communities

At Jenner & Block, pro bono and community service is a core value. Since the early days of the firm, we have devoted ourselves not only to the organized bar and agencies that advance public good, but also to the communities in which we are privileged to work and live.

At a press conference on November 28, 2020, community leader Aracelia Cook tells the press about her neighborhood's ongoing struggle to recover from the Thanksgiving Sewage Backup of 2019. New York City Council Member Adrienne E. Adams (picture… — At a press conference on November 28, 2020, community leader Aracelia Cook tells the press about her neighborhood's ongoing struggle to recover from the Thanksgiving Sewage Backup of 2019. New York City Council Member Adrienne E. Adams (pictured left) also spoke at the rally and demanded just settlements for victims. Photo courtesy of Natalie Bump Vena.

Firm Joins Pro Bono Effort to Help Residents Struggling One Year after Sewage Backup

Jenner & Block joined a coalition of law firms helping residents in South Ozone Park, Queens, New York. In November 2019, governmental infrastructure failure caused a sewage backup; a year later, many community members still struggled to navigate the city’s claims and compensation system as they tried to rebuild their lives and homes. Working with the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYLPI), the firm is helping families pursue their claims with the New York City Comptroller’s office, the government entity charged with administering their claims and fully compensating them for their losses.

Several local media outlets have reported on what NYLPI calls the South Ozone Park Sewage Legal Assistance Project. Among those with coverage were NY1, CBS, and NBC. An NYLPI press release also details the situation.

The team partnering with NYLPI on this important matter is Special Counsel David Sussman, Partner Mélida Hodgson, and Associate Edeli Rivera.

Dogged Advocacy Pays Off for Paraplegic Pro Bono Client

The check made out to longtime client Glenn Lawrence arrived without fanfare on October 16, 2020. It came after more than eight years of dogged representation of Mr. Lawrence, whose childhood friend and extended family member by marriage defrauded him out of the home that had been custom-built to Mr. Lawrence’s needs through a community effort.

The longtime friend had organized the construction of the home, promising it as a gift to Mr. Lawrence and his then-young son. At the time, Mr. Lawrence – paralyzed from a tragic motorcycle accident and confined to a wheelchair – lived with his son in a non-accessible home in a dangerous neighborhood. He faced numerous break-ins as well as the daily struggles of living in a home without accessibility. The friend gathered support from Mr. Lawrence’s childhood friends, as well as local businesses who donated materials, and the community built Mr. Lawrence and his son a new home. The friend said publicly that the home was a gift to Mr. Lawrence, but that he would act as Mr. Lawrence’s mortgagee: Mr. Lawrence would make monthly payments to the friend that would, over time, result in the home being owned by Mr. Lawrence, free and clear. Instead, the friend mortgaged the home with a third-party lender to secure his own business obligations and ultimately defaulted on the mortgage.

Jenner & Block was initially contacted by a friend of the firm when Mr. Lawrence received a notice from the lender, who had foreclosed. The lender asked Mr. Lawrence to enter into a lease for the home at a rental rate that Mr. Lawrence could not afford on his disability income or risk eviction. The firm team investigated and uncovered that the friend had kept all of Mr. Lawrence’s money for his own use—defrauding Mr. Lawrence of the equity he believed he was building in the home—and pledged the home as collateral to support his own business loans without Mr. Lawrence’s knowledge.

The firm team quickly negotiated a creative solution with the lending bank to keep Mr. Lawrence in his home. Through a series of transactions, Mr. Lawrence soon became the title holder of the home, subject to a new mortgage with the very bank who had foreclosed. The team also engaged a firm to reduce the real estate taxes on the home, thereby making the home more affordable on Mr. Lawrence’s limited income. But the payments were still a challenge, and the friend had not been brought to justice.

In January 2014, the firm filed a lawsuit on Mr. Lawrence’s behalf in Cook County, suing the friend for fraud and seeking to recover the stolen equity payments. The friend refused to participate in the case. The firm secured a $230,000 fraud judgment against him in the summer of 2014. But he refused to pay, so the firm team pursued a citation to discover his assets, ultimately obtaining a body attachment that required him to appear in court for questioning regarding his assets and income. He filed for bankruptcy to avoid the attachment. The firm pursued the fraud judgement in bankruptcy and, in 2018, the team won the right to pursue collection efforts in state court notwithstanding the friend’s ongoing bankruptcy. The firm succeeded in forcing the friend to appear and sit for an examination concerning his remaining assets, despite his continuing efforts to avoid service.

This state court collection action is ongoing, but the team received a welcome surprise in the fall of 2020, when the trustee of the friend’s bankruptcy estate filed his final report and included a planned distribution of over $113,000 for Mr. Lawrence, based on the proof of claim his firm counsel had filed years earlier. This was a major recovery for Mr. Lawrence, representing about half of the judgment owed to him. Mr. Lawrence intends to pay off his current lender with the award and put the remainder in a savings account. At last, Mr. Lawrence will own the home he believed he would own years earlier.

The firm’s efforts on Mr. Lawrence’s behalf will continue until they have exhausted all avenues to vindicate his rights in full.

Many firm lawyers have contributed to the representation of Mr. Lawrence over the years, including Partners Greg Boyle, Michelle McAtee, and Landon Raiford; Associate Dan Bobier; former partner Justin Steffen; former associate Erin Cannon; and former Paralegal Neil Berger.

“From the very beginning, I felt validated and heard by my Jenner & Block team,” said Mr. Lawrence. “They were easy to talk to during our regular phone communications where their support sometimes went above and beyond my case specifics. My simple words cannot express how extraordinarily grateful I am for their compassion, understanding, and continued support. I came to know Michelle McAtee during a very difficult time in my life. When Michelle gave me the opportunity to tell my story to the Jenner & Block team, it was the first time I felt hope during this very difficult time. And for that, I will be forever grateful.”

Infringement Dispute Settles on Positive Note for Composer

An award-winning contemporary classical composer named Andy Akiho fell into a copyright dispute with another composer named Pascal Le Boeuf. In 2018, a Jenner & Block team helped Mr. Akiho file an infringement lawsuit against Mr. Le Boeuf in the Southern District of New York, alleging that one of Mr. Le Boeuf’s compositions (called Alkaline) was copied from one of Mr. Akiho’s compositions (called LIgNEouS I). In November 2020, the parties settled on favorable terms.

While the settlement terms are confidential, Mr. Akiho and Mr. Le Boeuf agreed to a public joint statement in which Mr. Le Boeuf concedes that (a) he attended a live performance of LIgNEouS I in 2014; (b) as a result, he bought the sheet music to LIgNEouS I; (c) he composed the first draft of Alkaline in Sibelius (a music composition software program) within 11 days of receiving the LIgNEouS I sheet music; and (d) LIgNEouS I and Alkaline “share numerous musical similarities.” Also, as a result of the settlement, Mr. Le Boeuf is transferring 50% of his copyright in Alkaline to Mr. Akiho.

The team representing Mr. Akiho includes Partner Andy Bart and Associate Jacob Tracer

Service to the Bar, Boards, and Organizations

Andrew Vail Joins United Way of Metro Chicago as General Counsel and Randy Mehrberg Joins Its Board

In November, Partner Andrew Vail began serving as the United Way of Metro Chicago’s outside pro bono general counsel. In this role, Andrew provides important strategic advice and pro bono legal counsel to help the United Way and its partners throughout Chicagoland fulfill the organization’s mission of improving communities and the common good, while he maintains his full time litigation and business counseling practice at the firm.

“Jenner & Block has a long history of supporting United Way and an even longer commitment of supporting pro bono service in the communities in which we live and work,” said Jenner & Block Co-Managing Partner Randy Mehrberg, who joined the agency’s board of directors in December. “Through Andrew’s service as their first general counsel, we are very excited to continue to deliver on our firm’s pro bono commitment and support United Way’s important work. Both Andrew and United Way will have the full support and resources of the firm in their efforts.”

Andrew long served as a chair of Jenner & Block’s pro bono program. Under his leadership, the program has been ranked and recognized repeatedly by The American Lawyer as the Number 1 pro bono program in the United States. More recently, he spearheaded the firm’s publicly announced commitment to provide at least $250 million in pro bono services to those in need of legal services over the five-year period from January 1, 2021, through 2025.

Since starting in November, Andrew has guided the organization on a wide variety of key matters, and firm lawyers from across offices and practice groups have provided nearly 200 hours (approximately $162,000 worth) of pro bono legal work to the United Way in 2020. In addition to Andrew and Randy, those lawyers include Partners Kevin Collins, Geoffrey Davis, Alexander May, Caroline Meneau, Gail Morse, Julie Olenn, David Saunders, Brian Scarbrough, Jeffrey Shuman, and Gay Sigel; and Associates Joshua Davids, Solana Gillis, Amy Inagaki, H. Nicholas Luther IV, Abraham Salander, and Hannah Schwab.

Sean Garrett, President and CEO of United Way of Metro Chicago, remarked about the work to date: "United, we can do so much more than we can alone. Our partnership with Jenner & Block builds our capacity to serve more people and communities across the Chicago region. With its support, United Way is delivering critical resources to nonprofits on the front lines of the pandemic and helping neighborhoods build back stronger. Truly, this partnership has been a bright light in a difficult year. Thank you, Jenner & Block!"

You can read more about Andrew’s service with United Way in this press release.

Partner Gregory Boyle Selected to Chicago Bar Foundation Leadership Team

In September, Partner Greg Boyle was selected as second vice president of the Chicago Bar Foundation board of directors. After serving as a vice president for two years, Greg will become CBF president in 2022. Comprising diverse lawyers and judges, CBF officers and directors develop plans to carry out its mission: “to improve access to justice for people in need and make the legal system more fair and efficient for everyone.”

As the charitable arm of the Chicago Bar Association, the Foundation addresses large systemic issues, such as the sharp increase of unrepresented people in the courts. Through community leadership, the CBF develops new solutions for providing access to justice, including advocating within the courts and at all levels of government for laws and policies that make the justice system more fair and accessible.

Through its annual Investing in Justice Campaign, the CBF raises millions of dollars to support legal aid organizations and programs throughout Chicago. Since its inception in 2007, the Campaign has raised more than $18.5 million to fund legal services for low- and middle-income people in need.

Another CBF initiative is the Justice Entrepreneurs Project, which is a small-business incubator that helps lawyers start practices serving low- and middle-income Chicagoans. The JEP has helped several lawyers build sustainable practices, serving more than 4,000 clients and securing more than $4 million in revenue over the past year. As a JEP board member for many years, Partner Terri Mascherin currently serves as chair of its Advisory Board.

Associate Wesley Griffith Joins Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles’ Associates Advisory Board

In May, the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles voted Associate Wesley Griffith to its Associates Advisory Board.

LAFLA is a nonprofit legal assistance organization that protects and advances the rights of some of the Los Angeles area’s most underserved populations by providing free, high-quality legal services to more than 100,000 people living in poverty each year. Its Associates Advisory Board is an association of like-minded professionals dedicated to supporting LAFLA’s mission by providing pro bono service, fundraising and raising awareness of LAFLA’s work in the greater Los Angeles community. The board provides leadership, professional networking, and pro bono and social opportunities for its board members.

The firm’s Los Angeles office frequently partners with LAFLA on the foundation’s cases and initiatives. For example, Wesley has worked with LAFLA on COVID-19-prompted legal aid clinics involving housing, homelessness, eviction defense, domestic violence and other areas of need during the pandemic. Also in 2020, the LA office hosted a LAFLA training for associates on defending against wrongful evictions. Partner Carissa Coze serves on the organization's board of directors.

Outside of his involvement with LAFLA, Wesley maintains an active pro bono practice. He led a team that secured the release of a pro bono client who had been detained by ICE at a privately run, for-profit detention facility and led another team that obtained a five-figure settlement for a wheelchair-bound prisoner in a civil rights claim against a prison physician.

Partner Howard Suskin Serves as General Counsel for the Chicago Bar Association

Partner Howard Suskin continued his service in 2020 as pro bono general counsel for the Chicago Bar Association. Among his significant activities in 2020 on behalf of the CBA, Howard led the team that negotiated and closed the sale of one floor of the CBA’s office space, realizing proceeds to the CBA of over $1 million.

Debbie Berman Lends Her Support to Jewish Agency for Israel

Since 1929, the Jewish Agency for Israel has been working to secure a vibrant Jewish future for generations to come. It is a non-profit charity whose funds support many efforts, among them, vulnerable Israelis, including youth-at-risk, new immigrants, and terror victims.

Partner Debbie Berman, who serves as a co-chair of the firm’s Pro Bono Committee, has served in a variety of committee and board roles for the agency for many years. Since 2019, she has been chair of the Budget and Finance Operational Units and Support Subcommittee.

More recently, Debbie was appointed to the agency’s COVID-19 loan task force, one of only six people from around the world. Funds provided for COVID-19 relief went toward medical supplies, cleaning services, online programming, and more.

The task force loaned almost $7 million to communities in need globally and received powerful feedback about the significance of its work. For example, many recipients said their community or organization could not have survived without the loans. Others said the feeling that they were not alone provided the “boost” they needed to continue.