May 30, 2017
Weil alumna Erin Law has been recognized as a leader in pro bono service with the 2017 ABA Pro Bono Publico Award. She is Executive Director and Managing Attorney for the Global Litigation Group in the Legal and Compliance Division of Morgan Stanley, that firm’s Pro Bono Lead Counsel, and Board Chair of the Ali Forney Center, which provides housing and other services to homeless LGBT youth in New York City. Weil nominated her for the ABA award in recognition of her deep devotion and multifaceted service to the mission of providing pro bono legal services for those in need. This past September, Weil honored her as the 2016 recipient of our firm’s Distinguished Young Alumnus Award.
Ms. Law was an outstanding associate in the Securities Litigation practice at Weil from the fall of 2001 to her start at Morgan Stanley in January 2011. During that time, she proved herself to be a talented litigator and a prodigious provider of pro bono legal services. She handled a wide variety of pro bono work, including a death penalty case that remains the Firm’s longest-running pro bono matter, and Carey v. Maricopa County, a complex, important reproductive rights and free speech case referred to Weil by the Center for Reproductive Rights.
As the Managing Attorney at Morgan Stanley, Ms. Law is responsible for all operational tasks of the litigation group and is a subject matter expert on legal ethics, individual representation issues and electronic discovery. She has been a prime mover of pro bono legal services at Morgan Stanley, whose program she initiated. Early on, she established what is now an ongoing partnership of Morgan Stanley attorneys with the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, and attorneys from Weil to regularly assist low-income senior citizens in applying for exemption from rent increases under New York City’s Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption program.
The awards are given by the ABA's Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service. This year the other recipients are: Orrick, The Justice Index Team, and attorneys Debra Parrish (Pittsburgh, Penn.) and William A. Waddell Jr. (Little Rock, Ark.).
The awards will be presented at the 2017 ABA Pro Bono Publico Awards Luncheon, which will be held on August 12, 2017 at the New York Hilton Midtown. New York's former Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman will deliver the keynote remarks.
The ABA's Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service works to ensure access to justice through the expansion and enhancement of the delivery of legal and other law-related services to the underserved through volunteer efforts of legal professionals nationwide. The Committee fosters the development of pro bono programs and activities by law firms, bar associations, corporate legal departments, law schools, government attorney offices and others.