We recognize that education is one of the paths by which we can make the greatest contribution to the future. By tutoring, mentoring, providing pro bono legal services and founding a groundbreaking inner-city school, our lawyers have shared their skills and talents in the educational environments where they are most needed.
Representative Engagements
Providing Experiential Education
Sonnenschein attorneys Kevin Lane and Linda Chaplik Harris recently created a foundation to support the programs of Experiencia, Inc., a Chicago nonprofit that offers a creative cross-disciplinary educational curriculum for public school students in Chicago, Houston, Memphis and other cities. The foundation raises money from lawyers, law firms and other sources to help schools fund the special eight-week curriculum and to support Experiencia's "Exchange City" sites, where the curriculum culminates with students running their own mock city.
Lawsuit Expands Access to Education
Pro bono legal work often brings an exceptional opportunity to assist individuals and organizations in need of legal counsel. Occasionally, it also means a chance to forge a whole new direction in public policy or institutional practice with the potential to affect hundreds, even thousands, of people. Sonnenschein lawyers who participated in a recent case involving the California State University (CSU) did precisely that, playing a pivotal role in compelling school officials to abandon the practice of denying in-state tuition breaks and financial aid to students who are U.S. citizens or legal residents, based on the immigration status of their parents. In representing a student at the school whose parents are undocumented U.S. residents, Sonnenschein attorneys helped bring about a change in policy at CSU that will help thousands of students in similar circumstances to afford an education.
In November 2006, Sonnenschein, as co-counsel with three public interest law firms—the Western Center on Law & Poverty, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), and the National Immigration Law Center—filed a petition for writ of mandamus against the school's board of trustees.
School officials had interpreted a complex set of provisions in the state's Education Code to mean that a minor student's residence was that of her parents, and undocumented parents cannot have a legal California or U.S. residence. Petitioners contended that the statutes were intended to deny residence benefits to undocumented students, but not to students who are U.S. citizens. In addition, the lawsuit alleged that the state of California could not, consistent with the equal protection provisions of the California Constitution, discriminate against U.S. citizens because of the immigration status of their parents.
Among the petitioners was a CSU student and U.S. citizen who has lived in Los Angeles County her entire life. Under the terms of the settlement, the board of trustees agreed to pay her the financial aid she should have received and to pay attorneys' fees for prosecuting the action.
Also as part of the settlement, a student legally in this country and living in California will be considered a California resident for purposes of tuition and financial aid, regardless of the immigration status of the student's parents.
Sonnenschein has used the attorney fees that it received by order of the court to make charitable contributions to the Western Center on Law & Poverty and MALDEF. David Stern, who also serves on the board of the Western Center, led the effort, with assistance from Ivor Samson, Mary Kay Lacey and Sekret Sneed.
DC Organization Teaches Youth to Be Smart Consumers
Marci Rose Levine of Washington, D.C., recently joined the board at the fledgling Educated Consumer Project (ECP), an organization for which she has done extensive pro bono work, including helping the organization incorporate as a tax-exempt organization in 2006 with the assistance of Kashmira Makwana. “Marci has been an extremely important member of our team from the beginning,” said ECP founder Jonathan Kivell.
ECP’s mission is to help high-school students grasp the fundamentals of personal finance, including how banks, insurance companies, and other financial institutions make money, how to invest, save and anticipate the costs of home ownership and how to avoid the pitfalls of credit card debt. ECP ran its pilot course last fall for 15 students at Washington’s McKinley Technology
High School and will run the course at the school again during the spring semester.
“It’s a great concept, and now that they have tax-exempt status, they can go out to various funding
organizations and bring the program to other schools,” said Marci.
Kivell said Marci “took a risk by taking us on. We had no track record, but she recognized the very real need for this kind of education in low-income and moderate-income communities. Marci provides incredible insight to the risks that nonprofit organizations face. I am delighted to have her as part of the ECP family.”
Sonnenschein Helping 826 Valencia Expand Students' Writing Skills
Through the support and advice of numerous volunteers and organizations, 826 Valencia has expanded its writing services for students ages 8-18 by adding new chapters over the past two years in Chicago, Los Angeles, Michigan, New York and Seattle.
826 Valencia provides free drop-in services to help students develop their writing skills in the realm of fiction, nonfiction or English as a second language. Through one-on-one tutoring, in-depth workshops and storytelling, the organization also helps students explore their love of writing and create their own story collections, zines and other publications.
Numerous Sonnenschein attorneys have been actively involved with 826 Valencia since its founding in San Francisco in 2002. As chair of the organization's national advisory committee and legal counsel to 826 Valencia (also now known as “826 National”), partner Reece Hirsch currently is working with other members to provide counsel to the national organization and to discuss and implement best practices and literacy goals in the various chapters.
“826 Valencia is a remarkable success story,” says Reece. “Since Sonnenschein began working with the organization in 2001, they've grown from a small storefront operation in San Francisco's Mission District to a truly national organization. It's gratifying to see the way 826 Valencia and its chapters are inspiring students and providing creative programs that many public schools don't have the resources to offer."
Other Sonnenschein attorneys involved in this project, including Sandy McCandless, Meleana Leaverton, Stephanie Zeppa, Virginia Young and Arnold Schuster, have provided advice on corporate, intellectual property, labor and employment, real estate and tax-exemption issues. Jennifer Bunshoft, a former Sonnenschein attorney and 826 Valencia’s first pro bono liaison, completed a tremendous amount of work for the organization. Bunshoft initiated Sonnenschein’s involvement with 826 Valencia through her contact with Nínive Calegari, the program’s founding executive director and a former classmate at Middlebury College in Vermont.
“Sonnenschein’s brains have been our backbone,” notes Calegari. “826 could not have succeeded in the community without Sonnenschein’s help on all of our behind-the-scenes strategizing and planning. We are so thrilled that this invaluable support is extending to our new cities as
our program grows.”
While 826 Valencia hopes to expand to even more cities in 2007, the organization does not limit its contributions to its local chapters. In response to the hurricane devastation in the Gulf Coast states last fall, 826 Valencia raised money to send a cadre of staff members and volunteers to Houston to offer displaced children a meaningful distraction and a safe environment to write and share. Stations were established in the Astrodome and in churches where young people were able to learn how to craft their own books and journals, draw cartoons and write poems. The group also took hundreds of coloring books and crayons to offer as a positive diversion.
In recognition of its tremendous contributions, 826 Valencia recently was recognized in the San Francisco Bay Area with the distinguished “New & Emerging Cultural Organization” award by the Business Arts Council. With the assistance of Sonnenschein attorneys and many other volunteers, 826 Valencia is primed to receive many more awards as it expands its services and helps even more students across the U.S. develop a wide range of invaluable writing skills.
