Legal News

Skadden Arps? $1 Mil. Gift Supports Human Rights Project at Penn Law

By Brian Harris

By Gina Passarella
Of the Legal Staff

New York-based Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom donated $1 million to the University of Pennsylvania Law School in honor of Penn alumnus and former firm leader Robert C. Sheehan.

Sheehan, a 1969 graduate of the law school, stepped down from his 15-year tenure as executive partner of the firm in April and assumed a new role as the pro bono partner.

Penn is using Skadden Arps? gift in his name to create the Sheehan Asylum/Human Rights Project. The project will include the recruitment of a full-time professor to guide students as they work on asylum cases in partnership with local providers of legal services to immigrants.

The Sheehan project will be part of Penn?s three-year-old Transnational Legal Clinic where students work on human rights litigation and advocacy.

?People from many parts of the world suffer in unimaginable ways simply because of their political and religious affiliations,? Sheehan said in a statement. ?Guiding them through the U.S. legal system so they can escape persecution is one of the most valuable services we as lawyers can provide. I am grateful to Skadden and Penn Law for establishing the asylum/human rights project to help future generations of lawyers pursue opportunities in this area of public interest law.?

From 2001 to 2008, the average number of pro bono hours for Skadden attorneys nearly doubled, and the percentage of lawyers who contribute at least 20 hours a week increased from 38 percent to 65 percent. The firm also launched, and continues to support, the Skadden Fellowship Foundation, which provides two-year fellowships to at least 25 talented young lawyers every year so they may pursue careers in public interest law. With the 2009 class announced earlier this year, the foundation has supported 564 fellows over the past 21 years, and more than 90 percent of them have pursued careers in public interest career after their fellowship tenures.
 

Full post as published by The Legal Intelligencer Blog on September 10, 2009 (boomark / email).