Bread for the City Contact: Jessica Raven, Communications Phone: 202-386-7609 Email: jraven@breadforthecity.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Bread for the City’s legal clinic director appointed Administrative Law Judge, honored with mayoral proclamation Vytas V. Vergeer is honored today with a mayoral proclamation celebrating his twenty years of providing free legal services to the District’s low-income residents in his role as the Legal Clinic Director of Bread for the City. Mayor Vincent Gray will present Vergeer with the proclamation at the Wilson Building today at 11:30am. Vergeer’s impact at Bread for the City over the last two decades has been tremendous. Under his leadership, Bread for the City’s legal clinic has grown from 3 attorneys in 1999 to 15 attorneys in 2014 -- serving more than 13,000 of DC’s low-income residents over the last 15 years. Most notably, Vergeer has played a key role in positioning Bread for the City as a leader in the fight for affordable housing in DC, and he has been an important advocate for tenants’ rights. “We’re always on our client’s side,” he says, “We may not always be able to fix it, but we’re always on their side.” He was also instrumental in launching the Attorney for a Day project in which staff attorneys from Bread for the City and the Legal Aid Society take on pro bono cases on the spot -providing full representation to people in need of legal aid, right from the courthouse. Vergeer has recently accepted an appointment as Administrative Law Judge, a role in which he will hear a wide variety of administrative law cases, ranging from rent level issues to unemployment compensation cases. “My hope is that I can bring some of the humanity from Bread for the City into the judicial system,” he says. On behalf of Bread for the City, Chief Executive Officer George A. Jones congratulates Vergeer on his exciting new journey. He says, “For 20 years, Vytas has been a relentless force in Bread for the City’s quest to secure justice for those who turn to us for help each day. Bread for the City’s loss is Washington DC’s gain.” Bread for the City is a leading local poverty relief agency that provides comprehensive services to people facing hardship in our city.