Alternatives For Battered Women

Maggie Clemens, a partner in the Rochester office, is a longtime volunteer and board member of a local domestic violence service provider, Alternatives For Battered Women (ABW). More than a year ago, ABW decided to expand their shelter and Maggie helped the group get the specialized legal services they needed from several attorneys in multiple practice groups at Nixon Peabody.

The expansion plans represented a huge undertaking for the organization, which provides a wide array of support services for battered women and children, along with an emergency shelter and a crisis hotline. The goal was to move to a larger facility and raise the money to buy and renovate the new property.

Several attorneys in the Rochester office stepped up to the plate—and they were recently victorious in one of the first major steps toward making the project a reality. In November, Nixon Peabody real estate attorneys were able to secure the necessary zoning approval to enable the shelter to move forward with its ambitious project. The next step is completing the design and securing a building permit.

Thanks go to many Nixon Peabody attorneys and staff members who worked to move this project closer to reality. Bob Burgdorf, a partner in the Real Estate and Community Development group, and Jennifer Wright and Kevin Purcell, associates in the group, worked hard on preparing and negotiating the contract of sale and to satisfy zoning contingencies. Jennifer attended a zoning hearing in October to help the shelter get a special-use permit. Bob also helped with the review of the lease and the renewal on the shelter's current location. Susan Rodio, a real estate paralegal, assisted on the project as well.

Elaine Enfonde, a senior environmental scientist in the firm's environmental group, with help from other members of the group, prepared the Phase I Environmental Report and gave the shelter advice regarding the legal requirements for handling the asbestos and lead issues related to the building. As the project moves forward, the environmental group has committed to helping the shelter make the new facility a “green” environment.

Mike Cooney, a Rochester partner, gave pro bono advice and a presentation on what the organization must legally do to run a capital campaign to raise the funds.

“This is a great example of a big pro bono project where a number of our lawyers got together and offered their different areas of expertise to make a real difference,” Maggie said.

Client from Tibet Granted Asylum

Thanks to the efforts of David Feldman, a partner in the New York office, and Elizabeth Land, an associate in New York, a Nixon Peabody pro bono client from Tibet was granted asylum and may now legally reside in the United States.

The woman’s asylum application was granted on October 19 by U.S. Immigration Judge Dorothy Harbeck in Elizabeth, New Jersey. For approximately three years, the client disseminated books and DVDs on the teachings of the Dalai Lama—an activity that is strictly forbidden by the Chinese government and can result in imprisonment, torture, or even death.

The client eventually fled Tibet after her place of employment was subjected to multiple police searches. She arrived in the United States with no travel documents and was detained at the Elizabeth Detention Center in New Jersey until her asylum application was granted.

David and Elizabeth’s efforts to save the woman’s life were chronicled in the Long Island Business News on November 9, 2007. In an article focused on the growth of pro bono, their asylum case was used as the lead example of how pro bono work can make a difference and how it can be exceptionally satisfying work for the attorneys involved.

“When Judge Harbeck granted our client asylum immediately following the merits hearing, I was overwhelmed with happiness and relief. Over the course of four months, Dave and I worked very hard to gain our client’s trust and to develop a strong case. Our efforts were well worth it. Once the judge’s ruling was translated into Tibetan, and our client cried out with joy, I realized we were a part of something pretty incredible,” Elizabeth said.

Elizabeth also appreciated the professional experience she gained while working with the client. “Nixon Peabody’s pro bono program gives junior associates the opportunity to get involved in the substantive aspects of a case. As a second year associate, I interviewed my client several times, drafted a brief and affidavits, spoke with several experts, prepared my client and a witness for direct and cross examinations, and appeared before a federal court judge,” she added.

Community Transitional School

For 17 years, Cheryl Bickle, a staunch advocate for homeless children, has been putting her passion to work providing educational opportunities for homeless students in Portland, Oregon. Bickle is the founder of the Community Transitional School. The school provides an education—from kindergarten through eighth grade—for approximately 70 homeless or recently homeless children in the Portland area. Unfortunately, since its founding in 1990, Bickle’s school has had trouble finding its own home, moving to six different rented locations during its relatively short history.

Recently, thanks to help from a variety of organizations including Nixon Peabody, Bickle’s Community Transitional School has found a permanent home. Construction recently began on the school’s new facility in the Cully neighborhood of Northeast Portland. Bickle found the vacant land for her school while she was checking in with some of her students who had temporary housing nearby. But land was just a small portion of the equation. Bickle also needed $3.3 million in funding to realize her dream.

How did Nixon Peabody help?

Bickle turned to donors, and U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corporation, a subsidiary of U.S. Bank, and the Portland Family of Funds for help with the financing. Ultimately, U.S. Bank and the Portland Family of Funds, both New Market Tax Credit lenders, donated the value of the tax credits they allocated to this project and waived their fees. Both organizations are also Nixon Peabody clients.

“They jointly asked us if we could close the financing of the loans and investments for them. We represented U.S. Bank in this transaction, and we agreed to do the work pro bono,” said Herb Stevens, a partner in the Washington, DC, office, who worked on the project along with Michael J. Goldman, the principal attorney closing the transaction.

Ironically, the relatively small nature of the school project helped complicate the fundraising because the expenses involved with meeting federal rules surrounding new markets tax credits generally mean small projects are excluded. For this project, however, a number of companies waived fees and provided pro bono services to help meet federal regulations without incurring unsustainable expenses.

In addition to Portland Family of Funds, U.S. Bank, and Nixon Peabody waiving their fees, the other two law firms and an accounting firm involved in the series of transactions also waived fees.

Thanks to these efforts, the Community Transitional School’s new facility is scheduled for completion before school begins in 2008. “It’s a terrific school and I’m really pleased that we could support their wonderful work in a new permanent school home,” Herb said.

Disabilities Rights

Three of our lawyers (Jamie Hage, Brian Child, and Ronaldo Rauseo-Ricupero) filed a petition for Writ of Certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of pro bono plaintiffs in an important disabilities rights case. The petition asks the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decision of the First Circuit Court of Appeals. Nixon Peabody represents the parents of three special needs children who attended classes in the Brookline School District. At issue is the couple’s right to act as advocates for their children and to maintain their own action for compensatory damages based on discriminatory conduct by the school district.

The legal wrangling began in the Federal District Court in New Hampshire when the parents filed a pro se lawsuit alleging that the school district had discriminated against them because of their advocacy on behalf of their children. According to the parents, they faced numerous unnecessary roadblocks and were subjected to open hostility after filing their 2003 compliant. The parents requested relief, including $250,000 in compensatory damages and associated legal expenses. The couple alleges that the discrimination they experienced violated several laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.The lawsuit takes on national significance, particularly within the disabled Americans community, because of the position taken by the courts. The lower court dismissed the case maintaining that the law governing educational rights for specials needs children, the Disabilities Education Improvement Act, does not allow for compensatory damages.

However, the parents maintain that the provisions of this act do not apply because they are not suing on behalf of their children. They are suing on their own behalf and they are alleging violations of the ADA, as well as other related laws. Under the ADA, any person, not just disabled individuals, may bring an action—and ask for compensatory damages—if that person has experienced discrimination as a result of their advocacy on behalf of a disabled person.

This case is important to the disabled rights community because if parents do not have this right under ADA/Section 504, it could have a chilling effect on parents’ ability to protect their children and ensure that disabled children get the services they deserve.

The Petition for Writ of Certiorari was filed on March 12, 2008.