Cleary Gottlieb won permanent letters of guardianship for a pro bono client seeking the guardianship of her 12-year-old niece. Brooklyn Family Court granted the letters of guardianship on June 26.
The child’s father died in December 2006, and her grandmother became incapacitated in 2007. The child’s mother’s whereabouts had been unknown since the child was two years old; however, Cleary Gottlieb lawyers discovered that she had died in 2004.
MFY Legal Services Kinship Caregiver Law Project, a multi-firm pro bono initiative to represent individuals seeking guardianship of family members, referred the case to Cleary Gottlieb. The project’s goal is to provide the kind of legal services to kinship caregivers that are currently provided by the state to foster parents seeking guardianship of children who are not their kin.