Firm News

Firm Announces Recipients Of Pro Bono Service Awards

July 30, 2004

CHICAGO – Katten Muchin Zavis Rosenman has presented the following five attorneys with the law Firm’s top honor for pro bono service:

• Neil V. Carbone – Trusts and Estates Associate New York
• Arthur S. Linker – Litigation Partner New York
• Stacey McKee Knight – Litigation Partner Los Angeles
• John S. Paniaguas – Intellectual Property Partner
• Chicago Kyle A. Petersen – Labor and Employment Associate Chicago

Three distinguished jurists presented the awards: In Chicago, the Honorable William J. Hibbler of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois; in Los Angeles, the Honorable Dean D. Pregerson of U.S. District Court for the Central District of California; and in New York, the Honorable Robert D. Sack of U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit;.

In the award-winning cases, Firm attorneys provided pro bono services in a wide array of litigation and transactional matters, including:

• efforts to protect settlement for man with cerebral palsy
• representing a Congolese citizen wrongly accused of assassination
• defending prisoner civil rights
• gaining political asylum for a Liberian refugee
• protecting the intellectual property of those who cannot afford it

"These individuals have truly demonstrated our firm-wide commitment to providing those in our communities the legal services they need but may not be able to afford," said Vincent A. F. Sergi, the Firm’s National Managing Partner. "This group of attorneys has demonstrated an extraordinary dedication of time and service to their pro bono clients and we are extremely proud of their efforts."

The Pro bono Service Awards include a $1,000 honorarium, which each recipient donated to a charity of their choice. The following summaries highlight the recipients’ pro bono work:

Neil V. Carbone

Associate, Trusts and Estates – New York

Neil V. Carbone has been appointed guardian ad litem for a man in his 30s who has cerebral palsy, which has affected his ability to walk and left him with learning disabilities, and whose siblings had stolen his inheritance. Carbone took on his case pro bono through New York Lawyers for the Public Interest. Carbone is now in the process of discovery and is scheduled to be in depositions on July 28. If he is successful in vacating the prior decree, he may be able to demonstrate that the client should have received more than his share of the settlement money and he should also receive the nearly $300,000 that was distributed to his three healthy adult siblings.

In addition to Carbone’s ad litem case, he has worked pro bono cases at the Wills Clinic at South Brooklyn Legal Services since 1997. He helps needy clients who have been diagnosed with HIV to plan for their incapacity and eventual death by drafting the necessary documents, including wills, health care proxies, living wills, powers of attorney, grants of temporary care and custody (of their children), and designations of standby guardian.

Carbone has designated South Brooklyn Legal Services to receive his honorarium.

Arthur S. Linker

Partner, Litigation – New York

Arthur S. Linker has argued a variety of pro bono cases including prisoner civil rights, immigration, mental health and employment issues, many of which have been significant to the court system.

Since 1992, as a member of the Second Circuit Pro Bono Appellate Panel, Linker has served as the Firm’s contact with the Second Circuit for screening, accepting and supervising work on pro bono appeals and has been appointed as counsel in more than 20 Second Circuit cases. He has also served as the Firm’s contact with the New York City Law Department in connection with the Firm’s pro bono representation of the City and related defendants in eight federal civil rights cases in the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.

One of his most recent pro bono cases, Giano v. Goord, was heard by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in tandem with four other cases, all of which raise issues concerning what New York prison inmates must do in order to comply with the Prison Litigation Reform Act. In the immigration case, Aguirre v. INS, the Second Circuit ruled for his pro bono client and overruled one of its own decisions that was less than two years old. In Samuels v. Mockry, Sealey v. Giltner, and Colon v. Howard, all of which were decided in favor of his pro bono clients, the Second Circuit issued frequently cited decisions that have helped define the due process rights of New York inmates confined to Special Housing Units as the result of administrative and disciplinary proceedings.

He has designated his honorarium for the Community Outreach Law Program of the City Bar Fund, Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

Stacey McKee Knight

Partner, Litigation – Los Angeles

Last year, Stacey McKee Knight performed pro bono legal work for Public Counsel, Ms Magazine, the Rabbinical Counsel of California and various family law matters.

McKee Knight had volunteered to handle an asylum application for Public Counsel that was set to go to trial in the following month. Her client was a Congolese citizen who had been rounded up and arrested in connection with the January 2001 assassination of Laurent Kabilla, the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Although her client had no involvement in the assassination and did not work for the government, he was arrested and held for four days in a branch jail, where he endured torture, beating and inhumane treatment. He ultimately escaped and fled to Zambia, where he was subsequently imprisoned for four months after attempting to leave the country with false papers. In prison, he was befriended by a visiting priest, who was able to secure his release to the United States. His asylum case finally went to trial on December 23, 2003. The Judge interrupted McKee Knight’s direct examination of her client to inquire whether the INS attorney would submit to the granting of the asylum application. After a brief cross-examination, the INS stipulated, and the Judge granted the asylum application, commenting that her application for her client was the best he had seen in all his time on the bench. The client is now in the process of finalizing the paperwork to bring his family to the United States.

McKee Knight has designated Cure Autism Now to receive her honorarium.

John S. Paniaguas

Partner, Intellectual Property – Chicago

John S. Paniaguas has introduced a new area of pro bono practice to the Firm—pro bono patent law. Paniaguas firmly believes that a person who cannot afford to file a patent application should still have the opportunity to contribute intellectually to society and to profit from that contribution.

Paniaguas has accepted referrals from Lawyers for the Creative Arts and the DePaul Intellectual Property Law Clinic to write and file patent applications pro bono for the inventors and artists who seek help from these organizations. He has prepared patent applications for inventions including a game for teaching religion, a new method of treating leather, and a synthetic fireplace log. In addition Paniaguas has prepared and filed a U.S. patent application for a new method of teaching learning disabled students how to write compositions using colors.

Paniaguas has designated the DePaul College of Law Intellectual Property Fund to receive his honorarium. He is a graduate of DePaul University College of Law and currently serves there as an adjunct faculty member teaching Advanced Patent Prosecution and International Practice.

Kyle A. Petersen

Associate, Labor and Employment – Chicago

During her three years as an Associate with the Firm, Kyle A. Petersen’s pro bono work has averaged more than 200 hours annually, for more than a dozen clients. Petersen is currently completing her representation of the first pro bono client she took on as an Associate, a Liberian refugee who came to the United States in 2000 seeking asylum in response to politically and ethnically motivated arrest, torture and death threats. Petersen came to represent her Liberian client in cooperation with the Midwest Immigrant Human Rights Center after he came to the United States. She gained her client’s political asylum in January 2002 and, earlier this year, finally received approval for his wife and two children to join him in the United States.

In addition, Petersen has also worked on several pro bono cases within her practice area of labor and employment. She negotiated the health care benefits of their lawyers and staff of the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago – an organization that provides free legal aid to the most vulnerable women, men, and children in Cook County. She also assisted the Joffrey Ballet in its negotiations with the union that represents the artists, dancers and production staff. After several months of negotiations, a multiyear contract was attained.

Petersen has designated her honorarium for the Midwest Immigrant Human Rights Center.

Katten Muchin Zavis Rosenman (www.kmzr.com) offers integrated, full-service legal capabilities through offices in the nation's largest centers of business, finance, government and technology – New York; Los Angeles; Chicago; Washington; Charlotte, N.C.; Palo Alto, Calif.; and Newark, N.J. The Firm’s 600 attorneys in more than 60 practice areas are business advisors and advocates for a wide range of public and private companies – from entrepreneurial, emerging-growth and middle-market firms to global Fortune 100 corporations – as well as government entities and non-profits.