Kramer Levin Congratulates the 3rd Annual Marvin Frankel Pro Bono Award Winners and Thanks Pro Bono Challenge Participants

Kramer Levin congratulates the winners of its 3rd Annual Marvin Frankel Award for Outstanding Pro Bono Contributions:

Immigration special counsel William Johnson for his outstanding pro bono contributions in applying his expertise in immigration law to the legal needs of some of our most vulnerable clients. Willie has nurtured a Kramer Levin partnership with Morgan Stanley attorneys assisting juvenile immigration clients and has personally worked on well over a dozen individual cases on behalf of unaccompanied minors applying for Special Immigrant Juvenile status to remain legally in the country.

Litigation associate Jennifer M. Klein for her remarkable pro bono contributions in drafting several amicus briefs supporting the previous administration’s Clean Power Plan; addressing the Affordable Care Act’s accommodation provisions for religious conscientious objection to reproductive healthcare; and supporting an Innocence Project client in a criminal appeal addressing cross-racial identification accuracy risks. She also coordinates the firm’s family court program, and has assisted transgender clients seeking legal name changes.

The Center for Reproductive Rights Amicus Teams for outstanding advocacy in authoring two briefs before the Supreme Court of the United States on hotly contested issues of public policy and reproductive rights. In one case, the Court struck down the Texas law that imposed restrictions on abortion clinics and the other case, which is still pending, concerns provisions in the Affordable Care Act that require employer-sponsored group health plans to include coverage for preventive healthcare, including all lawful forms of contraception. The team consisted of Litigation partner Michael J. Dell, special counsel Marjorie E. Sheldon and associates Noah Hertz-Bunzl, Jennifer M. Klein, Anna K. Ostrom, and Evie Spanos.

The firm will donate $3,500 on behalf of Mr. Johnson to the Safe Passage Project; $3,500 on behalf of Ms. Klein to the Natural Resource Defense Council; and $3,500 on behalf of the Amicus teams to the Center for Reproductive Rights.

The firm would also like to thank those who rose to meet the firm’s Pro Bono Challenge milestones for 100+, 50+ and 20+ hours of pro bono.

A full list of the Pro Bono Challenge winners is available here.

Photos from the award ceremony are available here.