New York, NY – September 12, 2005 – LAWFUEL – The international law firm of Chadbourne & Parke LLP announced today that Ghita Schwarz has been named the Firm’s first Door Fellow. After orientation at the Firm, Ms. Schwarz will be assigned to work primarily with The Door Legal Services Center for a period of approximately 16 months. Most recently, she was with Queens Legal Services where she was a senior attorney on its education rights project since 1998. She also will continue her work on some matters she brought with her from Queens Legal Services.
Earlier this year, the Firm announced the expansion of its commitment to The Door through the creation of a Chadbourne & Parke Fellowship at The Door. Since 1998, the Firm has been sending associates on 8-12 week extern assignments to The Door, New York’s premier youth development agency, serving young people, aged 12-21 years, primarily from low-income and at-risk communities.
Ms. Schwarz has worked in the public service area for many years. In the early 1990s, she was involved in counseling and advocacy for the homeless, the mentally ill and low-income families in San Francisco. While in law school, she worked for the Catholic Legal Immigration Network and the Immigrants’ Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union as a Rausher Fellow. She began work with Queens Legal Services as a NAPIL Equal Justice Fellow.
While at Queens Legal Services, Ms. Schwarz represented low-income children and parents in administrative and federal court proceedings. Legal assistance included special education, student discipline, race discrimination and the No Child Left Behind Act.
Ms. Schwarz earned her B.A., magna cum laude with Highest Honors, from Harvard University, and her J.D. from Columbia University, where she was a James Kent Scholar, Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and articles editor for the Columbia Human Rights Law Review.
“Ghita brings outstanding educational and public service credentials to this new position. Both Chadbourne and The Door are very happy that Ghita has joined our team,” said Bernard W. McCarthy, Chadbourne’s Pro Bono partner.
About Chadbourne & Parke LLP
Chadbourne & Parke LLP, an international law firm headquartered in New York City, provides a full range of legal services, including mergers and acquisitions, securities, project finance, corporate finance, energy, telecommunications, commercial and products liability litigation, securities litigation and regulatory enforcement, white collar defense, intellectual property, antitrust, domestic and international tax, insurance and reinsurance, environmental, real estate, bankruptcy and financial restructuring, employment law and ERISA, trusts and estates and government contract matters. The Firm has offices in New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Houston, Moscow, Kyiv, Warsaw (through a Polish partnership), Almaty, Beijing and a multinational partnership, Chadbourne & Parke, in London. For additional information, visit www.chadbourne.com.
About The Door
The Door Legal Services Center, located at 555 Broome Street in Soho, was established in 1992 to address the lack of free legal services for youth in New York City in need of help with their legal problems. The Center provides a broad range of counsel and advocacy services in civil matters. The Door’s mission is to empower young people to reach their potential by providing comprehensive youth development services in a diverse and caring environment. Each year over 7,000 young people, most referred by their peers, come to The Door for primary health care, prenatal care and health education, mental health counseling, legal services, GED, ESL, computer classes, tutoring and homework help, college preparation and computer classes, career development services and training, job placement, daily meals, arts, sports and recreational activities.
