LOS ANGELES – March 10, 2016 – Global law firm Greenberg Traurig LLP’s Los Angeles office has observed a highly successful 2015 and beginning of 2016 within its Pro Bono Practice, with several significant matters closing and three matters currently underway.
In May 2015, Of Counsel Adam Siegler joined Shareholder Vince Chieffo as a Los Angeles office pro bono coordinator.
“There are a tremendous number of people without access to legal representation in our country,” said Siegler. “My colleagues and I are honored to be able to provide these deserving people with the counsel they are entitled to, and to make a positive impact in their lives.”
Of the numerous pro bono matters that the Los Angeles office has undertaken in the past year, immigration-related matters were prevalent. Three teams of attorneys counseled three separate pro bono immigration cases: one for an individual who once faced religious persecution in Romania and imminent deportation from the U.S.; another for a Guatemalan teenager who had endured abandonment and sweatshop labor; and a third case for a Pakistani immigrant whose asylum application had been filed improperly after coming to the U.S. with a student visa over 20 years ago. All three of the clients’ immigration matters were brought to a successful conclusion, granting them permanent citizenship in the U.S.
The Los Angeles office also successfully handled a family case, in which the team not only obtained court approval for the adoption of two children with special physical and educational needs, but also was able to obtain an award of $45,000 in retroactive medical benefits for the children.
Currently, Los Angeles attorneys are representing an individual facing the death penalty in Arizona for an alleged double murder, which his original trial team firmly believes he did not commit. Substantial evidence supports their belief, and the Greenberg Traurig team is currently appealing on the basis of ineffective evidence.
“We are beyond proud of our attorneys’ diligent and purposeful work with our pro bono clients in the past year,” said Jeff Scott, managing shareholder of the Los Angeles office. “Our pro bono practice has continued to show incredible influence on those we represent, and I only hope to continue to build upon the strong foundation of our current practice in the coming years.”
Through its Equal Justice Works program, Greenberg Traurig is currently sponsoring two Equal Justice Works Fellows in Los Angeles. One Fellow is working at the Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice, which provides comprehensive family law services and education to foster youths who are themselves pregnant or parents of young children, in order to retain custody of their children and break the inter-generational cycle of foster care. The other Fellow is working with the Center for Educational Excellence in Alternative Settings, which focuses on protecting the education rights of youth in the juvenile justice system through direct representation and policy advocacy.