Kramer Levin Wins Human Rights Award Named For Late Partner

Long-time pro bono partner Human Rights First (HRF) has honored Kramer Levin with its Marvin Frankel Award, given each year to a law firm for outstanding pro bono work on behalf of refugees seeking asylum. The firm was selected based on its long history of taking on and winning a wide range of challenging asylum cases, its support of HRF's refugee work generally, and its leadership in other pro bono human rights work (including the representation of several Uighur Muslims detained without due process at Guantanamo).

The award is named for the late Judge Marvin E. Frankel, a name partner in the firm, who was a founding father of HRF, serving on its Board for more than 24 years and as its Chair for16. Under his leadership, HRF developed a nationally recognized pro bono representation program for asylum seekers, placing cases with partner law firms across the country and providing training and support. This program now generates over 70,000 pro bono attorney hours a year.

Kramer Levin’s longstanding asylum program is based on this model and has successfully obtained asylum for over 45 clients referred by HRF, donating well over $5 million worth of attorney time along the way. Under the leadership of co-chairs Aaron Frankel and Michael Sternhell (and their predecessor Kerri Ann Law), Kramer Levin’s asylum program has expanded to work with other pro bono organizations including Sanctuary For Families (helping refugees fleeing domestic violence and gender based persecution), Immigration Equality (serving LGBT/HIV+ asylees) and SongTsen (representing Tibetan refugees). Both Sanctuary For Families and Immigration Equality have recently recognized the work of Kramer Levin asylum teams through annual awards.

Recent Kramer Levin wins on behalf of HRF clients include obtaining asylum for a student activist from Darfur, Sudan who had been arrested, detained, and tortured for 17 days by the special security forces of the Sudanese government after issuing a political statement condemning the genocide in Darfur. Kramer Levin attorneys also represented a student activist from Togo who had been arrested, detained, and tortured on two occasions for her participation in peaceful political protests and whose family had been targeted for many years in Togo on account of their pro-democracy work.