Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP and its lawyers have been widely recognized and lauded for their public service efforts: 

• Aaron Frankel received the New York State Bar Association President’s Pro Bono Service Award for 2008. The award is presented to one lawyer in each of the State’s judicial districts each year for outstanding pro bono service and leadership. Aaron received the award at a luncheon in Albany on May 1. Aaron was singled out for his excellent pro bono work on asylum, LGBT rights, and housing matters (the latter as a Kramer Levin extern at South Brooklyn Legal Services), as well as his leadership within the firm in organizing and supervising, along with Michael Sternhell, our overall asylum program and encouraging pro bono involvement by other associates within the IP department and throughout the firm. Aaron serves as a member of our Pro Bono Committee and on the board of Immigration Equality, an organization that advocates for fairness in immigration for the LGBT and HIV+ communities and is a frequent pro bono partner of the firm.
  
  
• Kramer Levin was singled out by the American Bar Association’s Section of Litigation as a “Hero of the Profession,” further highlighting the firm’s selection last year to receive the ABA’s John Minor Wisdom Public Service and Professionalism Award. The ABA published on its website an interview with Kramer Levin partner and Pro Bono Committee Chair Jeff Trachtman, who discussed the firm’s longstanding public service commitment and recent accomplishments; the obligation of law firms and individual attorneys to contribute to closing the justice gap for low-income people; and the professional development benefits for junior lawyers in undertaking pro bono work. 
  
  
• Legal Services for New York City (LSNY) honored Kramer Levin as one of its “Pro Bono Champions” for 2007 for its decade-long commitment to staffing a full-time Housing Court externship at South Brooklyn Legal Services. LSNY, the umbrella organization for Legal Services offices in New York and the largest provider of free civil legal services to low-income people in the United States, also presented individual pro bono recognition awards to Pro Bono Committee Chair Jeff Trachtman for his support of the externship program and to Kramer Levin’s recent South Brooklyn externs, associates Darren Cohen, Christos Yatrakis, Guilaine Senecal, and Tracy Sigal. 
  
  
• The National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA) presented its 2007 Beacon of Justice Award to Kramer Levin along with other law firms that have provided pro bono legal assistance to detainees at Guantánamo Bay. In honoring these firms, NLADA noted that “[t]he uncompromising stance taken by these law firms to provide representation to individuals, despite public criticism, demonstrates an unwavering belief and commitment to fairness and equality under the law for all persons accused of a crime.” Michael Sternhell, a member of the Kramer Levin team representing seven current and former Guantánamo detainees, accepted the award on behalf of the firm at NLADA’s Exemplar Awards Dinner in Washington, D.C.
  
  
• The UJA-Federation of New York’s Mental Health Professionals Division honored partner Charlotte Moses Fischman, president of the National Alliance on Mental Illness of New York City, Inc., at its 2008 Annual Reception in New York City. Dr. Kenneth Davis, President and CEO of the Mount Sinai Medical Center, presented the Mortimer J. Blumenthal Memorial Award to Charlotte. 
  
  
• Real Estate partner Jay Neveloff was honored for his community service activities by the Lubavitch Youth Organization in its 2008 Grand National Testimonial Dinner in New York. 
  
  
• Kramer Levin was honored by the Northside Center for Child Development at the 2008 Northside Awards Gala. Kramer Levin has served as the Northside Center’s pro bono legal counsel in a variety of matters. Northside serves the East and Central Harlem communities, providing a wide variety of hands-on services to over 1,800 at-risk children and their families. Partner Gregory Horowitz has been a member of its Board of Directors since 2006. 
  
  
• The ABA Section of Litigation selected Kramer Levin to receive the 2007 John Minor Wisdom Public Service and Professionalism Award. The Wisdom Award, named for the legendary Fifth Circuit judge, was presented to Pro Bono Committee Chair Jeff Trachtman on behalf of the firm at the Section’s annual meeting in San Antonio. The first New York-based firm ever to win this prestigious national award, Kramer Levin was singled out based on its outstanding and varied pro bono achievements in 2006, which included serving as co-counsel in League of Women Voters of Florida v. Cobb, which struck down Florida’s restrictive voter registration law, and Hernandez v. Robles, the New York case seeking equal marriage rights for same-sex couples. The award also recognized Kramer Levin’s long-standing commitment to policies that encourage all of its lawyers to participate in pro bono and public service work. 
  
  
• The New York Law Journal published an interview with partner Jeff Trachtman, Chair of Kramer Levin’s Pro Bono Committee, in connection with the firm’s receipt of the Wisdom Award. Jeff discussed the broad involvement in pro bono work by more than 200 lawyers in the firm last year, and the firm’s significant accomplishments in such areas as civil rights, voting rights, political asylum, tenant rights, and transactional work for nonprofits. In particular, Jeff discussed the firm’s prominent role in LGBT rights litigation, noting the broad support within the firm and among corporate clients for what has become increasingly mainstream civil rights work. Read the interview. 
  
  
• The National Law Journal selected Kramer Levin from among scores of nominees to receive one of the publication’s four Pro Bono Awards for 2006. The award recognized the firm’s “singular achievement” in litigating a high-profile federal case that was the first to hold that private voter registration drives are protected by the First Amendment. League of Women Voters of Florida v. Cobb, 447 F. Supp. 2d 1314 (S.D. Fla. 2006). In a related feature article, “Voting case smashed barriers,” the Law Journal reported how partner Eric Tirschwell and associates Craig Siegel and Erin Walter helped the League of Women Voters of Florida and other nonprofit groups win a federal injunction striking down a burdensome and discriminatory Florida law that had shut down most nonpartisan voter registration efforts in that state. The ruling had cleared the way for the immediate resumption of voter registration efforts in anticipation of the 2006 November elections. 
  
  
• Litigation associate Wells Dixon was one of the recipients of the Legal Aid Society’s 2006 Pro Bono Awards. He was recognized for what Legal Aid called his “outstanding” briefing in People v. Nelson, an Appellate Division criminal appeal that has since resulted in a partial reversal. The appeal challenged the government’s improper evidence and argument regarding a charge on which the grand jury had declined to indict our client and the court’s imposition of consecutive sentences without a finding that the offenses constituted more than a single act, as required by the penal law and federal constitutional decisions. 
  
  
• Jennifer Haber and Jennifer Despins were selected to receive awards for Excellence in Pro Bono Advocacy from the Sanctuary for Families’ Center for Battered Women’s Legal Services in October 2006. They were honored for their work in obtaining asylum for a woman from Pakistan who was abused by her boyfriend and then abandoned with three children and no means of support. The client was facing likely death if returned to Pakistan because her family had threatened to kill her for having children out of wedlock and not letting the family select her spouse. The Kramer Levin team worked closely with Sanctuary For Families, an organization that represents victims of domestic violence, and Nassau County agencies, to find financial support and affordable housing for our client. 
  
  
• Litigation Partner Barry Berke and Kramer Levin were honored by the Coalition for the Homeless at the 2006 ARTWALK NY for their work in fighting for the legal rights of homeless New Yorkers. Kramer Levin also sponsored the event. Since 1995, ARTWALK NY has united artists and art lovers in an effort to help the homeless men, women, and children living in New York City. 
  
  
• Six Kramer Levin attorneys received Safe Haven Awards from Immigration Equality, an organization that advocates for equal immigration rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and HIV-positive community. The awards, presented in an April 2006 ceremony, honor pro bono attorneys who help win permanent relief for LGBTH+ people fleeing persecution from around the world and seeking refuge in the United States. Aaron Frankel, Mital Gondha, Gregory Dolin and Matthew Abbott were recognized for their success in obtaining a grant of asylum for a gay man from Pakistan who, on account of his sexual orientation, faced severe persecution from the government and his community if he were returned to his home country. Debbie Lee and Patricia Ronan were honored for their work on behalf of a man from Jamaica who fled the country after he was persecuted and threatened with extortion because he is gay and HIV-positive. 
  
  
• Partner Jeff Trachtman was a recipient of the New York State Bar Association’s 2005 President’s Pro Bono Service Award, which is given to a single attorney in each of the State’s judicial districts to recognize outstanding pro bono service. Jeff was recognized both for his decade-plus leadership of Kramer Levin’s pro bono program (including creating and coordinating the firm’s full-time housing court externship at South Brooklyn Legal Services) and his own active pro bono work.

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