Recent Pro Bono Matters
A sample of the pro bono matters handled in 2009 alone shows the broad reach of service provided by Kirkland lawyers. Read more about Kirkland's pro bono work in Kirkland's 2009 Pro Bono Annual Review.
CIVIL and HUMAN RIGHTS
Kings County Settlement
On January 8, 2010, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York entered a stipulation and order of settlement mandating the New York City Health & Hospitals Corporation to undertake major systemic reforms to the inpatient and emergency psychiatric facilities at Kings County Hospital Center in Brooklyn. Kirkland, along with the New York Civil Liberties Union and the Mental Hygiene Legal Service, filed suit against Kings County Hospital Center in May 2007 alleging patient abuse at the hospital's psychiatric facilities. Shortly after the lawsuit was filed, the U.S. Department of Justice launched an independent investigation of patient abuse. In June 2008, the matter received national attention when WNBC aired a surveillance tape showing a female patient dying in the waiting room of the hospital's psychiatric emergency ward after being ignored by hospital staff. The story was picked up by major networks and the international news media. Following the news coverage, Kirkland obtained a preliminary injunction requiring every patient to be checked every 15 minutes, that there be no more than 25 patients at any time in the psychiatric emergency ward, and that detailed records of the ward be turned over every week to Kirkland and its co-counsel. Under the terms of the settlement and a contemporaneously ordered consent judgment between the Department of Justice and the city of New York, the hospital will be required to develop and implement a wide series of reforms. Kirkland and its co-counsel will partner with the Department of Justice in closely monitoring the hospital for the next five years. A six-member panel of outside experts will have full access to the hospital's buildings and facilities, and will report to the attorneys every three months. The monitoring period can be extended if counsel determines that the hospital has not achieved sustained substantial compliance with the terms of the settlement documents.
COMMUNITY and ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Grameen America
Kirkland provides extensive counsel on general corporate matters, as well as fund structuring and other advice relating to capital-raising and deployment to Grameen America. Grameen America is a microfinance nonprofit organization that provides loans, savings programs, credit establishment and other financial services to entrepreneurs living below the poverty line in the United States. Grameen America is an offshoot of the Grameen Bank, headed by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus. Since 2007, the organization has made more than 3,000 micro-loans to financially challenged entrepreneurs. In addition to providing legal advice on all aspects of Grameen America's capital-raising efforts, Kirkland attorneys also serve on the Advisory Board of Grameen America, as well as on its Capital and Financing Subcommittee.
CRIMINAL DEFENSE
DNA and the Innocence Protection Act
Kirkland, in conjunction with the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University, represented Steve Fasano, who was convicted of bank robbery in 2006. Certain physical evidence worn by the thief during the crime (parts of the robber's disguise discarded after the heist) was never tested for DNA prior to trial. After Mr. Fasano's conviction was upheld, Kirkland agreed to represent him and petitioned for DNA testing under the federal Innocence Protection Act (IPA) — which was enacted in 2004, but had at the time never been successfully invoked. The Southern District of Mississippi rejected Mr. Fasano's testing petition, reading the IPA narrowly. In July 2009, at Kirkland's urging, the Fifth Circuit reversed the district court's decision and ordered DNA testing of each piece of the physical evidence. The opinion is a landmark decision. It is the first published opinion granting a request for DNA testing under the IPA, it reads the statute expansively, and it rejects the government's argument that the otherwise strong case against Mr. Fasano was a sufficient basis to deny post-conviction DNA testing.
EDUCATION
Partnering with Equip for Equality Special Education Clinic
Kirkland was the first law firm to develop a pro bono partnership with Equip for Equality's Special Education Clinic — an initiative that began in 2008 to assist children eligible for special education services and their families. Since then, Kirkland has handled more than a dozen cases, devoting more than 1,500 hours to the Special Education Clinic in 2009 alone. The results achieved for families, like the one featured below, have been significant.
In April 2009, Equip for Equality asked for Kirkland's assistance at a hearing concerning a 16-year-old's expulsion from high school. Despite repeated discipline for disobedience and fighting at school, as well as failing grades, the school district had never given the student a special education services evaluation. The student had been diagnosed with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) by a private therapist. After an incident where the student allegedly pushed a teacher who was trying to break up a fight, the school district referred him for expulsion. Kirkland attorneys argued at his hearing that the expulsion decision should be stayed pending determination of the student's disability. The school district agreed, and the student was referred to the school's psychiatrist for evaluation. It was determined that the student did indeed suffer from ADHD and his incidents of misconduct at school were related to his condition, making expulsion inappropriate and creating an obligation on the part of the school district under the Americans with Disabilities Act to provide special education services to the student. The client has stayed in touch with the Kirkland attorneys who handled the matter and has provided them with positive reports of the student's progress at school. For Kirkland's work on behalf of Special Education Clinic clients and for its support of the clinic generally, Equip for Equality awarded Kirkland its first-ever Equality for Kids Community Service Award in November 2009.
EXPANDING INTERNATIONALLY
Equity for Africa
Kirkland's London office provides advice in relation to structuring and setting up a fund in conjunction with Equity for Africa (EFA). Founded in 2003, the organization aims to reduce poverty by financing sustainable employment-intensive business growth in northern Tanzania. EFA provides flexible financing at affordable rates, helping to build the pool of sustainable employment and strengthening the pipeline for further growth. EFA has been making "transition investments" of $2,000 to $75,000 in equipment to help very small businesses make the transition to the next stage. To continue fulfilling these objectives, EFA is setting up its first for-profit fund, in which Kirkland is involved.
HOUSING
Assisting Victims of Hurricane Katrina
In February 2009, Kirkland, working with co-counsel from the Mississippi Center for Justice (MCJ), brought suit against the city of Waveland, Mississippi, on behalf of eight individuals who lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina. The eight had each received modular homes — known locally as "Mississippi Cottages" — from the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency (MEMA), the state counterpart to FEMA. MEMA created a program through which residents could purchase their cottages at a small price and remain in them permanently. However, placement of the cottages first had to be approved by their local government. The city of Waveland refused to issue new building permits to cottage residents, claiming that the cottages did not qualify as modular housing. After suit was filed, the city gave up on that argument but passed an ordinance imposing other restrictions. The Kirkland/MCJ lawsuit challenged the city's actions as arbitrary, capricious and violative of Mississippi statutory law, as well as the due process and equal protection guarantees of the Mississippi and federal constitutions. Following hearings before a local judge, city officials agreed to settle the case in favor of the cottage residents.
IMMIGRATION
LGBT Asylum Project
In July 2009, a Kirkland team won asylum for Ms. A., a 22-year old lesbian from Ghana. In her native Ghana, where homosexuality remains illegal, Ms. A. was expelled from her university in 2008 when it was discovered that she was a lesbian. Ms. A. was subsequently taken to jail in handcuffs and sexually assaulted. After her family provided bribes for her release, Ms. A. was sent to a "prayer camp" where she was chained to a block and starved over a period of weeks in order to weaken her "internal demons." Ms. A.'s story was difficult to document since she fled the country with little paperwork and no official record of her prison or "prayer camp" experiences. Kirkland attorneys, however, were able to obtain the letter expelling Ms. A. from university on the explicit grounds of her homosexuality. They were also able to convince her brother, despite his apparent shame at having a lesbian sister, to give a notarized statement corroborating her time in jail, sexual assault at the hands of police officers and stay at the "prayer camp."
NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS
Muslim Advocates
Kirkland partnered with San Francisco-based Muslim Advocates to help support its national Muslim Charities Accreditation Program, an initiative arranged in conjunction with the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance. A 501(c)(3) established in 2005, Muslim Advocates urges improved transparency in the finances of nonprofit organizations and, to that end, hosts training seminars for nonprofits representing a variety of underserved communities. Their goal is to enhance the knowledge and ability of nonprofits to meet the demands of governance and regulatory compliance and to build and strengthen partnerships between the government and disaffected communities. Kirkland helped prepare resource guides for nonprofits concerned with these issues, including best practices for nonprofit governance and tips for tax-exempt status maintenance.
PUBLIC BENEFITS
Kirkland Assists Thousands of Maryland Residents
In December 2009, a Baltimore circuit court judge ruled that the state of Maryland has failed to deliver food stamps, cash assistance and medical benefits to thousands of residents in a timely manner. Kirkland, along with co-counsel from the National Center for Law and Economic Justice, the Public Justice Center and the Homeless Persons Representation Project, represented low-income Maryland residents in the case. The suit alleged that the defendant, Maryland Governor's Cabinet appointee Secretary Brenda Donald, has engaged in a pattern or practice of violating federal and state requirements for the timely processing of benefit applications. The suit also alleged that the defendant's unlawful delays in the act of processing applications and providing benefits caused needy individuals and families in Maryland to face hunger, homelessness and serious health risks. The court fast-tracked the case, and after a full trial, found in favor of Kirkland's clients. The court ordered the defendant to develop a corrective action plan to achieve compliance and ordered that the defendant indeed achieve full compliance with timely processing requirements within 12 months of the judgment. There is no sunset on the court's jurisdiction, and the defendant did not appeal. Kirkland has received several awards for its work on this case: the Outstanding Volunteer Law Firm of the Year Award from the Homeless Persons Representation Project, the Maryland Pro Bono Service Award from the Pro Bono Resource Center of Maryland and Distinguished Honoree from the National Center for Law & Economic Justice.
