Sowing More Seeds… 28 Better Business Bureau Andrew Skale continued to serve as an arbitrator for the Better Business Bureau, with assistance from Bruce Elder and summer associates Abigail O’Brient and Jake Romero. As Bruce stated about this work, “My experience supporting BBB arbitrations has been outstanding. The forum provides a unique opportunity for many average consumers, often poor and disadvantaged—especially relative to the businesses with whom they have a dispute—to have their grievances heard. While the dollar amounts may sometimes be small when viewed in a corporate context, to the individuals involved, they can often represent a sizable percentage of their annual disposable income, not to mention many months or years of hassle. These consumers otherwise would have no place to have their claims heard.” Anti-Defamation League The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) asked Mintz Levin for research help concerning a civil rights issue that ADL has been seeing more frequently: What is the liability of a merchant who invites the public to an event and then stands by silently as one customer ridicules another customer on the basis of race? Summer associates Josh Zakim, Ella Shenhav, and George Atanasov, under the supervision of Paul Wilson, looked for state law claims in six northeastern states, including Massachusetts and New York, that a victim might use in a lawsuit against a merchant who failed to intervene to stop discriminatory conduct on his premises by his customers. Josh, Ella and George went beyond the civil rights laws to consider possible claims based on tort law and administrative complaints to licensing authorities, and they even found a potential criminal prosecution in one state. ADL will use the results of this research to help victims of discrimination bring claims not only against those who engage in hate speech, but also against those who condone and enable such discrimination. …For Protection and Safety Prisoners’ Rights Mintz Levin attorneys Susan Finegan, John Koss, Jehanne Bjornebye, Jennifer Mather, and Alec Zadek, and legal assistant Abby Stivers, have worked with dozens of plaintiff- prisoners in a lawsuit against the Massachusetts Department of Correction alleging procedural violations based on the prisoners’ placement in a special high-security unit and the unconstitutional denial of rights while in that unit. Mintz Levin assisted the plaintiff-prisoners in successfully opposing a Department of Correction motion to dismiss their case and continues to advise the prisoners on their claims. National Consumer Law Center The National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) is the nation’s consumer law expert, helping consumers, their advocates, and public policy makers use powerful and complex consumer laws on behalf of low-income and vulnerable Americans seeking economic justice. Over the past few years, Mintz Levin attorneys and staff assisted with legal work relating to the purchase of new office space for NCLC. The complicated purchase and refinancing for the project (replicated in a financing transaction by the Greater Boston Food Bank later in the year) involved a team of lawyers including Gregory Sandomirsky, Jonathan Kravetz, Daniel Gaquin, Allan Caggiano, Jason Georgitis, and Poonam Patidar. As NCLC’s Executive Director, Willard Ogburn, noted, “Mintz has enabled the National Consumer Law Center to buy a new home, strengthen its finances and financial stability, and raise our profile even further…Mintz’s help in securing our new home means that we will be an even more effective advocate on behalf of families in need for years and years to come.”