Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 6248 49 housing building. A team of Mintz Levin professionals from the Real Estate and Environmental Law practices worked to make purchasing the new site possible. For the past several years, and primarily during this past year, the firm has performed significant legal work in preparation for the acquisition and construction of a brand new shelter for victims of domestic violence. This has involved obtaining approval from the community as well as the Boston Redevelopment Authority, and securing a $200,000 grant from the EPA to complete the environmental remediation of the new site. The new building will allow the organization to double the number of apartments for residents, build a day-care center to serve residents and parents in the community in need of day care, and construct a gym and outdoor play space so their children can, for the first time, have a safe place to play. The team also negotiated and executed an asset purchase agreement to sell the old building to another nonprofit, which will also help homeless families. All of the legal work needed to make this project possible was accomplished by attorneys Maryann Civitello, Ray Estes, Susan Phillips, and Elissa Flynn-Poppey, with support from the firm’s Pro Bono Committee. Greater Boston Food Bank The Greater Boston Food Bank is the largest hunger-relief organization in New England and among the largest food banks in the country. The organization distributed over 45 million meals through its network of hunger-relief agencies in 2015 alone. Mintz Levin helped the organization with employment, trademark, and corporate governance matters. In 2015, the Mintz Levin team included attorneys Anthony Hubbard, Julie Korostoff, Drew Matzkin, Kahlil Mitchell, Poonam Patidar, Gauri Punjabi, Daniel Wilcox, Natalie Young, and Alec Zadek as well as legal specialist Brenda Meyette and former Mintz Levin attorney Jennifer Miani. Greater Boston Legal Services Mintz Levin assisted Greater Boston Legal Services with a variety of their clients’ legal matters this past year. For example, attorney Bill Coffman helped a foreign national with a debilitating brain disease win approval of continued deferred action from US Citizenship and Immigration Services. This approval will allow the client to continue to receive care and allows the medical team to study the disease along with the client’s progress and quality of life. The client is participating in therapeutic art Human Trafficking Prevention In the past year, attorney Alec Zadek has dedicated his time to helping victims of human trafficking in a variety of matters. “Julia,” a sex trafficking victim from the Boston area, came to Mintz Levin for help obtaining post-conviction relief. Several yearsbeforecontactingthefirm,shepledguiltytoaprostitution- related offense and that conviction was now an impediment to her employment, housing, and education. Alec took on her case and convinced the court her guilty plea should be vacated in the interest of justice, because at the time she pled guilty to the offense she was under the influence of men who were forcing her to prostitute herself and profiting from her actions. Once the court vacated Julia’s guilty plea, Alec convinced the District Attorney’s Office to dismiss the underlying prostitution- related charge against her. Attorneys Rebecca Raphaelson and Nichole Beiner were also key contributors to Julia’s case. Another woman, “Sarah,” reached out to Alec after reading about Mintz Levin’s successes representing sex trafficking survivors. Sarah had an open warrant in Boston for a prostitution-related offense she’d been charged with as a teenager. Now, more than 10 years later, Sarah was settled in another part of the country, and although she had long since escaped the control of the men who trafficked her, her open warrant in Massachusetts and prostitution-related offenses Additional Pro Bono Highlights from 2015 (continued) classes, and some of the client’s artistic creations were submitted as evidence during the deferred action application process. Hatzalah Volunteer Ambulance Corps Hatzalah is the largest volunteer ambulance service in the United States, with 16 local chapters in the New York metropolitan area, over 1,000 emergency medical technicians, 180 paramedics, and 80 ambulances. Mintz Levin provided a variety of legal services to the organization, under the guidance of attorney Jeff Moerdler. Jeff is an EMT with Hatzalah and co-president of its local chapter in Riverdale. He also serves on the executive board of the city-wide parent entity and as co-chair of its legal committee. Attorneys Russell Fox and Ernie Cooper, with assistance from others, have continued to work on communications regulatory issues for Hatzalah. In 2015, the team had obtained a landmark ruling from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allowing Hatzalah to be the first nongovernmental entity to be authorized by the FCC to receive caller ID information for blocked land lines and for cell phones. The attorneys then successfully sought a similar ruling from the New York Public Service Commis- sion, and they are currently working to implement it. In addition, they have handled various other FCC permitting applications for Hatzalah’s private radio broadcast antenna network. Attorney Michael Arnold has also handled various employment issues for Hatzalah, while Jeff and attorney Amy Lu handled several antenna leases for Hatzalah’s antenna network. Institute for Brain and Society Mintz Levin represented the Institute for Brain and Society, which provides funding to the Brain Observatory, an organization dedicated to promoting wider access and study of the human brain. Specifically, the organization is working to set up a library where brains can be donated and preserved such that all researchers can have access to a brain database. Attorneys Andrew Skale, Natalie Prescott, Justin Nahama, and Katy Ward provided the Brain Observatory with guidance and advice that enabled it to protect its trademark rights. Jane Doe Inc. Jane Doe Inc. (JDI) is a Massachusetts nonprofit coalition that provides sexual and domestic violence advocacy as well as expert support and resources to over 60 community-based member programs statewide. These local programs are the hubs of expertise in their communities, advocating on behalf of continued to haunt her. Alec was able to convince the District Attorney’s office to dismiss the charges against Sarah and close the open warrant. In addition, Lavinia Weizel, another Mintz Levin attorney, convinced the court to seal Sarah’s criminal record. Alec and Lavinia continue to work with Sarah to obtain relief in other jurisdictions where she had a prostitution-related conviction. Alec and Lavinia also collaborated with Boston University Law School’sHumanTraffickingClinicandotherstodraftlegislation that would streamline the process by which sex trafficking victims can apply to a court to vacate their convictions. At this time, the process in Massachusetts for a sex trafficking survivor to obtain post-conviction relief is complicated and time-consuming. Twenty-nine other states have simplified the process by enacting legislation specifically designed to enable sex trafficking survivors to obtain post-conviction relief. Massachusetts Representative Mike Day, a Mintz Levin alumnus, sponsored a bill drafted by Alec, Lavinia, and their working group. While the proposed bill did not pass in the legislature this term, it did receive bipartisan support. Alec and Lavinia will continue to educate the community and legislators about their proposed legislation and will continue to work with Representative Day to convince state representatives and senators to enact it. continued