Lawrence Zweifach Receives Thurgood Marshall Pro Bono Award

07.14.2008

New York City Bar Association Recognizes Zweifach for Capital Representation

(NEW YORK) July 14, 2008 – Heller Ehrman LLP announced that Lawrence Zweifach, a shareholder in the firm’s New York office, has been selected by the Association of the Bar of the City of New York as recipient of a 2008 Thurgood Marshall Award for Capital Representation.  The award was presented to Zweifach during a ceremony on July 14 at the Great Hall of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.  The Honorable Jack B. Weinstein, Senior United States District Judge for the Eastern District of New York, was the keynote speaker at the award ceremony.  The award recognizes attorneys in the New York area who have contributed their time and legal expertise over the last 10 years to representing inmates across the nation who are under a sentence of death.  

“We are most grateful to New York Bar Association for recognizing Larry’s efforts,” said Kit Pierson, Heller Ehrman shareholder and pro bono committee chair. “The Thurgood Marshall Award is an honor that underscores Larry’s dedication to pro bono work and his commitment to representing individuals who need help.  Larry’s efforts here in New York are aimed at significant, meaningful causes of the most serious kind.  He is most certainly deserving of this important honor.”

For many years, Heller Ehrman has been involved in several death penalty matters, including cases that have reached the U.S. Supreme Court.  For example, the firm filed an amicus brief on behalf of the American Medical Association and other medical groups in Roper v. Simmons, in which the Supreme Court held that the execution of juvenile offenders is unconstitutional.  The firm also regularly accepts cases from organizations such as the ABA Death Penalty Representation Project and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

Since Heller Ehrman's founding in 1890, the firm has been committed to providing legal services to the disadvantaged and to communities in need.  The firm has been consistently recognized for its pro bono efforts. Recent accolades include:

• Heller Ehrman was ranked #15 in the U.S. for its pro bono work in 2007 by The American Lawyer in that publication’s annual pro bono survey, which polls pro bono data from the nation’s 200 highest-grossing law firms.
• Heller Ehrman was selected by the National Law Journal as one of four law firms in the U.S. to receive the publication’s 2006 Pro Bono Award, based on the firm’s efforts to bring justice to those responsible for the 2005 murder of Sister Dorothy Stang, an American nun, in Brazil.
• A Heller Ehrman lawyer, Robert E. Borton, was selected as one of three attorneys in the U.S. to receive the 2007 Pro Bono Publico Award from the American Bar Association.

About Heller Ehrman LLP

Heller Ehrman LLP has 650 attorneys and professionals in 14 offices worldwide – Anchorage; Beijing; Hong Kong; London; Los Angeles; Madison, Wis.; New York; San Diego; San Francisco; Seattle; Shanghai; Silicon Valley; Singapore; and Washington, D.C.  Heller Ehrman represents a wide range of industry leaders, from entrepreneurial, technology-driven enterprises to established, multinational conglomerates. The firm’s core values are Excellence, People, Teamwork, Innovation, Community and One Firm.