Columbia Law School Receives Award for Pro Bono Leadership

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Columbia Law School Receives Award for Pro Bono Leadership

 

Media Contact: Nancy Goldfarb, 212-854-1584 [email protected]
Public Affairs Office 212-854-2650 [email protected]
 
New York, Dec. 14, 2009 – Columbia Law School received a 2009 "Pro Bono Leaders” award along with Milbank, Tweed, Hadley, McCloy LLP for a project known as the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic at Legal Services NYC-Bronx. The Clinic, one of the in-house pro bono projects of the Law School’s Social Justice Initiatives, teams students with attorneys from Milbank Tweed to represent low income taxpayers in disputes before the IRS.
 
The award was presented by Legal Services NYC on Dec. 4 at a ceremony held at Reed Smith LLP, and was accepted on behalf of the Law School by Ellen Chapnick, Dean of Social Justice Initiatives and a Lecturer-in-Law and on behalf of Milbank Tweed by Bruce Kayle, the chair of Milbank Tweed’s tax department and the co-founder of the project. Professor Alex Raskolnikov is the Columbia faculty advisor to the project. Dean Chapnick said that she was particularly proud of the award because “this project is an innovative joint venture in which Columbia students, who have a deep interest in tax, are learning about life from their clients and about law from excellent lawyers at a leading law firm and a top legal services provider.”
 
The collaboration with Milbank Tweed is an opportunity for the Clinic to increase its reach in the community by having more taxpayers represented, and to get the private bar involved. Having cases generated by the Clinic referred on a pro bono basis to the firm allows Legal Services NYC-Bronx to continue to provide new and potential clients with the opportunity to fully access free and high quality legal services, to provide students with the opportunity to work with real clients’ problems, and to expose both the students and private attorneys to pro bono work.
 
Of the Leaders award, Legal Services NYC said, “This …celebrates your formidable generosity of time, talent and expertise. Your pro bono work with the offices of Legal Services NYC provides access to the justice system for New York City's most vulnerable residents."
 
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