Cleary Gottlieb has been selected by the New York City Bar Association Committee on Capital Punishment to receive the 2008 Thurgood Marshall Award for Capital Representation in recognition of the firm's counsel to a former Tennessee death row inmate. The Committee is dedicated to securing capital defendants’ right to competent defense and addressing issues relating to capital punishment. The award, given once every ten years, honors U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and his commitment to the cause of civil rights in the United States. It is given to attorneys and firms based in New York City who have significantly contributed to the pro bono representation of an inmate under a death sentence during the last 10 years.

Our client was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in Memphis in 1985, and Cleary Gottlieb began representing him pro bono ten years later. The firm succeeded in having his death sentence overturned in a 2001 decision of the Tennessee Supreme Court based on the prosecution’s improper suppression of favorable evidence relating to sentencing issues in the 1985 trial. While the State could have sought to impose the death penalty again in a resentencing hearing, Cleary Gottlieb persuaded the prosecution to agree not to do so. As a result, our client was given a life sentence with a possibility of parole. Since then, Cleary Gottlieb has focused on seeking to overturn our client’s murder conviction, and spent 1700 hours in 2007 alone pursuing a new trial for our client to hear additional exculpatory evidence that was never revealed at his initial trial. There is currently an appeal pending before the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals of a decision denying a petition for writ of error coram nobis filed by the firm seeking to have our client’s conviction vacated and a new trial ordered.

Aug 06, 2008

Cleary Gottlieb provided advice on a pro bono basis to the Republic of Liberia Ministry of State for Finance, Economic and Legal Affairs (MOS-FELA) in the Office of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf regarding Liberia's potential ratification of the Protocol of the Court of Justice of the African Union and the Convention of the African Energy Commission. Cleary Gottlieb received the request for pro bono assistance through the International Senior Lawyers Project (ISLP).

Aug 04, 2008

Cleary Gottlieb filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court to affirm the right of individual employees to pursue federal statutory anti-discrimination claims in court even if the individuals are subject to a collective bargaining agreement that provides for grievance and arbitration of discrimination complaints. The brief was filed in conjunction with The Lawyers’ Committee For Civil Rights Under Law on behalf of a consortium of civil rights groups in 14 Penn Plaza LLC v. Pyett (No. 07-581). The employees filed a federal age discrimination lawsuit against their employer after the union declined to pursue their claims. The lower courts, relying on prior Supreme Court decisions, denied the employer's motion to compel arbitration. Cleary Gottlieb's brief argued in support of that precedent that allowing a collective bargaining agreement to waive an individual's access to federal court would undermine the anti-discrimination statutes.

Mar 28, 2008

In the same-sex marriage case pending before the Iowa Supreme Court, Cleary Gottlieb filed an amicus curiae brief on behalf of the American Sociological Association, the American Anthropological Association, the Center for Inquiry, and over fifty leading scholars on March 28, urging the court to affirm the lower court's exclusion of defendants' expert witnesses.

Defendants' "experts" sought to testify to the effects same-sex marriage could have on children and families. The amici argue that the experts lacked any reliable methodology or relevant expertise, and offered what amounted to unsupported personal opinions.

May 27, 2008

Cleary Gottlieb successfully represented Ms. E.M., an applicant for asylum and protection under the Violence Against Women Act, referred to the firm by Sanctuary For Families. Before Judge Schoppert of the New York Immigration Court, Ms. E.M. was awarded Cancellation of Removal on May 27.

Ms. E.M., native of Senegal, arrived in the United States in 2000. Ms. E.M’s claim for asylum was based on the treatment she endured in Senegal on account of her religious beliefs and objections to cultural traditions, including forced marriage and forced female genital mutilation. Her VAWA claim was based on the abuse to Ms. E.M. and her U.S. citizen daughter at the hands of the father of the child, a legal permanent resident.

Jan 08, 2008

In the past year, Cleary Gottlieb successfully represented three immigrants in a trilogy of federal court petitions challenging excessive and unreasonable delays in the process of obtaining their United States citizenship.

Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, a decision to grant or deny citizenship must be made within 120 days after the initial “examination,” or interview, of an applicant. In practice, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services often fail to make a decision within this statutory period, claiming that the term “examination” used in the statute does not refer to the interview by USCIS but instead encompasses all background checks, which have no deadline.

To challenge that position, Cleary Gottlieb successively filed petitions in the nature of mandamus in the Eastern District of New York on behalf of three pro bono clients: a Russian citizen who had been waiting for a decision for about a year after his interview, an Uzbek-born Israeli citizen who had been waiting for over three years, and a stateless refugee from Belarus who had been waiting for over four years.

All three cases were promptly and successfully resolved without litigation: within three weeks of the filing or Cleary Gottlieb’s appearance, each of the clients received an invitation for his or her naturalization ceremony, and all three became U.S. citizens in 2007.

Oct 29, 2007

Cleary Gottlieb represented a low-income tenants' committee in obtaining dismissal of a chapter 11 bankruptcy petition by the owner of a Brooklyn apartment building, thereby permitting the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to foreclose and transfer the building to a responsible HUD-approved, non-profit buyer that can rehabilitate the building that badly needs repairs.

The apartment complex suffers from nearly 1,500 New York City housing code violations, more than 1,000 of which are classified as hazardous or immediately hazardous.

In June 2007, facing imminent foreclosure by HUD for failure to maintain the building in a habitable condition and to make mortgage payments, the owner filed a bankruptcy petition, thereby staying the foreclosure. Cleary Gottlieb, on behalf of the tenants' committee, argued that the court should dismiss the case on the grounds that the bankruptcy petition had been filed in bad faith and that allowing the owner to maintain ownership of the building would only delay an inevitable foreclosure, forcing tenants to continue living in uninhabitable conditions, diminishing the value of the property, and exposing the estate to potential liability as conditions continued to worsen.

Cleary Gottlieb successfully convinced the U.S. Department of Justice, the City of New York, and HUD to join the tenants' committee’s request for dismissal. At a hearing on September 6, 2007, Bankruptcy Court Judge Dennis Milton dismissed the chapter 11 case with prejudice, and barred the owner from filing another bankruptcy petition for 6 months, enabling HUD to recommence foreclosure proceedings and transfer the building to a responsible, adequately financed non-profit buyer.

Aug 17, 2007

Cleary Gottlieb is representing pro bono client Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy in its development and operation of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Beach and Floating Pool this summer. This is the first major project at the future site of Brooklyn Bridge Park along the Brooklyn waterfront and involves cooperation between government, not-for-profit and for-profit entities.

Cleary Gottlieb has been involved in all aspects of the project on an ongoing basis. Cleary Gottlieb has helped negotiate: a license with the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation (a subsidiary of the Empire State Development Corporation) for use of the site; agreements with the Neptune Foundation and American Leisure, Inc. for the use and operation of the Floating Pool Lady; and an agreement for the operation and maintenance of the beach and sale of concessions. Cleary Gottlieb also advised on obtaining and administering a BBPDC grant to fund the project.

The Floating Pool Lady, owned by the Neptune Foundation, is a steel deck barge that has been retrofitted with a 25-yard, seven lane swimming pool, a spray pool, lockers, bathrooms and showers. The Floating Pool Lady offers breathtaking views of New York harbor and the lower Manhattan skyline and is moored next to a 40,000 square foot urban beach with beach volleyball, sand soccer, rental chairs and umbrellas and concessions. Since opening to the public on July 4, the Floating Pool has welcomed over 61,000 visitors and has already expanded its operating hours.