PRESS RELEASE
City Bar Justice Center Gala to Celebrate Pro Bono
On April 5th, the City Bar Justice Center’s 12th Annual Gala will honor the global business leader Bloomberg L.P. and the international law firm Proskauer Rose LLP with the 2017 City Bar Justice Awards, for their leadership and dedication to pro bono and public service. This year’s gala provides critical support for the Justice Center, which protects the rights of over 20,000 New Yorkers each year through pro bono legal assistance, know-your-rights presentations, legal clinics, and the largest free civil legal hotline in New York. The Justice Center leverages over $18 million worth of pro bono legal services each year.
Focus on the Legal Needs of Disabled Vets and Micro-Entrepreneurs. In the inaugural year of its pro bono program, employees in Bloomberg’s New York office provided over 2,000 hours of free legal services, including helping veterans in need of disability benefits and aspiring small business owners through the Justice Center’s Veterans Assistance and Neighborhood Entrepreneur Law Projects.
Proskauer’s expansive pro bono work ranges from civil rights litigation cases and complex corporate transactions for nonprofit organizations to direct services for individual clients in need. In addition to partnering with Bloomberg to aid dozens of veterans at the Justice Center, in the past year Proskauer significantly expanded its pro bono immigration practice, assisting more than 100 individuals in various proceedings. The firm also continues to handle a variety of pro bono matters for victims of domestic violence and human trafficking, Holocaust survivors, as well as low-income litigants in Family and Housing courts.
Helping Hundreds of Low-Income New Yorkers. “We are honored to recognize Bloomberg and Proskauer for their exemplary actions to level the playing field for hundreds of low-income New Yorkers without counsel in our community,” said John S. Kiernan, President of the New York City Bar Association. “This event is not only a celebration but a rallying call to keep up this important work. This is a critical time for the legal profession to stand up and demonstrate our commitment to equal justice for all.” Kiernan, along with Jane Sherburne, Chair of the City Bar Fund Board, will present the awards on Wednesday night. David Levine, General Counsel, and Michael Cardozo, Partner, will accept the awards on behalf of Bloomberg and Proskauer, respectively.
In addition to Bloomberg L.P. and Proskauer, the event sponsors this year include leading New York law firms and companies including AIG; Davis Polk & Wardwell; Debevoise & Plimpton; Citigroup; Paul, Weiss, Rifkind Wharton & Garrison; Pfizer; Sony and past honorees CBS Corporation and Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, among dozens of others.
About the City Bar Justice Center
The City Bar Justice Center, the pro bono affiliate of the New York City Bar Association, increases access to justice by leveraging the resources of the New York City legal community. The Justice Center operates the city’s busiest legal hotline and annually provides direct legal representation, information and advocacy to over 20,000 New Yorkers in areas including immigration, homelessness, veterans assistance, foreclosure, bankruptcy, elderlaw, cancer advocacy and micro-entrepreneurship.