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 THE
PUBLIC INTEREST LAW CENTER OF PHILADELPHIA
Affiliated
with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under
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Letter
from the Executive Director
Because
I am a trial lawyer at heart, there is still nothing
like the professional pride I feel when the Public
Interest Law Center of Philadelphia appears on a
cogently-reasoned, persuasive brief or, better yet, when
the Court accepts the legal arguments that were in that
brief. My aim for all of our lawyers - and for
every paper that leaves this office - is that the Law
Center's name will be synonymous with the highest
quality of legal work. The substantive and
procedural issues we address are complex and our clients
deserve the best lawyers available.
This is never an easy goal for any
firm; but we have a chance to approach it in part
because of the rich co-counseling relationships that we
enjoy with other law firms. The procedurally
unusual motion that we recently filed in the Tenth
Circuit to reinstate a children's Medicaid case,
described below, is an excellent example of
collaboration between a small, distinguished civil
rights firm in Oklahoma, health care lawyers at the
large Philadelphia firm, Duane Morris, and the Law
Center's expert on children's Medicaid cases, James
Eiseman (even though, just yesterday that court denied
our motion). The gratifying victory on behalf
of our client, a registered nurse seeking to retain her
license, also described below, could not have happened
without the painstaking and careful work of our newest
partner, Lawrence Berger of Shepherd, Finkelman, Miller
& Shah. The list goes on and on: the lawyers
at Boies Schiller & Flexner who treat the poorest of
Florida children as if they were the firm's most
important clients (and I believe they are); or the
lawyers at DLA Piper who have joined the Law Center's
Sonja Kerr and thrown their minds and hearts into a case
alleging discrimination against African American
students by the Lower Merion School District which
routinely segregates them into below grade or special
education classes; or the lawyers at Drinker Biddle who
have for years battled with us to change Pennsylvania's
erratic and unreliable electronic voting
machines.
These lawyers should inspire us
all. They demonstrate the power that can be
harnessed when lawyers assume their responsibility to
defend society's most vulnerable members and who take as
their highest calling the righting of wrongs. On
behalf of the Law Center and in particular on behalf of
all of our clients, thank you
all!
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Victory for Nurse Receiving Methadone
Treatment
The
federal district court for the Middle District
has denied the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's
motion to dismiss claims against it, as well as the
State Board of Nursing and the Bureau of Professional
and Occupational Affairs, under the ADA and
Rehabilitation Act for injunctive relief and damages in
a case by a registered nurse denied her right to
practice because she is using methadone to treat her
opioid dependency. The nurse, Melinda Reynolds, has been
suspended from practice until she is "weaned from"
methadone, although the Complaint alleges that methadone
does not impair cognitive function or limit mental
capability, intelligence or the ability to maintain
employment. Ms. Reynolds alleges that the state agencies
have an unpublished policy - one that state agents call
"secret" - of refusing to license or re-license as a
nurse any person known to be participating in a
methadone maintenance program. Because of the state's
action, Ms. Reynolds, a widow with dependent children,
has been forced to live in reduced circumstances for the
past three years, working at minimum wages.
More....
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"Broken
Promise" - Gaskin Advisory Panel on Least Restrictive
Environment Issues Final
Report
 On
June 3, 2010 a panel of experts established by a
settlement of the Law Center's class action lawsuit
against the Pennsylvania Department of Education issued
a scathing assessment of the Department's failure to
make significant improvements in the education of
children with disabilities. The implementation of the
settlement agreement affected countless children, as the
report's author points out: "This lawsuit, spanning
16 years, has...covered the entire school careers of
many thousands of students with disabilities...taken
together, 3.84 million student IEP years have been
completed under the time span of this lawsuit, 1.2
million student IEP years have passed just in the time
of the Settlement Agreement...This report could have
been a celebration. Instead, it is a metaphor of what is
wrong in Pennsylvania with education in the least
restrictive environment for students with disabilities."
At
right, Lydia Gaskin, in a photo taken while the case was
being litigated. More...
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Report Issued Before 2010 Election Supports
Concerns about Voting Machine Reliability
 The
Election Reform Network issued a report on May 13, 2010
showing that the number of voters and the
number of votes recorded by electronic voting
machines in Montgomery County, PA were rarely the
same. The report documented discrepancies
in three-fourths of the election districts
analyzed, with differences of up to 47 voters per
district in the 2008 presidential election. The report
provides factual support for the contention made in the
lawsuit challenging Pennsylvania's use of electronic
voting machines filed by the Law Center and co-counsel
on behalf of Pennsylvania voters. More...
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Attempt to Revive Oklahoma Children's
Medicaid Case Based on a Clarification in the
Health Care Reform
Law Unsuccessful
The
Law Center and our partners filed a motion in the Tenth
Circuit on June 8, 2010 asking the court to revive a
children's Medicaid case that we won in 2004 after 19
days of trial, then lost on appeal in the Tenth Circuit.
The motion is based on a provision of the health care
reform act that clarified that the interpretation of the
Medicaid law used by the Tenth Circuit was in fact a
misinterpretation of the law. We partnered with our good
friends at Bullock, Bullock & Blakemore in Tulsa, OK
and Phil Lebowitz and Erin Duffy, a health care partner
and associate at Duane Morris in Philadelphia, to
prepare the motion. Unfortunately, however, the
Court of Appeals denied the motion on July 20, 2010
finding that there were not "extraordinary
circumstances" sufficient to justify relief and that
there is no indication that Congress intended the act to
operate retroactively. More....
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City to Gather Data on Gambling in
Minority Communities Thanks to Chinatown Preservation
Alliance Health Committee's
Efforts
 In
advance of the opening of casinos in Philadelphia, the
Law Center's Public Health and Environmental Justice
Clinic has partnered with the Chinatown Preservation
Alliance Health Committee on issues concerning the
public health impacts of pathological and problem
gambling on Philadelphia's Asian communities.
Thanks to the Law Center's work with the Chinatown
Preservation Alliance, the health committee partnered
with the City of Philadelphia's Department of Behavioral
Health to persuade the Public Health Management
Corporation (PHMC) to include crucial questions designed
to screen for pathological gambling in the 2010 biannual
household health survey of Southeastern
Pennsylvania. More...
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Board
and Advisory Board - Welcomes and Congratulations
Congratulations
to Board Member Marilyn Heffley, recipient of
 Corporate
Counsel Excellence
Award
Marilyn
Heffley has been named In-House Counsel of the Year by
the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Association of
Corporate Counsel-America (DELVACCA). Heffley works as
the Assistant General Counsel and Chief Litigation
Counsel for Sunoco, Inc. More...
 Welcome
to New Board Member, Ellen S.
Friedell
The
Law Center's board of directors elected Ellen
S. Friedell as its newest member in
June. A founder and principal of Reaching
Agreement ADR LLC, a dispute resolution firm, Friedell
is an attorney with extensive experience in litigation
and litigation management...More...
Welcome
New Advisory Board Member, Helen P.
Pudlin
 Helen
P. Pudlin is senior vice president and general counsel
of The PNC Financial Services Group. Ms. Pudlin
was a member of the Law Center's original advisory board
and we are delighted that she accepted the invitation to
re-join in May 2010. More about our advisory
board....
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 Meet
our new Comptroller, Lisa Sica
Ms.
Sica joined our staff this month after completing
her Masters degree in Public Policy at New England
College. Prior to joining the Law Center, she gained
valuable experience as Controller for the Northeast
Financial Corporation where she was responsible for over
$30 million in assets and human resources support for a
staff of over 150 and as Customer Service Manager for
EdgeCraft Corporation where she managed accounts
receivable and order processing. Asked to describe
what drew her to work at the Law Center, Ms. Sica said
she found the work to be rewarding and stated, "I love
the people here and their principles of equal
representation."
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50% off Award-Winning Law Center
Publications!
 Our
publication, Education in
the 50 States: A Deskbook of the History of State
Constitutions and Laws About Education, is
now available for only $24.50.
We also contributed two chapters to A Quality
Education for Every Child: Stories from the
Lawyers on the Front Line, which is now just
$13.50.
Both award-winning books were published by The Institute
for Educational Equity and Opportunity and are
on sale
through September 1 on the IFEEO website
only, www.ifeeo.org. This is
your chance to stock up and share these high quality
publications with your colleagues.
Go to www.ifeeo.org and buy
now! Learn
more...
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Join
us at these upcoming events:
"Environmental
Justice In Chester: Solutions for Change"
Conference
Where:
Best Western Widener Hotel, Chester,
PA
What:
a
conference organized by our clients, the Chester
Environmental Partnership, to educate participants about
environmental justice (EJ), and challenge them
to develop a models for change in Chester.
Law Center Attorney Adam Cutler will present at the
conference.
"Back
to School with the Public Interest Law Center: IEP Tips
and Tricks"
When:
August 17, 2010, 12 - 4pm
Where:
United Way Building, 1709 Benjamin Franklin Parkway,
Philadelphia, PA 19103
What:
The second in a series of training and CLE sessions
for parents, attorneys, educators and advocates of kids
with disabilities, hosted by the Law Center's Sonja
Kerr.
Online registration is NOW
OPEN | View yearlong calendar of training
sessions.
Save
the Date: the Law Center's 3rd Annual Symposium on
Equality
When:
Thursday, September 30, 2010, 8:30am-4:30pm and
5:00-9:00pm
Where:
the Symposium will take place at the Arch Street Meeting
House, 4th and Arch Streets, followed by a reception at
the Down Town Club, 6th and Chestnut
Streets.
What:
This
year's symposium will focus on education and how we can
make access to a quality education a reality for all
children.
More Information | |
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The
Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia is dedicated to
advancing the Constitutional promise of equal citizenship to
all persons irrespective of race, ethnicity, national origin,
disability, gender or poverty. We use public education,
continuing education of our clients and client organizations,
research, negotiation and, when necessary, the courts to
achieve systemic reforms that advance the central goals of
self-advocacy, social justice and equal protection of the law
for all members of society.
www.pilcop.org
The
Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia is a registered
charitable organization. A copy of the official registration
may be obtained from the Pennsylvania Department of State by
calling toll free within Pennsylvania 1.800.732.0999.
Registration does not imply endorsement.
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