Winners of Marvin Frankel Pro Bono Awards Announced

(October 27, NEW YORK) — The recipients of the Marvin Frankel Pro Bono Awards will be announced at the Human Rights First annual dinner on October 28. The firms are being honored for their dedication to public service and carrying on the legacy of Judge Frankel, one of the founders of Human Rights First.

Davis Polk & Wardwell, New York
The law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell has consistently demonstrated a tremendous commitment to the representation of refugees who cannot afford to pay for legal counsel. Over the years, their attorneys have represented 117 asylum seekers through Human Rights First’s pro bono asylum legal representation program. In the past year alone, they have won asylum for refugees from Mauritania, Egypt, Haiti, China, and Guinea. In conjunction with Columbia Law School, the firm runs the Davis Polk/Columbia Law School Asylum Program, which represents two to four asylum seekers through Human Rights First each year, and gives law students valuable exposure to asylum law and hands-on experience in legal representation. The firm provides additional support to other pro bono attorneys, hosting Human Rights First’s fall Asylum Law Training since 1999 and helping to launch and maintain probono.net, an online resource for pro bono attorneys. Davis Polk & Wardwell has consistently maintained the excellence of its pro bono program through the oversight of dedicated pro bono coordinators; current Pro Bono Coordinator, Amy Rossabi, helps to ensure the top quality representation provided by the firm’s attorneys.

Howrey Simon Arnold & White, Washington, DC
Howrey Simon Arnold & White, LLP has shown remarkable leadership and dedication to providing pro bono representation to refugees in the Washington, D.C. metro area since it first began taking cases through the Human Rights First in 2000. The collaborative relationship that Howrey has formed with Human Rights First is a model to all firms in the D.C. legal community; in the past few years, Howrey has taken on more cases from Human Rights First than any other firm in Washington D.C, including representing women fleeing gender based persecution. Of the many, and often complex, cases Howrey has taken on, its dedicated attorneys have won asylum for refugees from Kazakhstan, Sudan, Albania and Zimbabwe, among others. A leader in the D.C. pro bono community, Howrey hosted the Human Rights First Asylum Law Training in Summer 2001 and Spring 2004, and recently was awarded the DC Bar’s 2004 Pro Bono Firm of the Year Award upon Human Rights First’s recommendation. Rachel Strong, the firm’s pro bono coordinator, was instrumental in envisioning, organizing, and implementing Howrey’s first-year associate project, which matches first-year associates with pro bono cases; Human Rights First is a key referring agency for this project. Having represented two asylum cases, both of which she won, Ms. Strong remains very involved in the cases her firm takes on, providing guidance and oversight to ensure quality representation by Howrey attorneys.

Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler, New York
The firm of Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler has successfully written incisive Supreme Court amicus briefs filed on behalf of former federal judges and attorneys in support of the American citizens detained as enemy combatants, Jose Padilla and Yaser Hamdi. Robert LoBue and his colleagues at Patterson crafted a strong and persuasive defense of the role of the judiciary during this challenging historical moment, writing: “The judicial power does not disappear in times of war. There is no reason to believe that federal courts would unduly interfere with military operations or compromise national security by performing a role in which the courts are expert – resolving factual disputes.” The argument of Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler was helpful to the Court in making its final decision.

Also, as we moved forward on our End Torture Now campaign, Scott Horton, a partner at Patterson provided invaluable research assistance. Scott’s insights have helped us maneuver the complicated bureaucracy of the military and led to important discoveries concerning torture and abuse of detainees in United States custody.

Background
Each year, Human Rights First honors the memory of Judge Marvin E. Frankel, a founding father of Human Rights First and former Chairman of our Board of Directors with an award in his name. Judge Frankel died in 2002. During his lifetime he dedicated time and energy to making a difference in the human rights movement.

Through his leadership Human Rights First developed a nationally recognized pro bono program through which lawyers in New York and Washington now represent more than 1000 asylum applicants from more than 80 countries.
Currently more than 150 firms and more than 1,000 individual attorneys actively work with the Human Rights First asylum representation program, which matches indigent refugees seeking asylum with attorneys who represent them in immigration court pro bono. Each year attorneys donate over 60,000 hours of their time – a donation the equivalent of over $18 million in legal fees – to helping asylum clients.

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