mintz
pro bono portfolio
//
2023
© 2024 Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo. P.C.
Collaborating to Improve
Lives and Communities
Pro bono service is at the heart of Mintz's culture and identity. Together, we provide individuals with life-changing assistance and support the nonprofit organizations that care for our communities.
Learn More
Doing Well
to Do Good
View the 2022
Pro Bono Portfolio
Mintz has a culture of giving back to the community and being a good corporate citizen. When asked by one of our clients to consider taking on this endeavor, I realized that we had the capabilities, we could make the time, we had the resources, and this is exactly
the kind of thing that Mintz does and can do well. The Commonwealth needed to preserve these pieces of real estate as affordable emergency housing because resources for the homeless in our Commonwealth are swamped, and the last thing we wanted to do was
to have 125 people left homeless again if our efforts failed.
Member
Rebecca A. Lee
Pro Bono Team
Rebecca A. Lee
Member
Listen as Pro Bono Committee Chair Susan Finegan sits down with Rebecca to discuss the story, the challenges, and the impact of the work that she completed for Heading Home.
In 2022, Casa Nueva Vida was facing financial distress and potential collapse, as well as the possible loss of its four emergency shelter properties in Boston and Lawrence, Massachusetts. Heading Home, the largest provider of emergency housing in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, was asked by state officials to consider taking over stewardship of three active and one inactive transitional housing and emergency shelters that were home to approximately 125 residents. Mintz, under the
Listen to the full story:
Volunteer Spotlight
Casa Nueva Vida
Heading Home
leadership of attorney Rebecca Lee, was asked to help Heading Home acquire the three occupied properties and an additional vacant property in a highly complicated transaction that included a nonprofit organization slated to dissolve, the oversight of the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, and related real estate and corporate complexities, including the transition of employees to Heading Home.
learn more about this Important work
smriti choudhury
Associate
jean curran
Legal Specialist
© 2024 Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.
View the 2022
Pro Bono Portfolio
Collaborating to Improve Lives and Communities
Pro bono service is at the heart of Mintz's culture and identity. Together, we provide individuals with life-changing assistance and support the nonprofit organizations that care for our communities.
Learn More
The vast majority of survivors do not have an attorney to represent them, and when litigants show up alone, many are completely intimidated
by the judicial system.
If they’re going up
against a lawyer who understands the process, they’re immediately at a
disadvantage. Our work
is very important to even that playing field.
Member
daniel j.
goodrich
Volunteer Spotlight
The Mintz team also carefully counseled Diana, preparing her to testify in court against her grandfather. At the hearing, after being subjected to a nearly hour-long cross-examination and vigorous defense delivered by her grandfather’s prestigious attorney, the judge granted a rare permanent restraining order.
Now protected by the permanent order providing her safety, Diana is studying for a master’s degree in social work to help others in crisis.
Beginning at age five, “Diana”
endured daily physical, sexual, and mental abuse while in the custody of her grandparents. Throughout her childhood, Diana’s grandfather sexually assaulted her, sold explicit photos
of her, and eventually began
trafficking her.
Despite this trauma, Diana was a straight A student in high school and, after graduating, moved to attend a prestigious university. Tragically, the threats and abuse from her grandfather did not stop and even escalated to include harming the people
Diana loved.
Diana eventually summoned the strength to file a restraining order, and with the help of the Victim Rights Law Center (VRLC), which provides legal assistance to sexual assault survivors, secured a one-year order against her grandfather. As the order was due to expire, Diana was connected with Mintz, and a team of attorneys and project analysts prepared a detailed supplemental affidavit for the court advocating for a permanent
restraining order.
2023
Doing Well
to Do Good
mintz
pro bono portfolio
//
Casa Nueva Vida
Heading Home
learn more about this Important work
Pro Bono Team
Read the Audio transcription here
