Pro Bono Practice

Horvitz & Levy LLP is committed to public service. That is why, in addition to substantial attorney involvement in bar association and judicial committees, the firm regularly makes its appellate expertise available in a varied array of pro bono cases. The firm has handled appeals — as counsel both for parties and for amici curiae — on behalf of or in conjunction with such groups as the Harriett Buhai Center for Family Law, The Alliance for Children's Rights, Public Counsel, and NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund.

In 1993, Horvitz & Levy LLP and one of its partners, David Ettinger, received the Harriett Buhai Center for Family Law's "Hall of Fame" award. Mr. Ettinger is the Center’s current Vice President of Program Services and has been a Board member since 1998. His appellate work with Horvitz & Levy colleagues on behalf of low income litigants was featured in the Harriett Buhai Center's 2005 Annual Report.

In Durando v. City of Los Angeles, Horvitz & Levy LLP has recently helped Public Counsel, the largest pro bono law firm in the nation, to protect the rights of six disabled children and their adoptive parents. After submitting six writ petitions and extensive briefing for the family challenging adverse administrative rulings, Horvitz & Levy obtained a substantial six-figure settlement from the State of California on their behalf. (Read the Daily Journal article about the Durando case.)

Most recently, the California Supreme Court has appointed Horvitz & Levy LLP as counsel for a previously unrepresented litigant in Silverbrand v. County of Los Angeles, review granted Aug. 16, 2006, S143929, a matter in which the Supreme Court will decide an important legal issue concerning equality of access to the appellate courts in civil cases: "Does the 'prison delivery' rule apply to the filing of a notice of appeal in a civil case, and thus make timely a notice of appeal deposited in the prison legal mail system before the expiration of the jurisdictional deadline but not received by the trial court until after that deadline has passed?"

Horvitz & Levy LLP's past pro bono cases include: Cruz v. Superior Court (2004) 120 Cal.App.4th 175 (amicus brief supporting indigent litigants who were wrongfully denied fee waivers to proceed in forma pauperis); The Alliance for Children's Rights v. Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (2002) 95 Cal.App.4th 1129 (defending against attack on the Juvenile Court's authority to monitor the frequency of the Department's social workers' visitation of dependent foster children); Conservatorship of Wendland (2001) 26 Cal.4th 519 (amicus brief supporting conservator/wife's decision to withdraw artificial nutrition and hydration from severely brain damaged and physically impaired conservatee/husband); Hi-Voltage Wire Works, Inc. v. City of San Jose (2000) 24 Cal.4th 537 (amicus brief supporting constitutionality of city's public contracting outreach program); United States v. Morrison (2000) 529 U.S. 598 (amicus brief supporting constitutionality of Congress's power to provide in Violence Against Women Act a federal cause of action for victims of gender-motivated violence); Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education (1999) 526 U.S. 629 (amicus curiae brief supporting private damages action against a school board under federal Title IX in cases of student-on-student harassment); Hogoboom v. Superior Court (1996) 51 Cal.App.4th 653 (challenging a fee imposed by the superior court for mediation in family law and domestic violence cases); J.W. v. Superior Court (1993) 17 Cal.App.4th 958 (representing a mother and son precluded from bringing a paternity and child support action by superior court refusal to appoint mother as the son's guardian ad litem because she was not a lawyer and could not afford to hire one). See also "Lawyering and Volunteerism," a California Litigation Magazine article highlighting (at page 19) pro bono work by Horvitz & Levy attorney, M.C. Sungaila.

To see samples of Horvitz & Levy LLP's pro bono appellate work, click the following links:

Cruz v. Superior Court

The Alliance for Children's Rights v. Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services

Conservatorship of Wendland

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