This year, the Project celebrated the work of its volunteers at the Helmsley Park Lane Hotel in New York City. Guest speakers included Tony Amsterdam of New York University School of Law and District Attorney Craig Watkins of Dallas County, Texas.
Each year pro bono firms are nominated by their colleagues for exceptional service to prisoners on Death Row. This year, the Death Penalty Representation Project was pleased to recognize the work of Kaye Scholer LLP and Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP.
Kaye Scholer has a proud 30-year tradition of taking on difficult habeas and clemency petitions for indigent Death Row prisoners. The former Chair of Kaye Scholer's Executive Committee, David Klingsberg, set an example the firm by personally handling several death penalty cases, including arguing Beck v. Alabama (1980) and Lowenfield v.. Phelps (1988) in the U.S. Supreme Court. Since 1991, dozens of Kaye Scholer attorneys have spent almost 30,000 hours on eight separate cases.
Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP allocates tremendous resources to its work on behalf of those facing or serving death sentences. Beyond their direct involvement in death penalty litigation, the Schnader firm is enthusiastically involved in lecturing and advocating for reforms In the death penalty system. Schnader has been continuously involved in capital pro bono representation since 1988, and has handled more pro bono Pennsylvania cases than any other firm in the country.