Engaging Communities. Eliminating Barriers. Securing Justice.
2019
JAZZ FOR JUSTICE Celebrating NLSP’s Community Partners
SEPTEMBER 17, 2019
JAZZ FOR JUSTICE 2019 Welcome to Jazz for Justice 2019 Neighborhood Legal Services Program’s opportunity to celebrate our partners! Each year at this time, we gather to recognize the contributions of our community partners and celebrate our successes. For 55 years, NLSP has fought tirelessly for those who are suffering in the grip of poverty. Our work: • • • • •
preserves safe and affordable shelter, stabilizes family relationships, protects victims of domestic violence, secures access to healthcare and public benefits, and reduces barriers to employment for our clients.
As a pioneer of the neighborhood-based legal services model, we are an integral part of the communities we serve. Our three neighborhood law offices are a part of DC’s most marginalized neighborhoods, including two east of the Anacostia River. This year NLSP has grown dramatically. In addition, to broadening our presence in SE by moving a neighborhood law office from Pennsylvania Avenue to a larger space on Minnesota Avenue, we launched our new Economic Security Unit. The focus on economic security issues has provided clients in poverty with a measure of relief in a variety of areas including barriers to employment, veteran’s issues, public benefits and consumer debt. Through the award of several DC Bar Foundation grants (and with the support of the City Council), our housing practice more than doubled in size – taking on extended representation in eviction prevention cases, assisting low-equity cooperatives to ensure good financial and management health, stabilizing housing in partnership with our colleagues at Rising for Justice by pursuing bad actor landlords, combatting source of income discrimination, and assisting tenants to enforce their Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) rights. Our family law unit, continues to provide critical legal services which assist in the prevention of the placement of children in foster care through our Family Preservation Project and it represents clients in child custody, child support, and divorce cases. We do not do this work alone. Our partnerships are essential. Whether the partners are funding organizations or legal services colleagues or law firms, this support is the platform on which we stand. It allows us to reach the District’s most underserved population and provide a myriad of legal services to address the problems that our clients face every day. Thank you for your support. We look forward to continued conversations and engagement throughout the next year.
Karen A. Newton Cole NLSP Executive Director
Celebrating NLSP’s Community Partners SEPTEMBER 17, 2019
A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO
OUR SPONSORS Listed as of September 12, 2019
DUKE ELLINGTON
ELLA FITZGERALD Blake Biles and Laura Sessums
NINA SIMONE Gregory J. Cole and Karen A. Newton Cole Allison Binney
JOHN COLTRANE Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC Mark Teitelbaum
UDC David A. Clarke School of Law
Iris Green
Wilson and Amy Mudge
Reno & Cavanaugh PLLC
IN-KIND SPONSORS MacArthur Beverages
Sewell B. Johnson, Photographer
NLADA
JAZZ FOR JUSTICE 2019 WELCOME Keynote Speaker
Robert C. White, Jr.
DC Councilmember At-Large
2019 COMMUNITY PARTNERS AWARDS Justice in the Community Award
For achieving lasting, tangible improvements to the lives of low-income DC residents Presented to: Latino Economic Development Center
Enduring Impact Award
For providing deep, consistent support to NLSP and low-income DC residents Presented to: The Morrison & Foerster Foundation
Distinguished Alumni Award
For role modeling the pursuit of justice and unwavering service to those most in need Presented to: Paula D. Scott, Esquire
Jazz Performance by The Freddie Dunn Quintet featuring Ayanna Gregory
Celebrating NLSP’s Community Partners SEPTEMBER 17, 2019
NLSP BOARD OF DIRECTORS Allison Binney, Co-Chairperson
Vanessa Hayes
Partner, Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld
Volunteer
Anne M. Ford, Co-Chairperson
Eric Humes
Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN)
Social Entrepreneur
Sara B. Rearden
Dr. Jimmie C. Jackson
Vice Chair Attorney
Retired Educator
Amy L. Neuhardt, Treasurer
Gloria Jurado
Partner, Boies Schiller Flexner, LLP
Community Volunteer
Johnny Howard, Secretary
Kevin Malone
Attorney, Houston & Howard
Volunteer
Dwight Ausbrooks
David S. Molot
Volunteer
Partner, WilmerHale
Trina Fairley Barlow
Wilson D. Mudge
Partner, Crowell & Moring LLP
Partner, Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP
Lyzka DeLaCruz
Amy L. Neuhardt
Managing Member, Bakker DeLaCruz, LLC
Partner, Boies Schiller Flexner, LLP
Shankar Duraiswamy
Paula D. Scott
Partner, Covington & Burling LLP
Attorney
Iris McCollum Green Attorney, Green & Foushee
Arnold & Porter is proud to support
Neighborhood Legal Services Program
and joins in celebrating its mission of ensuring that DC residents in need have access to justice.
Brussels | Chicago | Denver | Frankfurt | Houston | London | Los Angeles | Newark New York | San Francisco | Seoul | Shanghai | Silicon Valley | Washington, DC Š Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP 2019 All Rights Reserved
Every community deserves the best chance for success.
WilmerHale is proud to support Neighborhood Legal Services Program in helping underserved Washington DC residents make their voices heard in the courts.
wilmerhale.com Š 2019 Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr llp
Covington is proud to support
Neighborhood Legal Services Program We applaud NLSP’s commitment to reducing poverty in the District and securing equal access to justice for all members of our community.
Š 2019 Covington & Burling LLP. All rights reserved.
We are proud to support Jazz for Justice 2019 and join Neighborhood Legal Services Program in celebrating its Community Partners.
BOIES SCHILLER FLEXNER LLP 1401 New York Ave NW Washington, DC 20005 202 237 2727 www.bsfllp.com
NLSP would like the thank those who helped make tonight’s event a success. Reagan Smith, DHM Media Group Marketing Event Planners Main Event Caterers Stacie Gray, DC Bar Sewell B. Johnson, Photographer
We are proud to support the Neighborhood Legal Services Program and the dedicated work that it provides to our low-income residents. crowell.com
Thank you to the staff of NLSP for all their work to make tonight a special night and for all they do every day to help those in DC who seek access to justice and a voice in the legal process.
About NLSP: Neighborhood Legal Services Program’s (NLSP) mission is to provide vigorous and high-quality, client-centered civil legal services to low-income residents of the District of Columbia. Established in 1964, NLSP pioneered the concept of law offices rooted in the neighborhoods it serves. Today NLSP remains committed to DC’s low-income communities, with three offices in the most underserved areas of DC, Wards 5, 7, and 8. In partnership with its clients and community stakeholders, NLSP helps DC residents eliminate barriers to overcoming poverty and securing legal justice. Using all available legal and advocacy tools, NLSP enables underserved residents to make their voices heard in the courts and other forums where their rights and protections are at stake, to secure fair and lasting solutions to their problems, and to attain their individual, family, and community goals.
For more information, please visit www.nlsp.org.
Engaging Communities. Eliminating Barriers. Securing Justice.
www.nlsp.org Neighborhood Legal Services Program | 64 New York Avenue NE, Suite 180, Washington, DC 20002