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Last week, the Proskauer community came together for the 14th Annual Golden Gavel Awards ceremony, a firm-wide virtual celebration to honor those lawyers and staff members who went far above and beyond to contribute to the Firm’s pro bono, corporate social responsibility, and community building initiatives this year. Congratulations and…

COVID-19 has presented us with unprecedented challenges around the globe. We wish everyone good health.

Our Firm remains committed to the many students we work with on a regular basis through our CSR programs. Although the virus has made it impossible to continue our face-to-face mentoring, we are connecting through webinars, phone and online meetings.

Most recently, we were able to virtually host a class with John Jay College students on the topic of law and social justice. Our pro bono partner, Bill Silverman, led the videoconference, and we had wonderful attendance and participation as we discussed the need for criminal justice reform during the COVID crisis. Students shared thoughts about measures we need to take to ensure safety in our prisons; our strong consensus was that prisoners with medical conditions who do not pose a threat to public safety should be released.

We work with iMentor to empower first-generation students from low-income communities to graduate high school, succeed in college and achieve their ambitions. Last week, our mentees Elizabeth and Steven joined us at our New York City offices as part of iMentor’s “take your mentee to work day.”  Elizabeth and Steven are high school juniors at Bronx High School for Law and Community Service.

After picking our mentees up from the Bryant Park subway stop, we welcomed them to the office and gave them a tour of the space. Elizabeth then shadowed a finance conference call with corporate partner Ron Franklin, while Steven met with attorneys from various departments. No visit to the Proskauer offices would be complete without a trip to Shake Shack, enjoyed in our cafeteria at a table that gave us expansive views of the city. At lunch, we talked about our college experiences and our mentees’ future career goals. Our mentees asked a lot of questions about the transition to college (which is starting to feel like a long time ago for us!), and about why we decided to attend our respective colleges and ultimately decided to become lawyers.

It was a sunny afternoon in May when students from Proskauer’s Adopt-a-School Partner, Manhattan Hunter Science High School, and members of the Firm’s professional resources team boarded a ferry to Governors Island. Our primary objective was to assist with the expansion of the GrowNYC Teaching Garden. By the time we boarded the return ferry back to Manhattan, we had expanded the garden as well as our appreciation for the impactful work that GrowNYC is doing for our city.

For the past three years, Proskauer’s Washington, D.C. office has served a gourmet holiday meal to resident visitors at the Fisher House located near the VA Medical Center. We were happy to continue this tradition on December 11, 2017, when a team from our D.C. office brought great food and friendly faces to a group of military and veterans’ families at the Fisher House.

The Fisher House is part of a network of facilities in the U.S. and Europe that provides “a home away from home” for families of patients receiving medical care at major military and VA medical centers. The homes are normally located within walking distance of a treatment facility or have transportation available. This network of comfort homes allows military and veterans’ families to stay at no cost while a loved one is receiving treatment at a VA medical facility.