Cahill has a long and honored tradition of pro bono work. Through its partnership with The Legal Aid Society, Cahill lawyers provide pro bono counsel to young children who are the subjects of abuse and neglect proceedings in New York family Courts, disabled individuals in need of Social Security benefits, immigrant youth who are the subjects of abuse, and tenants who are denied the most basic of services. The housing program component was recently expanded when Cahill initiated a new project with the Civil Practice's Queens Neighborhood Office to represent tenants in Housing Court actions to compel landlords to repair dangerous building conditions, threatening life, health, safety and continued occupancy.
Many Cahill partners and associates have taken cases on behalf of abused and neglected children and disabled, low income adults. Others have undertaken to handle criminal appeals on behalf of indigent defendants as part of Legal Aid's Criminal Appeals Project. Working with guidance from Legal Aid attorneys, our lawyers have the primary responsibility for all aspects of the appeals, including consulting with the clients, mastering the trial record, formulating issues for appeal, drafting the brief, and conducting oral argument. In addition to the benefits afforded by hands-on experience, Cahill lawyers have repeatedly obtained successful results, securing educational and developmental placements and disability benefits for their pro bono clients.
In 2005, 2006, and 2007, Cahill was the honored recipient of the Pro Bono Publico Award by The Legal Aid Society, presented "in recognition of Cahill's outstanding commitment to the cause of equal justice through pro bono service" for its work in these areas. A number of our associates have been presented with individual awards by The Legal Aid Society for their personal contributions.
In 2008, Cahill announced that it will be providing a broad range of pro bono assistance to The Door, a comprehensive youth services agency serving young people between the ages of 12 and 21. Since 1972, The Door has practiced a holistic and human approach that helps each individual member to dismantle the complex barriers that often stand in the way of success. The only criterion for Door membership is age (12-21). Of the 8,000 current members, the majority are between 17 and 20 years of age, with the average being 18. Most are African-American or Hispanic; a growing number are immigrants from China.
The Door's Legal Services center provides a broad range of legal services to young people in civil matters, including individual representing on asylum, immigration, family law/family violence as well as clinics on emancipation and educational workshops on topics of interest to Door members.
The program makes available pro bono opportunities to Cahill lawyers such as assisting young people in crises through individual representation, participating in immigration and emancipation clinics and conducting workshops to inform and educate on topics of interest.
One of the lead counsel for plaintiffs in litigation challenging the constitutionality of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA), the most sweeping campaign finance legislation passed by Congress in the last 25 years. Mr. Abrams was appointed by the Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye to chair New York's Commission on Public Access to Court Records. A Cahill associate acted as counsel to the commission. The commission was charged with examining the sometimes-competing interests of privacy and open access relating to information in court case files that will be filed or maintained in electronic form by New York courts in the future.
Cahill also represented the plaintiffs in a major precedent setting class action on behalf of 100,000 children in New York City filed by Children's Rights, Inc. and Lawyers for Children in the Southern District of New York in a challenge to major aspects of New York City's child welfare system as operated by the Administration for Children Services and monitored and supervised by the New York State Office of Children & Family Services. The complaint alleged that the City and State were responsible for an extended history of neglect in all aspects of the city's child welfare operations and sought the appointment of a receiver to operate the City's child welfare system. The case was settled with the State. The settlement contains provisions that obligate the State, for the first time in its history, to dramatically alter the way it monitors the City's child welfare performance and to keep plaintiffs timely informed of what they are doing and what its investigations are uncovering. Cahill donated the entire fee recovery of $1 million to Children's Rights, Inc.
Other organizations for which we have devoted substantive pro bono legal services include:
- The Manhattan District Attorney's office
- United States District Court for the S.D.N.Y. Pro Bono panel cases
- New York Lawyers for the Public Interest
- Victim Services, Inc.
- Sanctuary for Families
- National Employment Law Project, Inc.
- The Municipal Art Society
- Lincoln Center
- New York County Lawyers' Association
- Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts
