On October 8, Cleary Gottlieb was honored with the 2014 Legal Aid Society Pro Bono Publico & Public Interest Law Firm Award for outstanding service to the Legal Aid Society and its clients.
Cleary Gottlieb was recognized for its commitment to pro bono and the firm’s partnership with the Legal Aid Society on major initiatives such as the prostitution vacatur project and cancellation of removal project. Litigation Partner and Legal Aid Society Director Victor Hou accepted the award on behalf of the firm. Cleary Gottlieb pro bono client and human trafficking survivor S.E. spoke movingly at the ceremony about the work of Cleary Gottlieb lawyers on her behalf.
In addition to receiving the firm-wide honor, Cleary Gottlieb lawyers were individually recognized for their dedicated work on specific Legal Aid Society initiatives and matters. Andrew Darcy, Daniel Soltman, and David Wagner were recognized for their work on cancellation of removal immigration defense cases. Erika Nijenhuis and Caroline Hayday were recognized for their work with low income tax clinics. Guillaume de Rancourt and Ariella Rosenberg were recognized for their contributions on employment matters. Hugh Murtagh was recognized for his work on the conditional sealing project. Finally, Jennifer Kroman, Anna Connolly, Ellie Norton, Lauren Restrepo, and Jodi Erickson were recognized for their working in vacating criminal convictions for trafficking survivors.
Jennifer Kroman was recently invited by the Task Force to Expand Access to Civil Legal Services in New York to present testimony at the first of four public Hearing Panels to evaluate unmet civil legal services needs throughout the state and assess the resources required to meet those needs. Jennifer was also recently selected by New York Law Journal as a lawyer who leads by example in the Pro Bono category for her outstanding record of providing legal services to poor or nearly poor New Yorkers, particularly of human trafficking.