The Law Center was founded in the late 1960s as one of eight local affiliates of
the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and incorporated in 1974 by
five leaders of the Philadelphia bar. The members of Philadelphia's Legal
community were generous supporters of this fledgling civil rights organization,
sustaining its work to combat police abuse, racial and gender discrimination in
Philadelphia's police force and housing discrimination.
The Law Center gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Philadelphia
law firms continuing this tradition today. The following 46 firms made a donation
to the Law Center in 2009:
| $20,000+ Barroway Topaz Kessler Meltzer & Check Dechert LLP $10,000 - $19,999 Berger & Montague, P.C. Cozen & O'Connor Drinker Biddle & Reath, LLP Kohn Swift & Graf, P.C. Pepper Hamilton LLP $5,000 - $9,999 Bolognese and Associates, LLP Chimicles & Tikellis, LLP Fox Rothschild LLP Hangley Aronchick Segal & Pudlin Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP White & Williams LLP $2,500 - $4,999 Bazelon, Less & Feldman, P.C. Dilworth Paxson LLP DLA Piper US LLP Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, LLC Fine, Kaplan & Black Greenberg Traurig, LLP Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young, LLP Swartz Campbell LLC |
$1,000 - $2,499 Boni & Zack LLC Brodsky & Smith, LLC Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC Conrad O'Brien Fineman Krekstein & Harris, P.C. Freemann Law Offices Gibbons, P.C. Levin, Fishbein, Sedran & Berman Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin McEldrew & Fullam, P.C. Raynes McCarty Reed Smith LLP Tucker Law Group, LLC The Weiser Law Firm $500 - $999 Gay Chacker & Mittin, P.C. Peter Hearn, Esquire Littler Mendelson, P.C. McCausland & McCausland LLC Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart PC Prickett, Jones & Elliott P.A. Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz Up to $499 Law Office of Paul Boni, P.C. Console Law Offices LLC Manko Gold Katcher & Fox LLP George P. Wood & Associates, P.C. |
The Law Center is grateful for the generous support of the local and national foundations that make an investment in our important work. The Law Center is honored to receive support from the following foundations:
The Berkman Family Foundation awarded a grant of $10,000 to the Law Center to fund the organization's ongoing representation of the plaintiffs of the Medicaid enforcement case Westside Mothers v. Olsezewski. In this case, settled in August 2007, the Law Center represented a class of nearly 1 million Michigan children eligible for medical assistance and succeeded in gaining access to previously unavailable data about the children's access to primary and specialty care. Read more about the case.
The Dolfinger McMahon Foundation awarded the Law Center a generous grant for our work to address the needs of students in the Philadelphia School District classified with an Emotional Disturbance disability. The unique needs of this subgroup in the District's disabled population often go unaddressed and can result in the student being punished or even criminalized for disability-related behavior. The Law Center will lay the foundation for a support network to help families coping with this disability become empowered self-advocates.
The First United Methodist Church of Germantown selected the Law Center to receive a Community Needs Grant in support of our work to address the racial achievement gap in the Philadelphia School District. The congregation's donations make this grant possible each year for several local organizations that work to advance the goals of social and economic justice.
The Hassel Foundation has awarded the Law Center a generous grant for general operating support. The Foundation's interest is in issues affecting children in the Philadelphia area, and the Law Center intends to use this grant to support its work in conjunction with the School District of Philadelphia to enforce the terms of the Gaskin Settlement that protects the rights of students with disabilities. Read more about the Gaskin Settlement here.
The Impact Fund, of Berkeley, CA, awarded the Law Center a $15,000 grant in support of our lawsuit, Blunt v. Lower Merion School District. The Impact Fund supports high-impact public interest litigation that will improve the lives of many with systemic change, in line with our own mission here at the Law Center. We are honored to have received this grant that will allow us to prepare a strong case in what promises to be a controversial lawsuit. Read more about the lawsuit.
The Independence Foundation has once again offered the Law Center and its individual supporters a challenge to raise $10,000 in new or increased gifts that will be matched dollar for dollar by the Foundation. Last year we successfully reached this goal and hope to do so again with your support! The Law Center plans to use the matching funds to improve our office technology infrastructure to more efficiently serve our clients, while using our supporters' gifts to directly fund programming expenses.
The Inglis Foundation has awarded the Law Center's Disability Rights Project an Inglis Award for Continuing Excellence for 2009. The award honors our work to enhance the quality of life and increase opportunities for independence for people with disabilities, and by doing so support the mission of the Foundation.
The Philadelphia Bar Foundation has awarded the Law Center a $13,000 grant for 2009-2010 to support the Law Center's operations and infrastructure. We are extremely grateful for the foundation's loyal support.
The Philadelphia Foundation awarded the Law Center a $30,000 grant to allow the organization to engage in a strategic planning process. We are grateful to the Philadelphia Foundation and to the generous individuals who made this grant possible by establishing endowments through the Foundation. The endowments that funded the Law Center's grant are the Lillian Gest Memorial Fund, the Bertha C. Mayr Fund, the Mildred Gregg Loescher Fund, the Joshua D. and Elizabeth P. Twining Memorial Fund, the William J. McCahan 3rd Fund in memory of Thomas C. McCahan and Florence M. Mccahan and the Elizabeth F. Kyd Fund.
The United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania awarded the Law Center a
Community
Partners
grant in 2008,
which is expected to be renewed for two additional years. The
Law Center was one of 137 agencies selected to receive funding in a competitive
process which drew 2,100 proposals from 546 agencies. The United Way placed no
restrictions on the use of the funds, but provided them because of the Law
Center's success in developing and enlisting public support for public policy
changes and increased public resources that advance the United Way's community
level goal of assuring that children succeed in school and graduate from high
school. This is the first time the Law Center has received a grant from the
United Way.
CY PRES AWARDS
A "cy pres" award is the remainder in a monetary settlement after all plaintiffs
in a class action lawsuit receive their awards. Cy pres awards are traditionally
given to nonprofit organizations whose mission relates to the purpose of the
lawsuit.
On January 30, 2008 The Law Center received a "cy pres" award from the Law Firm
Chimicles & Tikellis LLP, the funds for which came from various cases in which
the firm had been involved. We thank our board member Nicholas Chimicles who
recommended the Law Center for this award.
On November 7, 2007, the Law Center was granted a "cy pres" award from the law
firm Barrack Rodos & Bacine. We are grateful to our former board member Jeffrey
Golan, co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs in the suit, for designating the Law
Center for this award.
