PRO BONO

Pro bono service has always been among Milbank’s core values. Milbank has a long and outstanding tradition of performing work pro bono publico.

• Milbank was the first major New York law firm to appoint a partner to serve full time as our Director of Public Service.

• Milbank’s pro bono internship program invites all first-year associates to spend three months working full time at a non-profit legal organization of their choosing.

• Milbank’s Summer Associates are actively involved in our pro bono matters.

• Milbank attorneys average over 70 pro bono hours per attorney each year; litigation attorneys average more than 100 pro bono hours per attorney. All Milbank attorneys are required to spend not less than 20 hours each year engaged in public service activities; of course many dedicate much more time than the minimum required.

• Milbank has been widely recognized for its pro bono service. For example, for each of the last two years, Milbank has been honored by The American Lawyer as one of the top 20 firms in the country to be included on its “A List.” The Firm also received The Legal Aid Society’s Access to Justice Award in 2005, 2006, and 2007, as well as the ACLU of Southern California Pro Bono Award.

Director of Public Service

Joseph Genova has been Milbank’s full-time Director of Public Service for over a decade. As the Director of Public Service, Joe approves all of Milbank’s pro bono activities, and he and Anthony Perez Cassino, the Assistant Director of Public Service, coordinate all of the Firm’s pro bono work. Our pro bono work takes place in all of our domestic offices.

Milbank’s Current Work in Capital Cases

Milbank lawyers have represented defendants in some of the highest profile capital cases in the nation. For example:

• Milbank currently represents the petitioner in a high-profile death penalty case pending in Louisiana in which our indigent client was wrongly convicted of murder based exclusively on coerced false confessions which were inconsistent with much of the physical evidence collected at the time of the murder and subsequently. The case is currently in the post-conviction hearing stage where Milbank is seeking to overturn the conviction based on the clearly false confessions, the existence of potentially exculpatory DNA and fingerprint evidence, ineffective assistance of counsel, and prosecutorial misconduct.

• Milbank lawyers were also successful in overturning the wrongful conviction of an innocent man convicted of murder in Tortola, British Virgin Islands. Despite the existence of forensic evidence that essentially exonerated the defendant, he was convicted exclusively on the testimony of a jail house snitch, a con man with numerous felony convictions for fraud who was released from prison in exchange for his testifying. After arguing the appeal before the Privy Council in London, the defendant was immediately released from prison. The case garnered extensive news coverage, including television coverage from CBS "48 Hours", Larry King Live, A&E Investigative Reports, The View, The Today Show and Good Morning America. Labrador v. The Queen, 2003 UKPC 27, Appeal No. 88 of 2002 (Privy Council, London).

Milbank’s Pro Bono Internship Program

A truly distinctive feature of the Firm’s pro bono commitment is its pro bono internship program. Each first-year associate is invited to spend three months working full time at a non-profit legal organization of their choosing. The Firm provides a questionnaire over the summer to match associate interest with opportunity. Associates design their own internship at any organization that meets Milbank’s criteria for a substantive pro bono experience. Fourth-year associates (associates who have completed 36 months with the Firm) have the same opportunity to spend three months in public service, even if they did it once in their first year. During both internships, associates maintain their position, salary and benefits.

Ten first year litigation associates, more than half of the 2007 entering class, spent the Fall of 2007 working full time at such organizations. The following is a partial list of the places where litigators have spent their internships in recent years:

• Public Counsel in Los Angeles
• Juvenile Rights Division of The Legal Aid Society, NYC
• American Civil Liberties Union
• Federal Defenders of New York
• Harlem Defenders
• Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center, Washington DC
• Lambda Legal
• The Brennan Center

Internships are only one way litigators do pro bono work. Litigators are encouraged to take matters outside the internships as a way of doing the public good and gaining valuable experience. Indeed, our pro bono cases have not only provided our associates with challenging work and an opportunity to make a meaningful impact on their clients’ lives, but these cases have also provided many of our young associates with an invaluable opportunity to take depositions, examine witnesses at trial, and argue appeals.

Examples of Milbank’s Recent Pro Bono Matters

• Working with Advocates for Children, Milbank represented a class of students with disabilities in connection with claims against the New York City Department of Education (the “DOE”) for failing to implement impartial hearing orders issued in the students’ favor. The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York has approved a settlement agreement between the DOE and the class that provides for both injunctive relief (requiring DOE to improve its implementation of such orders) and compensatory relief for class members whose orders were not implemented. Class members eligible for compensatory relief can choose among several types of relief, including vouchers for educational services or assistive technology such as laptop computers; certain class members may be eligible to receive vouchers worth as much as $15,000. First and third year associates took key depositions in the case and drafted the settlement agreement. L.V. v. New York City Department of Education, Case No. 03-Civ.-9917 (S.D.N.Y.).

• Working with the Center for Appellate Litigation, Milbank represented Aurelio Marte in the appeal to the First Department Appellate Division of the Bronx County Supreme Court's order denying Mr. Marte's application for resentencing pursuant to the Drug Law Reform Act of 2005. Our client had received a life sentence upon pleading guilty to possession of a controlled substance based primarily on the People's characterization of him as a high-level drug offender. The appeal was argued by a fourth year associate. People v. Marte, Ind. No. 5391/02, slip op. (1st Dept. Oct. 16, 2007).

• Working with the Legal Aid Society, Milbank brought an action on behalf of a Chinese woman who was being verbally harassed and physically threatened by her boss seeking criminal contempt of court for violation of her protective order. The action resulted in a one week trial in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. The trial was handled by one of our first year associates.

• Working with the Federal Public Defender, Milbank is representing a Liberian immigrant who faces criminal charges for allegedly smuggling African “bushmeat” into the United States. We are challenging the prosecution on the grounds of religious freedom. The second year associate handling the matter has interviewed numerous witnesses, drafted several legal briefs, and cross-examined an expert witness from the “Center for Disease Control” in a hearing before Judge Dearie in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. U.S. v. Mamie Manneh, Cr. No. 06-248 (RJD) (E.D.N.Y.).

• Working with the Juvenile Rights Division of the Legal Aid Society in Brooklyn, Milbank represented a child who was the victim of abuse and neglect. The case was referred by the Court to mediation and, when that failed, was referred back to the Family Court. The first year associate handling the matter represented the child in an Emergency 1028 hearing which was conducted over the course of three days, during which the associate cross-examined several witnesses. The case was ultimately settled, with the child being returned safely to the custody of her parents.

• Working with the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, Milbank is representing a class of plaintiffs in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in an action against the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) arising out of a series of home raids ICE conducted in the New York metropolitan area. Plaintiffs have asserted a Fourth Amendment challenge to the raids, claiming that ICE officers failed to obtain a warrant or consent to enter homes in violation of well-settled search and seizure principles. The first year associate handling the matter has made appearances before Judge Koeltl in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, participated in discovery negotiations with the Government, and assisted in drafting various discovery and substantive motions. Aguilar v. Immigration & Customs Enforcement, 07 Civ. 8224 (S.D.N.Y).

• Working with the New York Civil Liberties Union’s Reproductive Rights Project, Milbank represented a woman who sought to purchase emergency contraception (Plan B™) from a nationally known chain of pharmacies. Although all that should be needed to purchase Plan B™ without a prescription is a valid ID showing proof of age, the pharmacist forced the purchaser to disclose personal information in a public way as a condition to the purchase. The first year associate handling the matter researched the law, and after engaging in a series of correspondence with the pharmacy’s General Counsel, was able to convince them that their practice violated federal and state privacy and confidentiality rights and was violative of the pharmacists’ ethical duties. The pharmacy ultimately agreed to correct its procedures and reeducate its staff on the appropriate way to sell Plan B™.

• Working with Brooklyn Legal Services Corp. A, Milbank represented a longtime resident of a rent controlled apartment in a Williamsburg co-op building. The co-op sought to evict the tenant under false pretenses in order to renovate and sell her apartment. The associate handling the matter represented the tenant in all stages of litigation in preparation for trial, including courtroom conferences, settlement negotiations, witness interviews, drafting jury voir dire, and preparing for a hearing to dismiss the petition. The case eventually settled on the eve of trial, with the tenant receiving $175,000 in exchange for vacating the apartment. 107-109-111 North 9th Street Associates v. Jean Kraft, 97212/2006 (New York City Civil Court, Kings County (Housing Part)).

• Working with the American Civil Liberties Union, Milbank worked on the Rutherford Project overseeing conditions at all jails in Los Angeles. The associate working on the matter obtained declarations from numerous inmates concerning the deteriorating conditions that threatened the health and welfare of the inmates, and ultimately obtained a temporary restraining order against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department requiring them to improve conditions for the inmates.

• Working with Human Rights First, Milbank represented a woman from Zimbabwe who was seeking asylum in the United States after having been severely beaten and targeted for her efforts as a nurse to “sneak” basic supplies to patients at the state run hospital in Harare. The associate handling the matter hired experts and examined witnesses during a hearing before the Immigration Court, after which the woman was allowed to stay in the United States.

Other interesting recent matters have included:

• Working with LawWorks (the Solicitors Pro Bono Group in the UK), Milbank successfully represented a male-to-female transsexual in an appeal to the Social Security Commissioners against the refusal of the Pension Service to pay her a state pension from the date that she began living full-time as a woman, at which time she was eligible for a state pension as a woman but not as a man.

• Working with FEMA, Milbank has provided legal services to low income victims affected by national disasters, including activating a hotline to field calls from victims needing legal assistance to help in their recovery.

• Working with the Legal Aid Society’s Immigration Unit, Milbank successfully represented a 20-year old Guinean boy in securing a visa for “special immigrant juvenile status,” which allows children who have been abused, neglected, or abandoned to obtain green cards and therefore avoid deportation.

There is an old adage that sometimes one can do well by doing good. In Milbank’s litigation department, the scope and breadth of the pro bono litigation opportunities mean that our lawyers can do just that, by developing and honing their litigation skills while serving the most needy. And for our youngest associates, in particular, it means having the opportunity to do all the things they chose litigation to do – depositions, argument, trial and more – just as soon as they are ready.

For more information about Milbank’s pro bono opportunities, please contact:

Joseph S. Genova
Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP
1 Chase Manhattan Plaza
New York, NY 10005-1413
T: +1-212-530-5532
mailto: JGenova@milbank.com