We provide pro bono legal services to those who cannot otherwise obtain legal representation, and we do so with the same dedication and commitment to excellence with which we represent our paying clients. The primary goal of the firm's pro bono program is to provide legal services for those in need. To do so, we encourage all lawyers to pursue the kind of voluntary pro bono commitment they find rewarding; cooperate with established pro bono service providers and clearinghouses (including local courts) so that our efforts are broadly channeled and likely to benefit either deserving individuals or recognized groups; and use pro bono as a vehicle for early client responsibility and training.
With the advice and supervision of the Pro Bono Committee, our full-time pro bono coordinator, a former litigation associate, disseminates information on current pro bono opportunities offered by courts and public interest organizations and provides in-house support and training for lawyers handling individual matters. In addition, lawyers interested in areas in which the firm is not involved are encouraged to present matters to the Pro Bono Committee for consideration.
In the last three years, the follow organizations have honored Davis Polk publicly for our pro bono work:
We provide pro bono representation in the following areas:
Administrative Appeals. Our lawyers appear before Administrative Law Judges to help clients appeal the denials of Social Security disability benefits and before the Board of Education to assist students with special needs attain special education placement. Following the administrative appearances, which generally are successful, we work with our clients to obtain disability benefits or find appropriate educational facilities.
Arts Contracts. Through Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, we provide advice to individual artists and arts organizations on contracts, litigation, real estate, tax and general corporate matters. Recently, we assisted a young pianist in a dispute with his financial sponsor, a singer with his royalty participation agreement, a photographer sued for allegedly violating the privacy rights of a model by permitting her photograph to be published without consent, and the executor of the estate of a classical composer who died of AIDS.
Capital Defense. Davis Polk is acting as defense counsel for Timothy McKinney, a young man on death row in Tennessee for a conviction of first-degree murder. On December 25, 1997, our client, along with hundreds of other people, attended a party at a club in Memphis. Our client’s conviction stems from the shooting that night of an off-duty police officer who was working as a security guard at the club.
At Mr. McKinney’s trial, the prosecution presented two eyewitnesses who testified that the shooter matched Mr. McKinney’s description. Following a short trial in 1999 in which the defense presented no evidence, Mr. McKinney was convicted of first-degree murder in Tennessee state court and sentenced to death by lethal injection. The conviction and sentence were affirmed by both the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals and the Supreme Court of Tennessee in 2001 and 2002, respectively. Mr. McKinney denied having had any part in the shooting and maintains his innocence today.
After his conviction, Mr. McKinney filed a pro se petition seeking post-conviction relief. His case was subsequently assigned to local counsel from the Post-Conviction Defender’s Office in Nashville, and a post-conviction hearing was held in early 2006. In preparation for the hearing, the local defense team conducted extensive investigations resulting in helpful evidence that had not been presented at trial. Forty-two witnesses testified at Mr. McKinney’s post-conviction hearing. Mr. McKinney’s lawyer argued that he had received ineffective assistance of counsel at both his trial and direct appeal, and that there had been numerous violations of both the Tennessee and U.S. Constitutions, including prosecutorial misconduct and failure to turn over exculpatory material. Despite these efforts, on August 31, 2006, Mr. McKinney was denied post-conviction relief. In March 2007, Davis Polk joined Mr. McKinney’s defense team. In May 2007, members of the Davis Polk team traveled to Tennessee to meet the defendant and discuss his case. We drafted a brief to the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals to appeal the denial of post-conviction relief in August and are awaiting the reply from the State.
Davis Polk also has successfully appealed the death sentences of several inmates from Alabama and Georgia
Civil Rights. In addition to our work in the area of prisoners' rights, we handle civil rights matters involving voting rights and racial and other forms of discrimination in employment or housing. Cases are referred by federal court pro bono panels and organizations such as Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Brennan Center, the Gay Men’s Health Crisis Center, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and New York Lawyers for the Public Interest.
Corporate, Real Estate and Tax Advice. Our corporate and tax pro bono efforts are focused primarily in the area of community development. We provide real estate, financing and tax advice to significant community development projects throughout the city. We serve as on-going corporate counsel to Citizen’s Advice Bureau, a Bronx-based settlement house; Groundswell Community Mural Project, an organization whose mission is to promote community and cultural development, youth engagement and neighborhood beautification through painting murals in New York City neighborhoods; Rainforest Alliance, an international environmental group committed to improving farming and forestry practices in the United States; and Settlement Housing Fund, Inc., a not-for-profit housing development corporation. In addition, we provide counsel to not-for-profit community groups and organizations in the process of incorporating, obtaining tax-exempt recognition, and with regard to mergers, by-laws, leases, contracts, tax and other matters.
Criminal Appeals—Prosecution and Defense. Davis Polk was again the recipient of the Pro Bono Publico and Public Service Law Firm Award in October 2007 for its “extraordinary pro bono commitment to The Legal Aid Society and its clients.” A long-time supporter of the Society, the firm expanded its commitment by serving as co-counsel in a major federal lawsuit, which has now resulted in significant improvements in psychiatric treatment for New York State prisoners with mental illness. The firm also was honored for its continuing representation through the Criminal Appeals Bureau of prisoners in New York State correctional facilities appealing their convictions and our IT Department’s work in creating a new website for the Society. Davis Polk’s support of The Legal Aid Society dates back to the early 1900s. Several partners have served on the Society’s board of directors, including Allen Wardwell, who was the president from 1926 to 1936.
In addition, under programs with the Brooklyn and Queens District Attorneys' offices, our lawyers serve as Special Prosecutors to handle appeals in the Appellate Division, Second Department. Representation of criminal defendants in the Southern District is periodically assigned to a member of the firm under the Criminal Justice Act.
Federal Court Pro Bono Panel. At the request of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, we are one of a small group of firms that has set up a special program for our lawyers to help ease the backlog of the Southern District's pro se docket where volunteer counsel has not been available. In this capacity, we have accepted assignments of numerous cases from the Southern District Pro Bono Panel.
General Corporate. We advised Pro Bono Net, an Internet resource for pro bono lawyers and a long-time pro bono client, on several transactions during 2007. Pro Bono Net seeks to increase access to justice by low-income people through the innovative use of technology. We successfully negotiated a contract with the New York Unified Court System that will enable unrepresented New Yorkers to assemble court forms and other legal documents through a website hosted by Pro Bono Net. We also represented Pro Bono Net with respect to Pro Bono Manager, a new web-based platform designed to enable large law firms to effectively manage and promote their pro bono projects. We drafted the form of the Pro Bono Manager contract, and have assisted Pro Bono Net in negotiations with various law firms.
We advised Community Growth Opportunity (CGO), an organization that assists victims of domestic violence and their families, on its proposed formation of a limited liability company subsidiary to own and operate a for-profit second-hand goods store. The profits from the second-hand store will be used to support CGO. In connection with this matter, we provided tax, corporate, intellectual property and regulatory advice. In addition, we advised on amending certain corporate formation documents to expand CGO's purposes to include youth services. CGO serves the Staten Island community.
Working with the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund and the Wounded Warrior Project, organizations dedicated to assisting members of the armed forces injured in the operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, Davis Polk lawyers have created a handbook for injured service members and veterans. The handbook is designed as a single-point resource, summarizing and supplementing information provided by the military and numerous governmental and charitable organizations. It is similar to the handbook that Davis Polk prepared for the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund to assist the families of service members who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. Written in “plain English” to make it as user-friendly as possible, it covers such areas as immediate concerns, the disability evaluation system, education, employment and health benefits, legal rights and legal assistance. It also includes listings of numerous websites, including a list of the websites of veteran affairs departments in each of the 50 states. An electronic version has been posted on the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund website, and hard copies are being distributed at military medical centers and other distribution points throughout the country. The handbook has caught the attention of the Marine Corps Times and other military-oriented news sources. In addition, Davis Polk lawyers have fielded and responded to several questions submitted by readers. NBC morning news did a story on the handbook in February 2008.
General Litigation. Working with co-counsel from Disability Advocates, Inc., Davis Polk served as pro bono counsel for the plaintiffs, the Prisoners’ Rights Project of the Legal Aid Society, and Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York, in Disability Advocates, Inc. v. New York State Office of Mental Health and Department of Correctional Services, a landmark federal lawsuit that sought to improve the treatment and housing conditions of inmates with mental illness throughout the New York State prison system. Disability Advocates is an Albany-based, not-for-profit organization that is authorized by federal law to advocate for the rights of persons with disabilities in New York. After five years of litigation and two weeks of trial, the parties negotiated a settlement (still subject to approval by Judge Gerard Lynch) that will provide for major improvements in psychiatric treatment for New York State inmates with mental illness.
The Private Settlement Agreement (PSA) establishes a heightened level of care for inmates with serious mental illness who are confined in Special Housing Units (SHU) for disciplinary infractions, and requires that they receive a minimum of two hours per day of out-of-cell treatment in addition to an hour of recreation. Inmates diverted from SHU to the new Residential Mental Health Unit (RMHU) will receive as many as four hours of out-of-cell treatment daily in addition to an hour of recreation. The PSA also provides for ongoing reviews by senior prison officials of disciplinary dispositions of inmates with serious mental illness, with the goal of eliminating lengthy SHU and keeplock sentences for such inmates. The PSA greatly expands mental health programs and services for mentally ill inmates in the general prison population as well, including by establishing new residential treatment programs, and extends mental health screening at reception to include all incoming inmates. We believe that the PSA is historic in the scope of its comprehensive programs.
The New York State Bar Association presented James Benkard with the 2007 President’s Pro Bono Service Award for the First Judicial District on Law Day, April 30, 2007, in recognition of his commitment to pro bono activities.
Davis Polk, in conjunction with the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund and the Urban Justice Center, is representing delivery workers at several New York City restaurants in civil actions against their employers for violations of federal and state minimum wage and overtime laws. Separate complaints have been filed in the Southern District of New York against the restaurant chain Saigon Grill, the Union Square eatery Republic Restaurant, the Chinese/Peruvian restaurant Flor de Mayo, and the now-closed restaurant Rosie & Ting. The delivery workers for each restaurant typically worked six days per week for 11 to 12 hours per day without any breaks and were paid as little as $90 per week. Some of the restaurants also required the delivery workers to pay for their uniforms and to purchase and maintain their bikes. The cases have attracted considerable media attention, particularly Saigon Grill, which abruptly ended all delivery service in response to worker complaints. All of the cases are currently in discovery and trials are expected to commence later this summer.
Housing. On behalf of MFY Legal Services and The Legal Aid Society, we have represented several groups of rent-controlled tenants that sought to prevent their landlords from using a fire that partially destroyed their apartments as a pretext to convert the building into luxury apartments. Most of these cases settled during or before trial with consent orders guaranteeing the full restoration of our clients to their former apartments. One case compensated the tenants rather than restore them to their apartments. In addition, we assist on-going corporate pro bono clients Citizen’s Advice Bureau and Settlement Housing Fund with real estate and corporate advice related to real estate matters.
Juvenile Rights/Education. On behalf of the Alliance for Quality Education, Davis Polk will submit an amicus brief to the Court of Appeals in support of the Plaintiff-Appellants' appeal from the Appellate Division decision in Campaign for Fiscal Equity v. State, 814 N.Y.S.2d 1 (2006). The plaintiff, the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, initiated this lawsuit in 1993 to compel New York State to ensure that all New York City school children receive a sound basic education as guaranteed under the New York State Constitution. In the 13 years since this litigation was started, and despite a 2004 order by the Court of Appeals to remedy the constitutional deficiencies that have deprived New York City school children of the opportunity for a sound basic education, the State has failed to allocate a budget that would improve the constitutionally infirm public school system. The Alliance for Quality Education, a not-for-profit corporation, is a statewide coalition of approximately 230 groups that are unified by their shared mission to ensure that all of the children in New York State have the opportunity to receive a sound basic education. This is our fourth amicus brief on education-related matters in the last two years.
Along with Advocates for Children of New York, Inc. (AFC), a non-profit organization, Davis Polk represents a class of all children with disabilities who have been excluded from public school in New York City without proper notice and due process. The suit alleges, among other things, that the New York Department of Education (DOE) regularly suspends, expels, transfers and otherwise excludes students with disabilities from its programs without providing them and their parents adequate notice as is legally required and, in so doing, denies them the free appropriate public education (FAPE) to which they are entitled under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
More specifically, the suit alleges that students with disabilities who are removed from DOE programs are chronically underserved: that the DOE does not have the staff, the materials, the programs or the expertise to meet such students' individual needs. As such, these students are unable to participate in the general education curriculum or to make progress in their individualized education programs, or IEPs. Of the 1.1 million students in New York City, an estimated 170,000 are students with special education needs ranging from learning and physical disabilities to youngsters who are classified as emotionally disturbed. Nationwide, 56% of students with disabilities graduate from high school; however, in New York City, only 12% of disabled students graduate.
Among other accomplishments, Davis Polk has overseen expert inspections of more than 30 "suspension sites" in New York City. Davis Polk has also deposed Department of Education staff and administration about the suspension process for students with disabilities in New York City and the Department's ability to deliver FAPE to students in suspension sites. Davis Polk and AFC continue to work towards a global resolution--be it through settlement or trial--that will best serve the class members. The case, E.B. et al., v. N.Y. Dep't of Educ., et al., 02 Civ 5118, is pending in federal court in the Eastern District of New York before Judge Charles P. Sifton and Magistrate Judge Marilyn D. Go.
For over 35 years, Advocates for Children of New York, Inc. has worked in partnership with New York City's most impoverished and vulnerable families to secure quality and equal public education services. AFC works on behalf of children from infancy to age 21 who are at greatest risk for school-based discrimination and/or academic failure.
Matrimonial/Family Law. As one of the charter firms in Project L.I.F.E., the mayor's initiative to provide pro bono counsel to battered women who are seeking divorces or protection from their batterers, we maintain an ongoing docket of contested and uncontested divorce cases on behalf of battered women. We also handle family law matters (custody, orders of protection and visitation) on behalf of victims of domestic violence and their children. Our clients are referred by inMotion, Sanctuary for Families and various neighborhood legal services offices. All lawyers handling cases involving domestic violence issues are paired with experienced matrimonial practitioners who act as mentors.
Microfinance. We provide ongoing legal assistance to MicroCredit Enterprises (MCE), a not-for-profit microfinance intermediary that makes loans to Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) around the world, including Armenia, Cambodia, Mozambique, Nicaragua, and Tajikistan among many others. Those MFIs then use the loan proceeds to make small loans (averaging less than $500, and many far smaller) to the extremely poor, mainly women, in those jurisdictions to support local micro enterprises and assist in alleviating poverty. MCE acquires the funds to make these loans from donations and by borrowing from lenders in developed countries. DPW's assistance to MCE includes developing (and negotiating) a structured letter of credit facility that allows MCE to provide credit to MFIs in the MFI's local currency without taking all of the currency risk that would normally be associated with a direct loan in such currency. We also represent MCE in drafting and negotiating documentation for loans to MFIs; have assisted in revising and updating its standard forms; and are assisting MCE in its attempt to obtain comprehensive financing from a domestic financial institution. DPW is also actively engaged in discussions with several other potential microfinance clients interested in raising funds using traditional capital markets financing techniques. We took on a second micro-entrepreneurial client, Shared Interest, which focuses its efforts in South Africa, in February 2008. We expect to add similar clients over time.
Asylum/Immigration. We work on our asylum cases as part of the Political Asylum Workshop we conduct in conjunction with Columbia Law School. In the workshop, students learn about asylum both in the classroom and through case work. Following the first class, students are matched with teams of Davis Polk associates. The students, together with their associate supervisors, have the opportunity to meet with and interview their clients, prepare witnesses and experts, draft affidavits, research and write briefs, and attend interviews or hearings before the asylum officers or immigration judges. In addition to assisting a number of individuals seeking asylum, the workshop serves as an excellent recruiting tool for Columbia law students. Since the inception of the clinic in 1996, we have had nearly a 100% success rate for our clients.
Trusts and Estates. Through the Volunteers of Legal Service Elder Law Program, we help indigent individuals with their life planning needs, including preparing wills, living wills, health care proxies, powers of attorney and directions for cremation. Because many of our clients are homebound, our associates travel to their homes to assist them.
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Many of our lawyers volunteer their time and talents to community organizations of all types -- from bar associations to charitable, educational, religious and legal organizations. In addition, a number of Davis Polk partners and associates have returned to the firm after serving as US Attorneys, Assistant US Attorneys, Assistant District Attorneys or in other positions in federal or state government.
