foreclosure sale in 2000. His goal was to use the fire truck bay as a glass blowing studio and live in the one-bedroom apartment above. In 2004, he learned that a large quantity of fuel oil had leaked from an underground tank on an adjoining property, owned by Kitsap County. The county refused to admit liability or clean up the property. Dorsey filed a lawsuit against the county in 2006 and later added a Model Toxics Control Act claim. We ultimately settled the case by selling the fire station to the county in a way that greatly benefited our client..
In 2007, John won a pro bono appeal in Division I of the Washington Court of Appeals, In re Custody of NK and ARK/Klein v. Kelly. The appeal involved a jurisdictional dispute over whether Montana's courts or Washington's courts would decide a child custody dispute. The father (our client) wanted to enforce a parenting plan already put in place by a Montana court, while the mother (represented pro bono by the Northwest Women's Law Center) wanted Washington to revisit the issues addressed by the Montana court's plan. Dorsey was appointed to represent the father on appeal. The court ultimately issued a published decision in our favor addressing an issue of first impression involving the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Enforcement Act, a complicated and relatively new child custody statute about which Washington courts have published very few decisions.
Earlier in 2007, John successfully represented a disabled South Vietnamese Army veteran, in a Social Security appeal before the Ninth Circuit. Our client had applied for Social Security disability benefits, which were denied by an administrative law judge. The ALJ's denial was affirmed by the Social Security Appeals Council and U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. Taking over the case for the Ninth Circuit appeal, John faced the challenge of persuading the appellate court to reverse an ALJ decision that was based on various factual findings following the administrative hearing. The Ninth Circuit reversed ordered the Social Security Administration to award disability benefits to our client.
John is currently working on Blackie Alverez v. Jean Hill, et al., a federal civil rights lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon. Alvarez, a Native American formerly incarcerated at the Snake River Correctional Institution in Oregon, had sued several prison officials under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act for failure to provide certain religious accommodations to Native American inmates. After Alvarez filed the lawsuit pro se, the district court dismissed on summary judgment. John was appointed to represent Alvarez on appeal, won reversal of the summary judgment order in a published Ninth Circuit opinion, and is now representing Alvarez on remand. John has also assisted on the Veteran’s Team and several other matters.
Veterans Affairs
Bob Cattanach is leading a team that has included over 75 partners, associates, and summer associates from most of our US offices in a lawsuit against the Department of Veterans Affairs seeking to end the unconscionable delays experienced by veterans when applying for disability benefits and to award interim benefits to vets suffering from the delays.
Hundreds of thousands of disabled veterans are experiencing huge delays as they attempt to secure benefits from the Veterans Administration (the "VA"). The VA takes six to twelve months to provide an initial response to a disability claim, and that initial response is often wrong. Veterans appealing incorrect decisions face delays approaching five years. While they wait for an initial response, veterans receive no disability benefit award, and throughout the pendency of an appeal, veterans either receive no benefits or an award far less than that to which they are entitled.
Delays in awarding benefits to America’s veterans increases the suffering of individuals already struggling with an inability to cope, as the seemingly endless wait for the VA to make a final decision on a claim magnifies the alienation and anxiety that they experience. For example, the inability to provide basic subsistence impacts a veteran’s ability to maintain economic stability, in the case of partial disability, to seek and gain employment, to provide and sustain a home, and/or to care for a family. As a consequence, there is a substantial increase in the number of broken families, cases of homelessness, and depression caused by the failure to provide disability benefits on a timely basis. The consequences of the incredible delays for those needing immediate help can be literally life-threatening. According to the VA, the suicide rate among individuals in the VA’s care may be as high as 7.5 times the national average. Every night, an estimated 150,000 veterans, many of them suffering from physical or mental disabilities, are homeless. An estimated 300,000 veterans suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Dorsey filed a lawsuit on November 10, 2008 against the Department of Veterans Affairs on behalf of two groups representing thousands of American veterans, Vietnam Veterans of America and Veterans of Modern Warfare. The lawsuit seeks to end the unconscionable delays experienced by veterans when applying for disability benefits. Bob Cattanach started the effort in early 2007 and let the team to develop novel legal theories to overcome significant legal hurdles standing in the way of obtaining relief for disabled vets. Since then over 75 partners, associates, and summer associates from most of our US offices have worked on the litigation. In particular, Chris Karagheuzoff, Chip Magid, Michael Piazza, Theresa Bevilacqua, Colin Wicker, Rob Crowley, and Tim Koeppl, and many, many others have generously given substantial amounts of their time to support this effort.
The lawsuit demands that the VA provide an initial decision on every veteran’s claim for disability benefits within 90 days and resolve appeals within 180 days. Additionally, the veterans groups ask that the Court grant further relief in the form of interim benefits awards in the event that the VA fails to provide decisions within these minimum standards of constitutionally-guaranteed due process. These interim benefits will provide veterans with a lifeline of support when it is most needed to facilitate reintegration into their lives back home. Since the filing of the case, the Obama Administration has adopted pilot projects that are attempting to determine if the VA can process applications in the time frame sought in the Complaint. In the meantime, the case continues.
Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission
David Singer and Deirdre Sheridan along with a team of New York lawyers participated in work for the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission working on a report on the United States government’s role in Liberia. Attorneys in the Dorsey New York office worked on a project in support of the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Tapped by Advocates for Human Rights (formerly Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights), Dorsey lawyers were asked to investigate, research and prepare a report concerning the United States government’s role in Liberia from the late 1970s until 2003, which included the lengthy and horrific civil war in Liberia. The report that the Dorsey lawyers prepared was used by the TRC members in preparation for hearings held in the Twin Cities (the first TRC hearings ever held outside the native country) and thereafter in Liberia.
The project included the review of thousands of documents received pursuant to a FOIA request; interviews of U.S. State Department officials, ambassadors to Liberia, Liberian government officials and scholars; and extensive research.
Election Protection Project
Michael Pignato, Ann Seha and Eric Eberhard along with a team of over 50 Dorsey lawyers and staff from multiple offices participated in the nonpartisan Election Protection Project. Starting in the spring of 2008, Dorsey teams drafted and updated election law legal manuals for four states and peer-reviewed manuals drafted by other law firms for five other states. Election Protection volunteers used these manuals to assist voters prior to and on Election Day. Dorsey's Seattle and Minneapolis offices also led significant state election protection efforts on Election Day. Election Protection is the nation’s largest non-partisan voter protection coalition. It guides voters through the voting process, helping to ensure that all eligible American citizens have the opportunity to cast a meaningful ballot and have that vote counted. The Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is the lead legal partner for Election Protection, and was Dorsey’s client on this project. Dorsey served as the lead firm for the Voter Protection Project in Washington State and our effort was led by Eric Eberhard. We had 25 people in our Seattle office participate in the project including support staff, summer associates, paralegals, associates and partners. With help from Katrina Nunley and Connie McEachern we hosted four training sessions at the office and helped to recruit nearly eighty volunteers for the project, including attorneys from other firms. With Amanda Rose as the lead we prepared the written materials used by attorneys and non-attorney volunteers. With John Peterson, Jeff Christensen and Jennifer Reed in the lead we initiated and are still conducting an effort to review the process by which the voter rolls were purged and updated prior to the election. We had Nathan Alexander ready to go to court on Election Day if necessary to assist voters. We responded to telephone calls from voters, helped staff the command post on election day and assisted voters at the polling places in King and Pierce counties, the only two counties that did not use mail in ballots in the election. With Amy Schiffhauer’s help we also initiated a media campaign and participated in interviews for articles in the print media and for the local public television station.
Mike Pignato and Ann Seha led the Minneapolis office's efforts, which were coordinated with the Lawyers’ Committee’s local partner, TakeAction Minnesota. Jamie Nafziger (volunteer recruiting), Chandra Linton (training), Karly Baraga (hotline), Skip Durocher (litigation) and Patricia Ngong (project coordination) leading the various components of the effort, which included preparing and peer reviewing election law legal manuals, setting up and staffing the Hotline, coordinating Mobile Legal Volunteers, training all volunteers and working with the media to publicize the Hotline.
Legal Manuals. The election law legal manuals were used by volunteer attorneys who staffed the national hotline (1-866-OUR-VOTE), and were also used by local coordinating committees in each state. We drafted and updated manuals for four states (Alaska, Iowa, Minnesota and Washington) and peer-reviewed manuals drafted by other law firms for five other states (California, Colorado, Montana, North Dakota and Utah). The work to prepare the manuals was coordinated by: Jeff Cadwell, Amy Schneider, Ann Seha, Nena Street, Mike Grisham and Eric Eberhard. The peer-review of the other manuals was led by: Eileen Chung, Jennifer Good, Chandra Linton, Amy Schneider, Ann Seha and Nena Street.
Hotline. Election Day activities began in the middle of October, when Dorsey volunteers started taking Minnesota voter calls. The hotline room starting operations the weekend before the election. In the three weeks leading up to Election Day when we started answering calls locally, 523 calls from Minnesota voters were answered, including the 193 calls answered when the hotline rooms started operations. On Election Day, 599 Minnesota calls were answered. We estimate that 400 of those calls were handled by our Minnesota hotline team on November 4. We helped hundreds of Minnesota voters find their polling place and understand the requirements for Election Day registration. We also identified issues with operations at particular polling places and were able to get that information to local election officials for follow up.
Mobile Legal Volunteers. In addition, on Election Day, a group of Mobile Legal Volunteers were assigned to observe operations at polling places and report in to the hotline with any issues they observed. We coordinated these activities from the hotline room. We had approximately 111 Mobile Legal Volunteers providing coverage (at least one actual visit, but generally full coverage all day) to approximately 137 precincts in 26 Minnesota cities and towns - an impressive show of support for Election Protection. Thanks to this coverage, we were able to interface in real time with voters and election officials to address problems affecting the ability of voters to exercise their rights, including accessibility issues, issues regarding translators, ballot box problems and confusing polling site information. All of this helped us fulfill our mission: to help eligible voters vote, and have their vote count.
Lee Merreot, Dan Lowin and Wilda Wahpepah led the team that represented an 11-year-old boy who was arrested and held overnight for failing to respond to an improperly served witness subpoena. The subpoena was issued in an assault case in which the boy was the victim. The County Jail held the boy in the adult “drunk tank” for several hours in violation of state law requiring that juveniles be separately held. After a night in a juvenile facility, he was taken to court in full prisoner restraints. The County Attorney’s Office, who had sought the warrant for his arrest, decided he should simply be released to his parents. No charges were ever filed against him for any crime whatsoever. Dorsey filed a civil rights claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and various state law claims against the County on behalf of the boy and ultimately settled with the County.
100% Pro Bono Participation in 2008
Several years ago Dorsey started the tradition of having a traveling trophy that would be awarded annually to an office with 100% lawyer participation in pro bono. The trophy made its rounds the first couple years and suddenly several offices each year would make the goal of having 100% pro bono participation. We have enthusiastically kept the trophy circulating to the office with the highest average number of pro bono hours per attorney and awarded plaques for all other offices achieving this goal. For 2008, the Anchorage office earned the Trophy with an incredible 80.74 average pro bono hours per attorney. Earning 100% participation plaques are: the DC office had 64.58 average pro bono hours per attorney; Fargo with 62.05 average pro bono hours per attorney; Denver with 35.0 average pro bono hours per attorney; and Salt Lake City had an average of 26.08 pro bono hours per lawyer. Congratulations to all of you!
Jennifer Good, an associate in the Denver office, has encouraged our associates to regularly participate in Pro Bono matters, and has herself generously given of her time. Her dedication has created an atmosphere in which a new office pro bono project was created, working with The Rocky Mountain Children’s Law Center. As a direct result of her efforts, the Denver office was recognized with the “Best Partner” award presented by the Rocky Mountain Children’s Law Center. The Center recognized the Firm for the work being done by a number of Denver attorneys who donate their time to a recently developed clinic program. At the clinic, Dorsey lawyers meet one-on-one with young people aged 14 to 24 to discuss legal issues, provide counsel and help them overcome real life challenges to be come self-reliant adults.
Liberia Team
Our Liberia Team, led by Mark Kalla, Tim Hearn, Emily Willits and Gabrielle Mead, and members of their team have earned the Scales of Justice Award. The Team has involved many of our lawyers in a number of projects relating to Liberia. First, they went through extensive training on Liberia and its civil war to be prepared to take statements from Liberians who fled the civil war and came to this country. These statements, which recount heart wrenching civil and human rights abuses, will be used by the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Our Team also helped Liberians who were in the United States under Temporary Protected Status, which was to expire in October of 2007. Our Team researched and authored a report underscoring the need to allow the Liberian government sufficient time to establish itself as a stable and secure democracy able to provide for its population. It recommended Liberians be allowed to remain in the United States while the Liberian government moved forward during this critical time in its history. The report examined the most recent accounts of the country conditions in Liberia, focusing on the country’s refugee return program, economy, infrastructure, health care, education, security and justice systems. Soon after delivery of the report, President Bush authorized the extension of the Temporary Protected Status for Liberians for an additional 18 months.
Our lawyers who contributed to the report include Team Leaders: Mark Kalla, Tim Hearn, Gabrielle Mead, Emily Willits; and Team members: Karly Baraga, Jana Bruder, Steve Carlson, David Eldred, Shawna Fullerton, Michelle Grant, Jenna Hannigan, Sarah Kerbeshian, Eric Larson, Kevin Maler, Michael McCormick, Peder Nestingen, Karen Pogonowski, Sellano Simmons, Nena Street, Jonathan Van Horn, Duffy Lorenz and Regan Waller.
Martha Luemers, partner in Palo Alto received a Scales of Justice Award for her skillful legal work representing a client from Haiti. The government deported our client to Haiti, where he had no family and had been threatened with assassination, on the basis that he had been convicted of the aggravated felony of trafficking a controlled substance. Martha, with assistance from others from the office represented our client in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which took the unusual step of vacating the removal (deportation) order rather than remanding it for further proceedings. The court held the government had failed to sustain its burden of proving our client was convicted of selling rock cocaine, as opposed to other conduct criminalized by the California statutes that do not qualify as an aggravated felony under federal immigration law. The Court’s decision to vacate the removal order means a complete victory for our client, who after eight years of detention and one year in Haiti, may soon return home to his family.
Dennis Johnson, our Des Moines Partner and Pro Bono Coordinator in that office received one of our Scales of Justice Awards. While Dennis has done a lot of terrific Pro Bono work, he and Oliver McKinstry, with the support of others in the office, took on a very controversial case for Lambda Legal, a gay and lesbian legal organization. Denny, represented six same-sex couples and filed a law suit seeking their right to wed. The clients were denied marriage licenses, which they claimed was a violation of equal-protection and due-process clauses in the Iowa constitution.
The Iowa district court ruled that same-sex couples can marry based on the state constitution’s guarantee of equal treatment. The court also struck down a state law declaring valid marriages are only between a man and a woman. Polk County officials were ordered to accept marriage license applications by same-sex couples. However, less than 24 hours later, the County won a stay of the district court order, pending an appeal to the Iowa State Supreme Court.