The Brooklyn Volunteer Lawyers Project’s “bright lights” came out last week at a holiday event celebrating the spirit of pro bono publico.
“As I look out at you tonight, I see brilliant light and many shining stars,” said Brooklyn Volunteer Lawyers Project (VLP) Executive Director Jeannie Costello during this annual ceremony in the basement of TD Bank.
“Novices, experienced practitioners, mentors, interns, students – each of you has wisely and well chosen to honor your profession and our common humanity with your work with the VLP this year.”
The “bright lights,” as Costello continued to call them, ranged from Ahmad Keshavarz, a consumer protection attorney who dedicates his spare time to volunteering with CLARO (Civil Legal Assistance and Resources Office), to Fred, a recently admitted attorney of Haitian descent who, while looking for a job, has dedicated much of his time to the VLP’s Haitian Immigration Legal Assistance Project.
There was Serge Petroff, a solo practitioner in Midwood, and Sarah K. Moore, an attorney who practices in Bensonhurst, both of whom are among the VLP’s most active foreclosure volunteers.
Over 400 volunteer lawyers have worked with the VLP and Costello this year. From January 2009 to March 2010, 5,371 Brooklynites received critical legal representation, and another 6,919 Brooklynites received advice and counsel through pro se clinics. All told, pro bono attorneys with the VLP contributed about 6,114 hours of service.
The volunteer lawyers swapped their stories during this event at TD Bank’s Brooklyn Heights branch, taking a break from negotiating foreclosures to hear about how some of their colleagues’ higher-profile cases were going. They also took a moment to acknowledge two awardees that are supporting the VLP: volunteer attorney John Buhta, who received the Christopher Slattery Young Professional Award, and Brooklyn Law School Public Service Office Director Elizabeth Kane, who received the Terri and Nick Letica Award.
VLP Board President James P. Slattery and wife Linda presented the award, which is given each year in honor of their son Christopher. Christopher Slattery was at the World Trade Center and died on Sept. 11, 2001, just at the beginning of a gifted officially authorized career.
Soon thereafter, the VLP Board voted to honor his memory with an annual award for “a young attorney, just starting out in the profession, who exemplifies the best ideals of pro bono publico,” Slattery said.
Buhta, 29, is an enthusiastic volunteer attorney. Initially from Minnesota, he lived in Chicago for seven years – running a business delivering sandwiches by bicycle – before meeting his fiancé, an aspiring fashion designer who wanted to move to New York.
“Moving out here with her was the best thing that ever happened to me,” Buhta said. He enrolled in Brooklyn Law School and, while a student, became extremely committed to the VLP. Since graduating magna cum laude, he’s been hired as assistant corporation counsel in the Litigation Department of the New York City Law Department.
But Buhta still has his heart focused on Remsen Street, where the VLP is based in the Brooklyn Bar headquarters. He’s a frequent CLARO volunteer, not to mention co-chair of the Brooklyn Bar Association’s Pro Bono Committee.
“Nobody’s a lawyer in my family,” Buhta said. “The VLP really trained me.”
The other honoree, Elizabeth Kane, is the person who really directs many Brooklyn Law School students to the VLP in the first place.
“At the VLP, our immediate goals are obvious. Because we have a pressing need to meet, we are always trying to expand our service,” Terri Letica said, before presenting the Terri and Nick Letica Award to Kane. “If you create an environment where pro bono is encouraged, nurtured and celebrated, it will ultimately become the norm.”
Kane not only sends Brooklyn Law students to CLARO projects across the city, she’s a founding member of the CLARO project in Kings County and serves on the NYC CLARO Council.
Letica pointed out that VLP Pro Bono Coordinator Jessica Spiegel had once observed, “It seems that Betsy [Kane] always sends us her best and brightest students.”
“I work with the cream of the crop at Brooklyn Law School,” Kane said, commending law students who follow pro bono for their “initiative, commitment and ingenuity.”
Kane has served at Brooklyn Law School for nine years. Seeking a second career, she enrolled in the first-ever CUNY Law School (class of ’86) to find a legal career in public service.
“Service is exhilarating,” Kane said. “The chance to have an impact on the superiority of somebody else’s life and playing a part in the education of future public service attorneys – what could be more exhilarating than that?”
“As I look out at you tonight, I see brilliant light and many shining stars,” said Brooklyn Volunteer Lawyers Project (VLP) Executive Director Jeannie Costello during this annual ceremony in the basement of TD Bank.
“Novices, experienced practitioners, mentors, interns, students – each of you has wisely and well chosen to honor your profession and our common humanity with your work with the VLP this year.”
The “bright lights,” as Costello continued to call them, ranged from Ahmad Keshavarz, a consumer protection attorney who dedicates his spare time to volunteering with CLARO (Civil Legal Assistance and Resources Office), to Fred, a recently admitted attorney of Haitian descent who, while looking for a job, has dedicated much of his time to the VLP’s Haitian Immigration Legal Assistance Project.
There was Serge Petroff, a solo practitioner in Midwood, and Sarah K. Moore, an attorney who practices in Bensonhurst, both of whom are among the VLP’s most active foreclosure volunteers.
Over 400 volunteer lawyers have worked with the VLP and Costello this year. From January 2009 to March 2010, 5,371 Brooklynites received critical legal representation, and another 6,919 Brooklynites received advice and counsel through pro se clinics. All told, pro bono attorneys with the VLP contributed about 6,114 hours of service.
The volunteer lawyers swapped their stories during this event at TD Bank’s Brooklyn Heights branch, taking a break from negotiating foreclosures to hear about how some of their colleagues’ higher-profile cases were going. They also took a moment to acknowledge two awardees that are supporting the VLP: volunteer attorney John Buhta, who received the Christopher Slattery Young Professional Award, and Brooklyn Law School Public Service Office Director Elizabeth Kane, who received the Terri and Nick Letica Award.
VLP Board President James P. Slattery and wife Linda presented the award, which is given each year in honor of their son Christopher. Christopher Slattery was at the World Trade Center and died on Sept. 11, 2001, just at the beginning of a gifted officially authorized career.
Soon thereafter, the VLP Board voted to honor his memory with an annual award for “a young attorney, just starting out in the profession, who exemplifies the best ideals of pro bono publico,” Slattery said.
Buhta, 29, is an enthusiastic volunteer attorney. Initially from Minnesota, he lived in Chicago for seven years – running a business delivering sandwiches by bicycle – before meeting his fiancé, an aspiring fashion designer who wanted to move to New York.
“Moving out here with her was the best thing that ever happened to me,” Buhta said. He enrolled in Brooklyn Law School and, while a student, became extremely committed to the VLP. Since graduating magna cum laude, he’s been hired as assistant corporation counsel in the Litigation Department of the New York City Law Department.
But Buhta still has his heart focused on Remsen Street, where the VLP is based in the Brooklyn Bar headquarters. He’s a frequent CLARO volunteer, not to mention co-chair of the Brooklyn Bar Association’s Pro Bono Committee.
“Nobody’s a lawyer in my family,” Buhta said. “The VLP really trained me.”
The other honoree, Elizabeth Kane, is the person who really directs many Brooklyn Law School students to the VLP in the first place.
“At the VLP, our immediate goals are obvious. Because we have a pressing need to meet, we are always trying to expand our service,” Terri Letica said, before presenting the Terri and Nick Letica Award to Kane. “If you create an environment where pro bono is encouraged, nurtured and celebrated, it will ultimately become the norm.”
Kane not only sends Brooklyn Law students to CLARO projects across the city, she’s a founding member of the CLARO project in Kings County and serves on the NYC CLARO Council.
Letica pointed out that VLP Pro Bono Coordinator Jessica Spiegel had once observed, “It seems that Betsy [Kane] always sends us her best and brightest students.”
“I work with the cream of the crop at Brooklyn Law School,” Kane said, commending law students who follow pro bono for their “initiative, commitment and ingenuity.”
Kane has served at Brooklyn Law School for nine years. Seeking a second career, she enrolled in the first-ever CUNY Law School (class of ’86) to find a legal career in public service.
“Service is exhilarating,” Kane said. “The chance to have an impact on the superiority of somebody else’s life and playing a part in the education of future public service attorneys – what could be more exhilarating than that?”
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