Nonprofit and Community Development
In several areas, including corporate, tax, real estate, and intellectual property, Kramer Levin has provided pro bono assistance to a wide variety of nonprofit secular and religious organizations. Many of these activities arise from ongoing representations or board service, and many reflect the community or religious interests of individual lawyers. Kramer Levin has also provided transactional assistance to low-income persons launching for-profit businesses through its microenterprise program.
Clinton Foundation
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One of Kramer Levin’s most exciting nonprofit relationships is with the William J. Clinton Foundation, which President Clinton established at the end of his second term with the mission to strengthen the capacity of people throughout the world to meet the challenges of global interdependence. Attorneys from the firm’s litigation, corporate, intellectual property, real estate, employment, and individual client groups have worked on a wide range of Foundation matters.
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Urban Justice Center
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Kramer Levin has a longstanding partnership with the Urban Justice Center, which is dedicated to serving New York’s most vulnerable residents through a combination of direct legal service, advocacy, community education, and organizing. Kramer Levin has funded two Equal Justice Works fellows who have worked on community development projects at the Urban Justice Center, and the firm has handled individual matters referred by the organization, helping to launch employee-owner cooperative enterprises and other community development projects.
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Coalition for the Homeless
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Kramer Levin has assisted Coalition for the Homeless, a leading organization combating homelessness in New York, in a variety of matters, including spearheading construction of the Coalition’s downtown headquarters.
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Friends of the High Line
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Kramer Levin serves as land use counsel in connection with the linear public park that was created on the abandoned above-grade railroad line on the west side of Manhattan – and helped spark emergence of a whole new neighborhood. We have counseled the organization on zoning, environmental, and historic preservation issues.
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Early Alzheimer’s Foundation
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Kramer Levin has counseled the Early Alzheimer’s Foundation, which provides programs and facilities for persons suffering from memory disorders and their caregivers, on corporate governance, nonprofit tax compliance, regulatory, and contract issues.
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Harlem Charter Schools
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Kramer Levin has provided land use advice and zoning analyses to both the Harlem Children’s Zone and Harlem Village Academy charter schools, in connection with their planned new facilities in Harlem.
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Aid to Microentrepreneurs
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Kramer Levin represents low-income individuals in starting or acquiring small businesses — known as microenterprises. These matters provide transactional lawyers with a chance to use their business law expertise to assist community development and help low-income New Yorkers become financially self-sufficient. Kramer Levin accepts referrals for such matters from the Harlem Business Alliance, the East Harlem Business Capital Corporation, the Brooklyn Cooperative Federal Credit Union, and the Hebrew Free Loan Society.
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