Brooklyn Defenders

The August edition of Brooklyn Defenders’ monthly newsletter is out now! This month’s issue contains updates on our class action lawsuit against NYC’s Department of Correction for its failure to provide incarcerated New Yorkers with access to medical care, as well as information about our upcoming Back-to-School Barbecue and Resource Fair. Follow the link to read and subscribe to stay updated on the latest news and insights about our public defense and advocacy work. https://lnkd.in/ema7A92j

Brooklyn Defenders is proud to be introducing the members of our recently formed Associate Board. The Associate Board is a group of leaders and talented professionals, who dedicate their own time, talents, and networks to raise awareness and resources to support the work and overall programmatic mission of Brooklyn Defender Services (BDS). The Associate Board is a diverse representation of the broader community, representing a variety of organizations, professional roles, and life experiences with a shared purpose to support BDS. We're introducing each member of the Board this week. Today we welcome Elizabeth Zakheim. Elizabeth is an associate at Mound Cotton. She graduated from Brooklyn Law School, where she was a member of Phi Delta Phi International Honor Society and the Brooklyn Journal of International Law, and received the CALI Excellence for the Future Awards in Fundamentals of Legal Drafting: Litigation, and Law of War Seminar. Before attending law school she was Press Officer for the New York City Fire Department (FDNY).

Brooklyn Defenders is proud to be introducing the members of our recently formed Associate Board. The Associate Board is a group of leaders and talented professionals, who dedicate their own time, talents, and networks to raise awareness and resources to support the work and overall programmatic mission of Brooklyn Defender Services (BDS). The Associate Board is a diverse representation of the broader community, representing a variety of organizations, professional roles, and life experiences with a shared purpose to support BDS. We're introducing each member of the Board this week. Today, we welcome Adaeze Ogbonna. Ada Ogbonna is a Management Consulting Analyst at Accenture. Specializing in data and AI, she helps clients upscale their data analytics capabilities and explore large scale technology transformations in the healthcare sector. Outside of work, Ms Ogbonna is closely involved with her Brooklyn community organizing monthly clean up sessions on her block and leading a community garden initiative that strives to make Bed-Stuy greener. She also volunteers at ReadingPartners, empowering local students to be lifelong readers. Ms Ogbonna earned her BS in Journalism and Data Science from Northwestern University.

Brooklyn Defenders is proud to be introducing the members of our recently formed Associate Board. The Associate Board is a group of leaders and talented professionals, who dedicate their own time, talents, and networks to raise awareness and resources to support the work and overall programmatic mission of Brooklyn Defender Services (BDS). The Associate Board is a diverse representation of the broader community, representing a variety of organizations, professional roles, and life experiences with a shared purpose to support BDS. We're introducing each member of the Board this week. Today we welcome Cary London. Cary London is a partner at the law firm of Shulman & Hill, PLLC, and Chair of their Civil Rights Division. He has previously worked for the NYPD, Bronx District Attorney’s Office, Brooklyn Defender Services, and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Richard Lee Price. He has handled over 10,000 civil rights and criminal cases from inception to verdict, and is considered a premier trial attorney who is one of the last “True Believers” in the civil rights context. Mr. London is a graduate of the University of Virginia and New York Law School. For more information on Mr. London’s practice, please visit www.Shulman-Hill.com.

Brooklyn Defenders is proud to be introducing the members of our recently formed Associate Board. The Associate Board is a group of leaders and talented professionals, who dedicate their own time, talents, and networks to raise awareness and resources to support the work and overall programmatic mission of Brooklyn Defender Services (BDS). The Associate Board is a diverse representation of the broader community, representing a variety of organizations, professional roles, and life experiences with a shared purpose to support BDS. We're introducing each member of the Board this week. Today please join us in welcoming Dan Liberman. Dan is an Associate at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP. Dan counsels clients in a range of litigation matters including securities and shareholder litigation, white collar matters, regulatory investigations, and commercial disputes. Prior to joining Fried Frank, Dan worked in social services, including overseeing and coordinating landlord outreach efforts for the Supportive Services for Veteran Families Program, with the goal of increasing access to private market owned rental property for veterans moving from homelessness to permanent housing throughout Travis County, Texas.

Brooklyn Defender Services is a public defense office that provides outstanding representation and advocacy to people facing loss of freedom, family separation and other serious legal harms. New York City students go back to school on September 5th, and we’ve organized a drive to help prepare students for the new school year. Every student deserves to have the supplies they need to learn when they step into their classroom. Help us reach our goal of raising $7,500 to provide 500 students with backpacks filled with school supplies. By donating, you ensure that students in Brooklyn have the tools needed to succeed during this upcoming school year. Backpacks and supplies will be distributed at our Back-to-School Resource Fair in East New York, Brooklyn on August 21st. Your donation of $10 covers the cost of a brand-new backpack. Your donation of $15 covers the cost of a backpack filled with supplies (including notebooks, pens, folders etc.) for one student. Your donation of $150 provides 10 students with their own backpack filled with supplies. You can help Brooklyn students get back-to-school by donating here. https://lnkd.in/eFGKCpk8

Brooklyn Defenders is proud to introduce the members of our new  Associate Board. The Associate Board is a group of leaders and talented professionals, who dedicate their own time, talents, and networks to raise awareness and resources to support the work and overall programmatic mission of Brooklyn Defender Services (BDS). The Associate Board is a diverse representation of the broader community, representing a variety of organizations, professional roles, and life experiences with a shared purpose to support our mission. We'll be introducing each member of the Board this week, beginning with Lexi Allen. Please join us in welcoming each member of this accomplished group over this week. Lexi Allen is a Senior Product Manager at SparkPlug, a tech startup. She studied at Harvard University and has a passion for travel and photography. Lexi resides in Brooklyn and is excited to be a part of the BDS associate board as a way to invest in the community. She is eagerly looking forward to fundraising.

Brooklyn Defenders’ Pro Bono unit continues to make significant strides into Summer 2024. This past week, BDS teamed up with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP once more to offer vital SCR support to Family Defense clients impacted by the family regulation system. Simpson Thacher volunteers were briefed on the detrimental effects of system involvement on parents, children, and caregivers, and subsequently trained to provide optimal assistance to our clients in navigating their SCR cases. Thanks to their dedication, seven Family Defense clients were able to move forward in removing their names from the State Central Registrar. We are deeply appreciative of their commitment and hard work. Beyond their contributions to our Family Defense practice, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP remains a strong ally to our New York Immigrant Family Unity Project (“NYIFUP”) and our Immigrant Community Action Project (“ICAP”) Immigration teams. Individuals seeking asylum, withholding of removal, and Convention Against Torture (CAT) protection must demonstrate a credible fear of future persecution if returned to their home country, primarily through “country conditions reports.” These reports are crucial for securing the safety of our immigration clients in the United States. Since the beginning of 2024, volunteers from Simpson Thacher have completed ten country conditions reports, greatly aiding our efforts.

Thank you for celebrating with us at our 2024 Family Defense Benefit! The evening was truly inspiring. Thank you to everyone who joined us to celebrate 17 years of keeping families together. We were thrilled to present Joyce McMillan, Executive Director of JMACforFamilies, with the Trailblazer Award for leading a community of impacted parents and other advocates to challenge and transform the family policing system. We recognized our dedicated pro bono partners Crowell & Moring, Fried Frank, and Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP, who have continued to demonstrate their unwavering commitment to our work and the families we serve. It was also our pleasure to honor our community partner, exalt, for their exceptional work on behalf of New York City’s youth involved in the criminal legal system. Angelica Charles received the Family Champion Award and courageously shared her experience advocating for herself and her family until they were reunited. Our deepest gratitude to all of our sponsors for their continued show of support and to our entire Brooklyn Defenders team who advocate and fight on behalf of the people we serve each day. And a special thank you to our gracious host, Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, for their partnership and for making the evening such a great success.

We are thrilled to welcome our new Senior Director of Interdisciplinary Practice, Jenny Kronenfeld. Jenny will manage our social work teams across all practices and will also manage our Client Services Team. Additionally, she will oversee the reopening of our Community Office in East New York, which will enhance our ability to defend and advocate in the communities we serve. Jenny joins Brooklyn Defenders after almost 22 years as the executive director of Esperanza, an alternative to incarceration program for young people with cases in NYC Criminal, Supreme and Family Court. Prior to Esperanza, she was the Deputy Director and one of the founding supervisors at the Bronx Defenders. She got her start as a defense attorney at the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem where she worked for five years. Before entering law school Jenny worked in a variety of roles, including doing intake work at a residential drug treatment center and secretarial work at Prisoners' Legal Services where she made the decision to become a lawyer. She is a graduate of Hunter College and CUNY Law School.