Awards, Accolades and Recent Successes

Firm Client Toyota North America Selected Chambers’ 2021 Diversity & Inclusion Award Winner

Holland & Knight client Toyota North America has been honored as the Outstanding Company for Furthering Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) at the Chambers Diversity & Inclusion Awards: North America 2021. The firm nominated Toyota North America for the award earlier this year.

This is a significant example of how Holland & Knight is able to deepen client relationships based on shared D&I values.

Toyota North America was recognized because it doesn’t just expect excellence in D&I from its law firms but also works to ensure its own commitment to diversity is evident throughout the organization. The company values diverse teams and requires its outside legal counsel to demonstrate actionable steps toward advancing D&I, asking for detailed reports on how firms staff every matter (including the diversity makeup of the team and its leadership, as well as how business credits are awarded).

Partners Mark Goldschmidt (DEN), Kwamina Williford (WAS), Judy Mercier (ORL) and Tiffani Lee (MIA), along with Business Analytics and Diversity Manager Hamlet Bonilla (OPC) assisted in the Chambers nomination submission. Toyota Financial Services is serviced by a committed team of Holland & Knight lawyers, including Partners Da’Morus Cohen (MIA), Carter Burgess (JAX), Ashley Shively (SFO) and Mark Francis (NYC), Associates Justin Dixon (JAX) and Courtney Oakes (FTL), Staff Attorneys Karin Oko, Wes Ridout and Gina Bulecza (all JAX), as well as Paralegals Jennifer Vonderheide (JAX) and Dacia Owen (DEN).

Toyota was shortlisted for the award along with other wellrespected companies in the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) space, such as Bank of America, General Motors and McDonald’s. Toyota was announced as the winner on June 17.

Holland & Knight and three of its attorneys also were shortlisted for the awards, which honor the legal profession’s true diversity and inclusion pioneers. The firm was a finalist in the Outstanding Firm for D&I category. In addition, three attorneys were finalists for individual honors: Partner Marilyn Holifield (MIA) for Outstanding Contribution, Associate Lisa Kpor (CHI) as Future Leader and Partner Mark Melton (DFW) as Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year.

Marilyn Holifield Lisa Kpor Mark Melton

AWARDS AND ACCOLADES

• Holland & Knight was named on June 28 as one of the 50 best law firms for women by Seramount (formerly

Working Mother Media), recognizing the firm for using best practices in recruiting, retaining, promoting and developing women lawyers. Seramount’s 2021 Best

Law Firms for Women, published by Working Mother, highlights law firms that averaged 25 percent women among equity partners, compared with 23 percent last year, and where women represented 40 percent of all lawyers overall (up from 39 percent in 2020). Of all female equity partners, 16 percent were multicultural, and multicultural women represented 27 percent of overall women lawyers (up from 26 percent). “During the past year, we’ve seen just how critical flexible work hours and caregiver support are during difficult times,” said Holland & Knight Partner and Women’s Initiative

Chair Judy Nemsick (NYC). “We are grateful to our women attorneys for their incredible contributions in the face of significant disruption and to Seramount for setting industry-leading standards that help us all achieve success.”

• Holland & Knight received its seventh consecutive perfect rating of 100 percent on the Human Rights

Campaign’s 2021 Corporate Equality Index (CEI), the nation’s foremost benchmarking survey and report measuring corporate policies and practices related to LGBTQ workplace equality. The report released in February is administered by the Human Rights

Campaign Foundation.

• Law360’s 2021 Diversity Snapshot ranked Holland &

Knight 29th overall among the nation’s largest law firms (with more than 600 attorneys), and No. 7 for having the most Minority Equity Partners. • Holland & Knight was honored on Feb. 18 with the

Outstanding Services Award by the American Bar

Association’s (ABA) Military Pro Bono Project for the ninth consecutive year. Holland & Knight is the only law firm or company to receive the award every year since its inception in 2012. In addition, Partners Jonetta

Brooks (DFW), Charles Naftalin, Rafe Petersen (both

WAS) and Josh Roberts (JAX), along with recently retired Senior Partner Buddy Schulz (JAX), were individually recognized with the Outstanding Services

Award for “extraordinary pro bono services” in 2020.

IMPACTFUL RELATIONSHIPS WITH LCLD

Holland & Knight has long made it a priority to be involved with the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD), an organization of more than 350 members who serve as either general counsel of major corporations or managing partners of the nation’s leading law firms. Members are united by a spirit of activism and personal commitment, and the organization’s mission is to produce tangible results in our institutions by working to promote inclusiveness in our organizations, our circles of influence and our society.

Among the highlights of Holland & Knight’s impactful relationship with the LCLD this year:

• The LCLD awarded Partner Kevin Gooch (ATL) with its seventh annual Rick Palmore LCLD Alumni Award at its Alumni Virtual Leadership Symposium on June 17. Named for LCLD’s founder, the Rick Palmore LCLD

Alumni Award recognizes the outstanding achievements, commitment and leadership of alumni who have left a lasting impact on their legal communities and the profession at large. This is the highest honor in the

LCLD alumni community. Kevin Gooch

• Partner Michael Jo (NYC) and Associate

Agnes Doyle (HOU) are representing the firm as members of the LCLD’s 2021 Class of Fellows, participating in a landmark program created to identify, train and advance the next generation of leaders in the legal profession.

Michael Jo

• Associates Heath DeJean (HOU),

Olufunke Leroy (PHL) and Danny Agnes Doyle

Kavanaugh (ORL) are participating in the

LCLD Pathfinder Program, which is for diverse, high-potential, early-career attorneys.

• The firm hosted five first-year law students who were LCLD scholars during its 2021 summer program.

PRO BONO/COMMUNITY SERVICE

• Partner Mark Melton (DFW) was interviewed by CBS

Evening News about his pro bono work representing people facing homelessness as more than 34,000 evictions have been filed in the Dallas-Fort Worth area since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Mark and nearly 200 other attorneys formed Dallas Eviction 2020, which has so far provided pro bono assistance to more than 7,000 people and raised money to pay back rent and other housing costs. In the May 19 report,

“Inside Dallas Eviction Court: Pro Bono Lawyers

Help Tenants Stay in Homes During Pandemic,”

Mark said his own experience with homelessness at age 21 drives him to help others. “When I get these phone calls, all these people and, you know, they’re going through that right now, it takes me back to that place,” he said. “And it’s just, I can’t say no.” Mark also was featured by Law360 Pulse in a Q&A, “Meet the

BigLaw Tax Atty Fighting Evictions in Dallas,” Mark said, “One thing this experience has highlighted for me is that COVID only exacerbated an existing problem.

Evictions are more often a cause of poverty rather than a result of it, and there are lots of tenants out there who are going to continue to need help in this area.” He added that Holland & Knight has been very supportive, noting that he “made the case that, as a firm, we’re always talking about professional responsibility. Now we’re sitting here in front of a massive human crisis we’re uniquely able to help solve, so we should do it.

They agreed.”

• After a 12-year process, a Holland & Knight pro bono client, a Vietnam veteran who served on active duty from November 1967 to October 1969, has prevailed on his claim for increased disability benefits before the

Board of Veterans’ Appeals. Partner Richard Winter (CHI) represented the 74-year-old client during the final stages of the appeal process. The veteran, who lives in Houston, initially filed a claim in January 2008 for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) related to his combat experiences in Vietnam and was awarded a 50 percent disability rating. After years of multiple appeals, remands and rehearings, Mr. Winter helped the client secure an increase in his disability rating to 70 percent, as well as a finding that he was eligible for Total Disability Individual Unemployability (TDIU).

• Two attorneys from Holland & Knight’s

Orlando office represented a U.S. military service member and his wife in a recent dispute against their landlord. The case was referred to Holland & Knight by the

Florida Governor’s Initiative on Lawyers

Assisting Warriors (GI LAW) program.

Associate Danny Kavanaugh, a member of the firm’s

Veterans Group, successfully represented a U.S. Navy

Petty Officer and his wife against an eviction action filed by their landlord for alleged nonpayment of rent.

Partner Chris Kolos assisted on the matter.

Danny Kavanaugh

• Partner Stephen Moss (FTL) and Associate Nick

Hasenfus (BOS), both members of the Legal Services

Corporation (LSC) Veterans Task Force, worked with fellow task force members to develop a report that sets out key recommendations for increasing veterans’ access to civil legal aid. The Report of the Veterans

Task Force lists Holland & Knight’s Veterans Group as a recommendation for other law firms and corporate law firms to emulate under “Signature Pro Bono

Projects.” The firm’s Veterans Group infographic is also referenced and linked.

• A team of attorneys from Holland &

Knight’s Boston office helped a homeless single mother and her two young children obtain access to an emergency shelter and, less than a month later, move into a low-income Diane apartment in February. The pro bono McDermott case was brought to Holland & Knight’s attention through Women’s Lunch Place, a day shelter in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood that provides food and individualized services for women experiencing homelessness or poverty. Partner Diane McDermott has supported and been involved with Women’s Lunch

Place for many years. Accordingly, when Women’s

Lunch Place couldn’t find a solution for the family, the organization reached out to Diane, and many colleagues in the Boston office came together to help,

including Partners Ben Howe, Jennifer Whalen, Ned Hall, Anthony Freedman and former Partner Brett Carroll, along with Associates Nick Hasenfus and Saqib Hossain.

• A team of attorneys from Holland & Knight’s San

Francisco office has settled a complicated pro bono elder abuse, landlord-tenant case for an elderly, disabled minority female homeowner who was at risk of losing her home. Partner Sarah Marsey, along with Associates Jaime Herren and Jacqueline

Harvey (all SFO), represented the client, a civil rights advocate who has dedicated her life to advocating for racial equality and protesting against, among other things, San Francisco’s discriminatory housing practices. In addition, Paralegal Ruthe Canter (SFO) took in the case and worked diligently to find attorneys willing to help the client.

• A Holland & Knight team has handled a variety of legal work for pro bono client Taylor Duncan and the Alternative Baseball

Organization (ABO), which gives teens and adults with autism and other special needs the chance to play baseball. Practice

Assistant Derrick Denny (CLT) saw a feature about

Mr. Duncan, a young man on the autism spectrum, and shared the story with Partner Kevin Christmas (CLT/PHL). The two reached out to Mr. Duncan and offered the firm’s support on a pro bono basis.

In addition, Partners Mark Francis (NYC) and

David Lisko (TPA), Associate Leah Messler (PHL) and others have served as ABO’s outside general counsel since August 2019, handling corporate, data privacy, intellectual property and related matters.

Mr. Duncan originated the idea of the ABO in 2016 based on his experiences as a child, when he always wanted to play sports but was often denied opportunities due to misconceptions about his abilities. Today, he serves as ABO commissioner and has shared his story and passion for baseball through more than 400 local and national media outlets.

• A pro bono team from the West Palm Beach and

Fort Lauderdale offices successfully represented a

U.S. military veteran in a lawsuit against a roofing company after a hurricane caused significant damage to his property. Partner Sandra Heller (WPB) and Associate Alexander Dudley (FTL) led the team and received assistance from Practice Assistants Michelle Arias and Carmen Ramsey (both FTL). After Hurricane Irma hit South Florida in September 2017, the client hired a roofing company to repair the damage to his home. However, after the company completed the work, water began to leak into the client’s home, causing further damage and mold growth, and portions of the home became uninhabitable. Nevertheless, the roofing company ignored the client’s numerous requests to remedy the deficiencies, leaving the property in disrepair.

• A pair of attorneys from Holland &

Knight’s Mid-

Atlantic Land Use

Team recently secured critical zoning approval from the District of Columbia’s

Board of Zoning

Adjustment (BZA) for the development of

Mary’s House

for Older Adults An artist’s rendition of proposed

Inc. Partner communal housing for Mary’s House

Kyrus Freeman for Older Adults Inc. and Associate

Christopher

Cohen (both WAS) led the effort in securing approvals from the community and the D.C. Office of Planning, the

Department of Transportation and ultimately the BZA for the proposed Kyrus Freeman development. The approval enables the construction of a continuing care retirement community for seniors ages 60 years and older who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, queer or same gender-loving (LGBTQ/SGL). The communal living home will be the first Christopher of its kind in the District of Columbia and Cohen will be entirely affordable. Mary’s House for Older Adults Inc. is a nonprofit organization that develops brick and mortar housing targeting the cultural needs of LGBTQ/SGL elders. Its vision is to create a living environment that celebrates and honors the whole person as they age, no matter who they are.