Bari/Cherney Legal Team Wins National Award

DAILY JOURNAL NEWSWIRE ARTICLE
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July 24, 2003

PUBLIC INTEREST ATTORNEYS HONORED FOR CASES

By Karen Coleman
Daily Journal Staff Writer

SAN FRANCISCO - Two California trial teams shared the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice Foundation's national Trial Lawyer of the Year award for their roles in two prominent public interest cases.

Cited for work on behalf of Earth First activists against the FBI and the city of Oakland were Dennis Cunningham, Robert Bloom and Ben Rosenfeld, of the Law Office of Dennis Cunningham in San Francisco; and solo practitioners William Simpich, of Oakland, and J. Tony Serra, of San Francisco.

Also receiving awards for their work on the case were former New York Center for Constitutional Rights directors William Goodman, of Moore & Goodman in New York, and Michael Deutsch, of the People's Law Office in Chicago.

The other trial team negotiated a $20 million settlement for workplace monitoring and back pay for labor law violations at garment factories in Saipan.

Michael Rubin, of Altshuler Berzon Nussbaum Rubin & Demain in San Francisco; and Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach lawyers Albert Meyerhoff of Los Angeles and Pamela Parker and Keith Park of San Diego, received awards for their work on the case.

Alan Caplan, of Bushnell Caplan & Fielding in San Francisco; Joyce C.H. Tang, of Teker Civille Torres & Tang in Saipan, Northern Marina Islands; and L. Thomas Galloway, of Galloway & Associates, in Boulder, Colo., were also recognized for that case.

"These exceptional attorneys exemplify how trial lawyers use their skills and determination to create a more just society," Paul Stritmatter, outgoing president of the nonprofit public-interest law foundation, said
during the awards ceremony Tuesday evening at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.

"I usually turn my nose up at awards like that," Simpich said. But, "these people are the real deal."

"It was kind of unexpected and nice," said Dennis Cunningham, lead counsel in the Earth First case.

His team won a $4.4 million jury verdict in June 2002 on allegations that the police and the FBI politically persecuted Judi Bari and fellow activist Darryl Cherney by arresting them in a 1990 car bombing in which they were the victims. Estate of Judi Bari v. Doyle, C-91-1057-CW.

The Bari case was filed in 1991, six years before the lead plaintiff died of cancer. Cunningham said the verdict showed that law enforcement agencies such as the FBI must be held accountable for their actions.

The garment-worker cases were filed in Los Angeles, Saipan and San Francisco.

The Central District case included federal racketeering and Alien Tort Claims Act claims. Does v. Gap Inc., CV-010031. The Saipan case, Doe.
v Advance Textile Corp., CV-990022, alleges Fair Labor Standards Act violations. In the San Francisco suit, filed in Superior Court, the plaintiffs made false advertising claims. Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees v. The Gap Inc., 300474.

Caplan praised the foundation for encouraging lawyers to press claims with broad social significance.

"You can accomplish things by taking cases through the court system," he said. "You can accomplish great goals."

The foundation also honored Jim Vititoe, of Masry & Vititoe in Los Angeles, for recruiting 142 new members into the 3,000-plus member Washington, D.C., foundation.

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See the following story from Tuesday's Oakland Tribune. Following the Trib story we've added more information from the website of Trial Lawyers for Public Justice.

http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~1865~1460365,00.html

Oakland Tribune
Tuesday, June 17, 2003

Activist lawyers up for honors
Earth First attorneys, plus others from Bay Area, in line for top awards

By Josh Richman, STAFF WRITER

The legal team that helped a pair of Earth First activists win a $4.4 million verdict against current and former Oakland Police officers and FBI agents last year has been named among finalists for a national award.

The attorneys in eight cases were named finalists for the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice Foundation's Lawyer of the Year award, given to the lawyer or lawyers who make the greatest contribution to the public interest by trying or settling a precedent-setting case. The winners will be announced July 22 at the foundation's 21st annual awards dinner in San Francisco.

Attorneys Dennis Cunningham, J. Tony Serra, Robert Bloom and Ben Rosenfeld of San Francisco, plus attorneys William Simpich of Oakland, William H. Goodman of New York and Michael E. Deutsch of Chicago were nominated for their work on behalf of Darryl Cherney and the estate of the late Judi Bari.

Bari and Cherney were hurt when a pipe bomb shattered Bari's car May 24, 1990 in Oakland, where they had come to plan a protest of timber companies' clear-cutting of Northern California's old-growth forests. Oakland Police arrested them hours after the blast, telling the press they were eco-terrorists who had the bomb for their own plans.

But prosecutors two months later declined to charge them, citing insufficient evidence; nobody else was ever arrested.

The activists sued in 1991, claiming the Oakland Police and FBI violated their Fourth and First Amendment rights by falsely arresting them and
illegally searching their homes in an attempt to discredit and disrupt their political work. After a six-week trial and 17 days of deliberations, a jury
last June held six of the seven defendants liable for $4.4 million in compensatory and punitive damages. U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken of Oakland still has not ruled on post-trial motions filed by both sides.

"The verdict in this case sends a strong, cautionary message about the value of our constitutional rights and the abuse of law enforcement power in the name of national security," said a TLPJ Foundation news release.

A few other Bay Area attorneys were nominated as finalists as well. Ford Green of San Anselmo was nominated along with three Southern California attorneys for their work on a 22-year legal battle to collect a multi-million dollar jury verdict for a man who had claimed he was psychologically and financially ruined by the Church of Scientology.

And attorneys Michael Rubin and Alan Caplan, both of San Francisco, were part of the legal team nominated for negotiating a $20 million settlement of three class-action, human rights lawsuits on behalf of about 30,000 garment workers in six Asian nations and a U.S. territory.

©1999-2003 by MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers

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>From the website of Trial Lawyers for Public Justice and TLPJ Foundation
http://www.tlpj.org/

2003 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award Finalists Announced

The TLPJ Foundation has named the attorneys who worked on eight outstanding cases as finalists for its 2003 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award. The nationally prestigious award is bestowed annually upon the trial lawyer or lawyers who have made the greatest contribution to the public interest by trying or settling a precedent-setting case. The winner will be announced on July 22, 2003, at The TLPJ Foundation's 21st Annual Awards Dinner and Party at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.

"These exceptional attorneys exemplify how trial lawyers use their skills and determination to create a more just society," said TLPJ Foundation President Paul Stritmatter of Stritmatter Kessler Whelan Withey Coluccio in Hoquiam, Washington.

The finalists -- 40 lawyers in eight cases -- were nominated for their committed work in cases addressing a broad range of social issues, including exposing government misconduct, protecting access to health care, safeguarding our civil rights, holding insurers and HMOs accountable, fighting for workers' rights, holding corporations accountable, and battling Big Tobacco.

(The list of finalists follows, but here we include only the entry for the Bari/Cherneyteam)

Solo practitioners Dennis Cunningham, J. Tony Serra, Robert Bloom, and Ben Rosenfeld of San Francisco, and William M. Simpich of Oakland, California, along with William H. Goodman of Moore & Goodman in New York, and Michael E. Deutsch of the People's Law Office in Chicago, took on federal and state law enforcement power in a classic David and Goliath battle, winning a rare $4.4 million jury verdict in Estate of Judi Bari v. Doyle against the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the City of Oakland for violating the civil rights of two environmental activists during a 1990 bomb investigation. The jury found that both the FBI and the City had violated the First and Fourth Amendment rights of Earth First! activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney, under the false cover of a "terrorist" investigation. The verdict in this case sends a strong, cautionary message about the value of our constitutional rights and the abuse of law enforcement power in the name of national security.
...
Trial Lawyers for Public Justice is a national public interest law firm dedicated to using trial lawyers' skills and resources to create a more just society. TLPJ fights for justice through precedent-setting and socially significant individual and class action litigation designed to enhance consumer and victims' rights, environmental protection and safety, civil rights and civil liberties, workers' rights, America's civil justice system, and the protection of the poor and powerless. Trial Lawyers for Public Justice has special litigation projects that secure access to justice by battling unnecessary secrecy in the courts, mandatory arbitration abuse, federal preemption of injury victims' claims, and class action abuse.

Trial Lawyers for Public Justice is the principal project of The TLPJ Foundation, a not-for-profit membership organization. We are supported by and can call on - a nationwide network of over 3,000 trial lawyers and others, including consumer advocates, personal injury lawyers, constitutional litigators, employment lawyers, environmental attorneys, civil rights lawyers, and class action specialists. Trial Lawyers for Public Justice and The TLPJ Foundation are headquartered in Washington, D.C., and have a West Coast Office in Oakland, California.

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