Event Announcements
inMotion Honors the New York Legal Community -Former Governor Mario Cuomo Serves as Guest of Honor
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Nov 19, 2004, 20:24

Since 1993, inMotion has confronted the challenging needs of families in crisis by providing free legal services to low-income women and children. Most of the families we serve suffer from domestic violence.  Many are immigrants.  InMotion reaches women who reside in all five boroughs of New York City:  53% live in the Bronx, the City's poorest borough; 59% are Latina; and 29% are African-American. Our objective is to ensure that all women who contact inMotion obtain essential legal protections so that they and their children have the strongest chance of removing abuse from their lives.

2004 Commitment to Justice Award Recipients

Law Firm Award

·    Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, honoring the firm’s outstanding commitment to pro bono services and ongoing support of inMotion. During the past decade, partners and associates from the firm have represented over 90 inMotion clients. And the firm has been a generous host of our trainings and workshops.

Partner Award

·    Sandra D. Hauser—Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP, in recognition of her profound commitment to building meaningful pro bono opportunities for attorneys and legal assistants at the firm.

Associate Award

·    Peter J. Dennin, Alison J. Dow and Sean K. McElligott—Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, for their skillful and successful representation of a victim of domestic violence.  After her daughter’s father bashed in her car and threatened
to kill her, this team successfully obtained for their client both sole custody and a substantial award of child support
and arrears.

·    Harold Levy—Sullivan & Cromwell LLP and Kathrine M. Mortensen—Kornstein Veisz Wexler & Pollard LLP, for their commitment and dedication to achieving justice on behalf of one client, who they represented for two and a half years in multiple matters in Family and Supreme Court, achieving a life-altering outcome for the client and her children.

·    Joanna Rotgers—Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, for her excellent work on an order of protection and custody case.  The client was severely battered and stalked by her abuser.  After three years of litigation, Ms. Rotgers secured for her client a five-year order of protection, full custody of her child and dismissal of the father’s visitation petition.

John K. Geiger Award

·          Colleen J. O'Loughlin—King & Spalding LLP, for demonstrating committed and caring leadership, serving as the firm’s pro bono coordinator and establishing a strong program at the firm.  She has coordinated the placement of 17 matters with King & Spalding attorneys and paralegals and ensured that cases were supported by all necessary resources of the firm.

Solo/Small Firm Practitioner Awards

·    Melissa J. Bernstein, a volunteer in our Bronx office several days a week, for representing 15 women, most of them victims of domestic violence, in obtaining divorces from their husbands.

·    Sergio Marquez, for volunteering for the past four years. He has made himself available on short notice, time and time again, to represent battered women, especially Spanish-speaking women, in navigating the court system and obtaining orders of protection.

·    Anthony Parisi III—Parisi & Maleno, for willingly accepting referrals of many emergency cases.  Most recently, Mr. Parisi represented a domestic violence survivor in obtaining a divorce and sole custody of her children.  He is truly dedicated to serving women in need.

·    Luis Rodriguez, Jr., for representing battered women with divorces and immigration petitions for legal residency, thereby affording them access to justice and financial self-sufficiency.

Pro Bono Coordinator Award

·    Anthony Perez Cassino—Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP, for tirelessly supporting and promoting our program at the firm and for his broader strong advocacy for inMotion and the pro bono involvement of all lawyers.

Community Leader

·    Fred Rooney—Community Legal Resource Network (CLRN) of CUNY School of Law, for supporting an innovative collaboration between CLRN and inMotion through which inMotion recruits and trains solo and small firm practitioners willing to represent clients in complex litigated matters.

Deborah E. Smith Award

·    William De Lury—New York County Supreme Court, for supporting our RITE Workshop—Realizing Independence Through Empowerment, which teaches women with uncontested cases how to obtain their own divorces.  Mr. De Lury attends evening Workshop sessions and personally greets our pro se clients when they come to court to file their divorce documents, easing a normally intimating process.

Special Awards

·    Denise Bethel—Sotheby's, for serving as volunteer auctioneer at our annual live photography auction every year since 1996.  Each year, she delights in raising the bidding to new heights.

·    Eugene A. Pinover, Lorraine E. Freedhand and Wendy F. Shar—Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, for their forceful and wise negotiation of complex office leases.  Under Mr. Pinover’s leadership and joined by numerous other members of the Willkie real estate group, they ensured that inMotion is housed in space that works well for clients, staff and volunteers alike.

·   Molly Thomas-Jensen, a generous volunteer, who regularly helps staff our Saturday walk-in legal clinics in the Bronx and at the Colombian Consulate.  She has also assisted a number of clients with uncontested divorces.

Press contact:

Laurie Lichtenstein

646-442-1177

LLichtenstein@inmotiononline.org