Volunteer Lawyers for Justice Honors Verizon, Reed Smith LLP, and Paul J. Fishman
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OCTOBER 11, 2023
CONTACT
Eric W. Hughes
Bershad Director of Communications
Volunteer Lawyers for Justice
(973) 233-5724
Email: ehughes@vljnj.org
Newark, NJ – Continuing the trend of celebrating community, justice, and the power of pro bono, Volunteer Lawyers for Justice (VLJ) celebrated its annual Arts & Eats for Justice Gala on Tuesday, October 3 at Nanina’s in the Park. The Arts & Eats for Justice Gala is VLJ’s largest celebratory event that raises much-needed funds to continue providing free civil legal services while also honoring those whose time and talent raise the bar on ensuring access to justice for people experiencing poverty. For this year’s gala, VLJ honored Verizon (Partner in Justice Award), Reed Smith LLP (Beacon of Justice Award), and Paul J. Fishman (Champion of Justice Award). As a result of the generous and robust support of this year’s gala, VLJ raised over $625,000.
Verizon, with its operational headquarters in Basking Ridge, is one of the world’s leading providers of technology and communications services. Headquartered in New York City and with a presence around the world, Verizon generated revenues of $136.8 billion in 2022. The company offers voice, data and video services and solutions on its networks and platforms, and it was the first company in the world to launch commercial 5G for mobility, fixed wireless and mobile edge computing. The company's operating structure focuses on two customer-facing areas: Consumer and Business. Citizen Verizon is the company’s responsible business plan for economic, environmental and social advancement.
For over 13 years, Verizon has partnered closely with VLJ, with Verizon volunteers donating time and talent on a wide array of programs: criminal record clearing, vacating convictions that occurred as a result of human trafficking, restoring suspended driving privileges, and estate planning for veterans. Verizon’s involvement with VLJ substantially increased in 2020 following the launch of Verizon’s Pro Bono Criminal Justice Reform initiative. Verizon upholds their internal pillars of racial and social justice and they are invaluable partners in justice for VLJ and so many other organizations.
Reed Smith LLP, founded in Pittsburgh in 1877 with a substantial presence in New York City and Princeton, NJ, is a full-service law firm, serving corporate and commercial clients with litigation, transactional, regulatory, and other matters. It also fields multi-disciplinary industry groups dedicated to clients in the life sciences and healthcare, media and entertainment, energy and natural resources, transportation, and financial services sectors.
For over 15 years, Reed Smith has been actively involved with VLJ, donating pro bono hours and support for VLJ’s Trafficking Survivors Legal Assistance Program, Veterans Legal Program, and ReLeSe, VLJ’s re-entry legal services program. When VLJ’s expungement clinic returned to in-person programming at the Essex County Superior Court following the pandemic, an attorney from Reed Smith was the first to sign up. When Prudential, another VLJ supporter, asked to partner with Reed Smith to provide holistic legal services to veterans, Reed Smith volunteers did not hesitate to say yes. In fact, Reed Smith’s volunteers helped on 90 matters for clients experiencing poverty.
The firm’s commitment to empowering communities extends to various other areas, including anti-homelessness organizations and immigration assistance for children, Across the entire firm, in 2022, Reed Smith provided 92,000 hours of pro bono, with more than 60,000 of those hours provided by their U.S. offices.
Paul J. Fishman, a resident of Montclair, is a partner at Arnold & Porter, heading the firm’s Crisis Management and Strategic Response team along with being a member of the firm’s white-collar defense, commercial litigation, securities enforcement, and appellate practices. Prior to joining Arnold & Porter, Paul was the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey from 2009 through 2017.
As United States Attorney, Paul led the investigation of the Newark Police Department’s unconstitutional police practices. In 2013, Paul created the “ReNew” program—a reentry court at the federal level that allowed ex-offenders to reimagine their lives with job training, housing, and education. In private practice at Arnold & Porter, Paul continues to give back, including serving on the boards of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice and the Federal Bar Foundation of the Second Circuit. Paul also co-chaired a task force in 2019 that created the framework for a statewide conviction review unit in New Jersey. To top it off, Paul carries a meaningful pro bono caseload and has been a long-time supporter of VLJ.
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Please enjoy a few captured moments from our October 3rd Arts & Eats for Justice Gala (more photos coming soon!).
