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Pro Bono Spotlight ~ Lawyers Going the Extra Mile
Fenwick & West
PRO BONO SPOTLIGHT
FENWICK & WEST |
 Fenwick
& West is the Probonomatch.org Spotlight this quarter. They
are founding “partners” with the Santa Clara County Bar
Association in Probonomatch.org and the Pro Bono Initiative:
Helping Lawyers Help Others, contributing $10,000. Fenwick &
West has donated an additional $10,000 to remain our
“partner” for 2008/2009. In addition, Fenwick & West
Litigation Partner Patrick Premo, has served on the SCCBA
Pro Bono Committee the past two years and is the chair of
the Committee for 2008. Under his leadership, the Pro Bono
Committee is starting its first training series for
attorneys in substantive law areas that are most needed by
local legal service agencies. And, Fenwick & West Managing
Partner Kate Fritz, who has been involved with the SCCBA
diversity initiative efforts the last several years is the
2008 chair of the Diversity Committee, which is continuing
to implement the recommendations from the 2006 President’s
Commission Report on Diversity in the Legal Profession in
Silicon Valley. The Santa Clara County Bar Association
appreciates Fenwick’s generous support both in time and
dollars.
For more than 30 years, Fenwick & West has served its
community by offering legal services to persons and
organizations that could not otherwise afford effective
legal counsel. Fenwick recognizes that providing legal
services is not only an essential part of our professional
responsibility, but also an excellent opportunity to gain
valuable practical experience, learn new areas of the law
and contribute to the community.
Fenwick & West has provided pro bono services for a variety
of organizations in such areas as child advocacy, impact
litigation, appellate project, street law, AIDS project,
death penalty, corporate, intellectual property, tax and
political asylum/immigration. During 2007, the firm donated
nearly 14,000 hours, valued at more than $4.5M in legal
fees.
Death Penalty
For over 22 years, Fenwick & West has represented Henry Earl
Duncan, a California inmate sentenced to Death Row on May 5,
1986 for the felony murder of a night supervisor at a LAX
airport restaurant. The Ninth Circuit granted relief on June
24, 2008.
In Duncan v. Ornoski, Judge Reinhardt held that the district
court erred in finding that Duncan did not receive
ineffective assistance of counsel at the special
circumstances phase of his trial, specifically, because his
trial counsel failed to test the blood that was found at the
crime scene. Therefore, the Ninth Circuit ruled that the
special circumstances finding must be vacated and the
sentence set aside. The ruling requires that the district
court issue a writ directing the State to institute within
90 days any proceedings necessary to permit a jury to make a
new special circumstance findings or, alternatively, to
impose a sentence of 25 years to life in prison.
Appointed by the California Supreme Court as Duncan’s
appellate counsel on June 4, 1986, Copyright Group Chair and
IP and Litigation Partner Mitchell Zimmerman has led the
Fenwick & West litigation team for the entire length of the
effort to overturn Duncan’s death sentence. Fenwick’s Duncan
litigation team members are an exceptional group of
attorneys who contributed thousands of hours to successfully
litigate this case.
Impact Litigation
In particular, the firm has also demonstrated a sustained
commitment to providing pro bono legal services to persons
of limited means in Santa Clara County. Fenwick & West has
been a long standing supporter of the Law Foundation of
Silicon Valley which provides free legal services to Silicon
Valley individuals in need through its five programs: AIDS
Legal Services, Fair Housing Law Project, Legal Advocates
for Children & Youth, Mental Health Advocacy Project, and
Public Interest Law Firm.
In July, Fenwick & West LLP donated to its co-counsel,
Public Interest Law Firm (PILF), the firm's share of the
approximately $450,000 in attorneys' fees awarded as part of
the settlement of a successful lawsuit against Santa Clara
County. The donation is part of Fenwick & West's continuing
efforts to support free legal services to Silicon Valley
individuals in need.
Fenwick & West and PILF together represented a class of
county jail inmates in a lawsuit challenging the County of
Santa Clara's misuse and mismanagement of the Inmate Welfare
Fund (IWF), a fund designated by state law to be used for
the inmates' benefit. After years of litigation and
protracted settlement negotiations, the inmates reached a
settlement with the County that requires significant policy
changes in the administration of the IWF and restores $1.5
million to the fund. PILF recently awarded Fenwick with its
Public Interest Counsel Champion Award in recognition of
Fenwick’s longstanding commitment to its organization, the
service of Fenwick attorneys and staff to its pro bono
clients and the excellence of Fenwick’s work.
Child Advocacy
In addition, Fenwick attorneys have served on the Legal
Advocates for Children & Youth Guardianship panel since
1995. Fenwick & West attorneys have represented a number of
at risk minors in a variety of challenging circumstances.
Civil Matters
Fenwick & West was also one of the earliest members of the
Volunteer Attorney Program (VAP) which was started in 1985
by attorneys from several Silicon Valley law firms. The
program is now administered by Community Legal Services in
East Palo Alto which refers cases to VAP attorneys in areas
not handled by CLS staff attorneys. Fenwick & West is proud
to have been a supporter of Community Legal Services in East
Palo Alto since its inception. Fenwick staffs VAP on a
rotating basis, and Fenwick attorneys have assisted on
numerous cases, involving issues such as contract disputes,
consumer fraud, personal injury, tort claims,
landlord-tenant and other civil matters. Fenwick & West has
also served as co-counsel on predatory lending cases.
Since 2003, Fenwick & West has hosted and staffed the Pro
Bono Project's Lawyers in the Library Program to counsel
low-income individuals in Santa Clara County on legal
resources in the community on the first Monday of every
month. Fenwick also hosts Pro Bono Project training programs
throughout the year. Fenwick & West recently received the
Foundation Award from the Pro Bono Project in recognition of
the firm’s contributions to their Domestic Violence Limited
Scope Representation (DVLSR) program since the first
attorney training in 2005.
Citizenship
Through the Asian Law Alliance, Fenwick attorneys have
helped assess the eligibility of low-income immigrants for
U.S. citizenship, provided assistance in filling out
immigration applications, made referrals to ESL and
citizenship classes, informed new citizens and recent
immigrants of their legal rights and responsibilities, and
provided general guidance on becoming a U.S. citizen to the
Asian and Pacific Islander communities within Santa Clara
County.
Diversity
In addition, Fenwick & West is committed to promoting
diversity within the firm and throughout the profession.
Fenwick & West believes that respect and acknowledgment of
others' backgrounds creates a welcoming workplace that
fosters cooperation, creativity, and mutual understanding.
This commitment to diversity extends to Fenwick's
involvement with bar associations, pro bono work, and law
schools. Through pro bono collaborations, we have provided
legal services for many minority groups about issues such as
immigration, human trafficking, domestic violence and HIV
discrimination. We have established outreach programs that
support law student groups and assist diverse students in
entering law firm life. Fenwick has presented forum
discussions at various law schools about diversity issues,
the transition from law school to law practice, and law firm
culture. We also support diverse law students by sponsoring
identity law journals and providing our facilities for
student group retreats.
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