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STAFF

Law Center Attorneys
Click on names for complete bios

Jennifer R. Clarke, Executive Director
Michael Churchill, Of Counsel
Adam H. Cutler, Director, Public Health and Environmental Justice Clinic
James Eiseman, Jr., Senior Attorney
Sonja D. Kerr, Director, Disabilities Rights Project


Other Staff Members

Latrice Brooks, Secretary

Kathy Miller, Comptroller

Lauren R. Mirowitz, Development Director

Ella Wright, Secretary

 

 

JennyMs. Clarke is a graduate of Columbia University School of Law, where she was an editor of the Columbia Law Review and a Stone Scholar. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Dartmouth College. Ms. Clarke joined the Law Center in February 2006. From 1991 until January 2006, Ms. Clarke was a partner at Dechert LLP. She was an associate at Dechert Price & Rhoads (1987-1991) and White & Case (1983-1987). Ms. Clarke has spent her legal career defending and prosecuting complex civil cases, with a concentration in antitrust class actions. She was counsel for a plaintiff class of Michigan children to redress the failure by state officials to provide health care as required by the Social Security Act. She also was counsel for the City of Philadelphia in a successful suit challenging the constitutionality of a state statute that altered the balance of power between the city and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. She represented then Philadelphia City Council President John Street in a suit against the Southeast Pennsylvania Transit Authority and the Transit Workers Union, seeking to compel the two to settle a long-running and harmful transit strike. Ms. Clarke is listed in Best Lawyers in America. 2005, 2006; Chambers USA 2005 and as a Philadelphia Magazine Superlawyer, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. She was a founder and officer of The Caring Center, a not-for-profit child care center serving 200 children in West Philadelphia and currently serves on the board of the Pennsylvania Innocence Project.

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MichaelA graduate of Harvard College and cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, Mr. Churchill joined the Law Center in 1976. Prior to that, he clerked for Chief Judge J. Edward Lumbard in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, then was an associate and then partner at Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll. Mr. Churchill also served as Acting General Counsel of the Philadelphia School District in 1984. Among the many landmark cases litigated by Mr. Churchill are the Philadelphia School District desegregation case, PHRC v. School District of Philadelphia; Dickerson v. U.S. Steel, a race discrimination case under Title VII; Freeman v. City of Philadelphia, a police hiring class action; and McLaughlin v. Pernsley, which established the right to trans-racial adoption in Pennsylvania. Mr. Churchill is a 1994 recipient of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law's Edwin D. Wolf Award. In 1995, Mr. Churchill was recognized with the Philadelphia Bar Association's Obermeyer Award for service to education and in 2000 he received the Guardian Civic League's Special Recognition Award.  In 2008 he received the Andrew Hamilton Lifetime Award from the Philadelphia Bar Association Public Interest Section.

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Adam H. Cutler, Director, Public Health and Environmental Justice Clinic

AdamMr. Cutler received his undergraduate degree in Economics, cum laude, from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he served as an Executive Editor on the University of Pennsylvania Law Review.  From 1995 to 2008, he was engaged in private law practice, first as a commercial litigator at Dechert LLP and Wolf Block LLP, and then as an environmental lawyer at Manko, Gold, Katcher and Fox, LLP.  At the Law Center, Mr. Cutler manages the environmental practice area and directs the Public Health and Environmental Law Clinic.  The Clinic, formed in partnership with the Drexel University Earle Mack School of Law (and with the anticipated future participation of Drexel University’s Schools of Engineering and Public Health), is presently staffed by third-year Drexel University law students.  The mission of the Law Center’s environmental practice and the Clinic is to provide legal and technical assistance to affected local communities to enforce their environmental rights and, through impact litigation and other methods of advocacy, to empower local activists to improve the public and economic health of their communities. 

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JimAfter practicing law for more than thirty-five years at Drinker Biddle & Reath, Mr. Eiseman retired in 2003 and joined the staff of the Law Center where he currently handles litigation to improve the delivery of health care services to children and to develop quality community services for the disabled. Mr. Eiseman graduated from Harvard College with honors. He obtained his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review. Mr. Eiseman was a partner at Drinker for more than twenty-five years and Of Counsel for four years. While there, Mr. Eiseman handled a wide variety of litigation, including anti-trust, contract and civil rights cases for motion picture and theatre operators, contract and environmental cases for manufacturers and defamation, tenure and employment termination cases for hospitals and universities. Since the mid-1980s, Mr. Eiseman's principal civic involvement has been as a board member of the Visiting Nurse Association of Greater Philadelphia and its affiliate, the Visiting Nurse Society of Philadelphia, of which he is currently Chairman.

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Sonja D. Kerr, Director, Disabilities Rights Project

SonjaMs. Kerr brings more than 20 years of national disabilities rights litigation expertise to the Law Center's disabilities and systems reform practice. She was the first chair of the national organization Counsel for Parent Advocates and Attorneys (COPAA), and has litigated special education cases in several different states, including Minnesota, Indiana and Alaska, gaining a national reputation with groundbreaking litigation on behalf of children with disabilities.   Her accomplishments include litigating the first special education cases on an Indian reservation in Minnesota and in what is known as “The Bush” in Alaska - communities which are off the road system and may only be accessed by plane or dogsled.  Before joining the Law Center she started the first private practice firms in both Alaska and Minnesota to exclusively serve individuals with disabilities, and litigated many of the first special education cases in both regions and throughout the Midwest. Ms. Kerr is a Summa Cum Laude graduate of Northwest Nazarene College in Idaho, and she received a Masters in Counseling Psychology from Purdue University and J.D. from Indiana University School of Law. Prior to law school she was a social worker for United Cerebral Palsy of Indiana, and other disability organizations in the Midwest.  Ms. Kerr is admitted to practice in Minnesota (non-active by choice), Indiana, Alaska and most recently, Pennsylvania. She is also admitted to the 9th, 8th, and 7th circuit courts of appeals and the United States Supreme Court as well as various federal district courts in those circuits.

Read more about Ms. Kerr in the press release announcing her arrival.

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Kathy Miller, Comptroller/Business Manager

 

KathyMs. Miller is a graduate of Temple University and holds a B.B.A. degree in Accounting.  Ms. Miller joined the Law Center in April, 2004, bringing with her an extensive financial background specializing in accounting and controllership duties for non-profit social service agencies and small businesses.   Ms. Miller performs the day to day accounting and financial reporting for the Law Center as well as human resource and office management responsibilities.

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Lauren R. Mirowitz, Development Director

LaurenMs. Mirowitz is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and holds a certificate in Non-Profit Administration from the Fels Institute of Government. She joined the Law Center in June 2007 after 2 years with PENN Medicine’s Office of Development and Alumni Relations.  At the Law Center Ms. Mirowitz’s responsibilities include coordinating the annual fundraising campaign, as well as special projects such as events, email and web communications, and publications.

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link to children's health care

link to education funding and quality

link to disabilities rights

link to evironmental heath and justice

link to fair housing

link to employment discrimination

link to urban policing