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Proskauer is proud to share a significant victory in our long-standing advocacy for the rights of blind and visually impaired pedestrians in Chicago. On May 29, 2025, the Honorable Judge LaShonda A. Hunt of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois entered a comprehensive Remedial Plan Order requiring the City of Chicago to install Accessible Pedestrian Signals (“APS”) at 71% of its signalized intersections with pedestrian signals within 10 years and at all remaining signalized intersections with pedestrian signals by December 31, 2040. This Remedial Plan Order follows years of litigation and advocacy by Proskauer in partnership with Disability Rights Advocates (“DRA”), a nationwide nonprofit disability rights legal center, and marks a monumental step forward in ensuring that Chicago’s pedestrian infrastructure is accessible to all. American Council of the Blind of Metropolitan Chicago, et al. v. City of Chicago, No. 1:19-cv-06322 (N.D. Ill.).

Our longstanding, non-profit partner, The People Concern, is one of Los Angeles County’s largest social services agencies, providing a wide array of wrap around services for those with nowhere else to turn, including mental and medical health care, housing, domestic violence services, substance abuse treatment and free care for those with furry companions. They meet the challenges inherent in homelessness and domestic violence with evidence-based solutions and, in so doing, transform lives with care and compassion.

Earlier this month, Proskauer was a proud participant in Student Leadership Network’s Cool Careers, Potential Paths day at their Young Women’s Leadership School of Manhattan. At the event, Firm volunteers, including lawyers and business staff, shared their education and career paths with a class of high school seniors. Our panelists discussed how choices they made shaped their successes and failures along the way, and talked about the importance of mentorship, soft skills, teamwork, participating in college activities, and the need for hard work and balance in one’s life. Brad Ruskin, co-chair of the Firm’s Sports Law Group has been a member of Student Leadership Network’s Board since 2014 and Board Chair since 2023.

New York’s state court judges will soon have a new resource at their fingertips when holding court remotely. As detailed in a recent article in the New York Law Journal, New York’s Court Modernization Action Committee (“CMAC”) recently developed a bench card for judges to reference while they prepare for and implement virtual proceedings.

The CMAC is comprised of various stakeholders, including judges, court staff and attorneys, who work to modernize New York’s court system by encouraging the adoption of new technologies and maintenance of pandemic-era improvements to remote court services. Alongside others from Proskauer, I have had the privilege to assist the CMAC in this important work.

Last week, the Proskauer community gathered for the 17th Annual Golden Gavel Awards ceremony to celebrate and 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 efforts in 2024. Congratulations and thanks to the following colleagues for their extraordinary commitment to public service.

We have seen a dramatic increase in housing insecurity among our pro bono clients in recent years. Unfortunately, it’s part of an alarming nationwide trend. According to a recent report issued by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), homelessness reached a record high in 2024. Indeed, the report found that the number of people experiencing homelessness in the United States – more than 770,000 – grew by 18% from the previous year, while the number of people in families with children experiencing homelessness increased by 39%. In a post-pandemic economy that is generally considered to be doing well, it seems counterintuitive that we would now be experiencing such growing hardship. The report points to several factors driving these numbers:

Just before the 2024 U.S. Election, Proskauer’s Reproductive Rights Steering Committee hosted a panel discussion addressing the current state of reproductive rights two years post-Dobbs.

I was honored to lead this conversation with the panel, which included two lawyers from the Center for Reproductive Rights, an organization where I previously served as a senior litigation attorney. The Center for Reproductive Rights is a global human rights organization that uses the law to advance reproductive freedom as a fundamental human right. During the conversation, Bella Pori, state legislative counsel in the U.S. Policy & Advocacy division, and Alex Wilson, a staff attorney with the Center’s U.S. Judicial Strategy team, outlined the ways the Center’s attorneys and advocates have challenged abortion bans and unnecessary maternal health restrictions, supported expansive policies protecting access to reproductive healthcare, and pushed for access to assisted reproduction. These actions describe some of the many ways the Center seeks to further its mission of ensuring that reproductive rights are protected in law as fundamental human rights for the dignity, equality, health and well-being of every person.