Public Interest Law Center

Last updated
Public Interest Law Center
Founded1969
TypeNonpartisan
Purpose Public interest litigation
Location
Area served
United States
Key people
Brent W. Landau, Executive Director
Employees12 (2016)
Website

The Public Interest Law Center, founded in 1969, is a nonprofit law firm based in Philadelphia. The Public Interest Law Center works primarily in the greater Philadelphia region occasionally taking on issues on a national scale.

Contents

The Public Interest Law Center's project areas include Education, Voting, Employment, Environmental justice, Healthcare, Housing and Community Services and Voting.

History

Founded by Edwin D. (Ned) Wolf, The Public Interest Law Center's history dates back to 1969, [1] rooted in the Philadelphia chapter that was one of seven local affiliates of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. [2] In its early years, the Public Interest Law Center's initial mission was to dismantle specific aspects of institutional racism by targeting discriminatory policies and practices. [3]

Project Areas

The Public Interest Law Centers aims to use high-impact legal strategies to both promote and protect the marginalized through project areas including Education, Voting, Employment, Environmental Justice, Healthcare, Housing and Community Services and voting.

A full list of The Public Interest Law Center's litigation can be found on the organization's website.

Notable former associates

Thaddeus Stevens Awardees

The Public Interest Law Center annually presents the Thaddeus Stevens Award to either individuals or organizations whose actions best correspond with its social mission.

Awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Kline (politician)</span> American politician (born 1947)

John Paul Kline Jr. is an American politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Minnesota's 2nd congressional district from 2003 to 2017. The district included most of the southern suburbs of the Twin Cities. A member of the Republican Party, Kline served as the Chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce from 2011 until 2017. Kline retired from Congress at the end of his term in January 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julian Bond</span> American politician and activist (1940–2015)

Horace Julian Bond was an American social activist, leader of the civil rights movement, politician, professor, and writer. While he was a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, during the early 1960s, he helped establish the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). In 1971, he co-founded the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, and served as its first president for nearly a decade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harris Wofford</span> American politician (1926–2019)

Harris Llewellyn Wofford Jr. was an American attorney, civil rights activist, and Democratic Party politician who represented Pennsylvania in the United States Senate from 1991 to 1995. A noted advocate of national service and volunteering, Wofford was also the fifth president of Bryn Mawr College from 1970 to 1978, served as chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party in 1986 and also as Pennsylvania Secretary of Labor and Industry in the cabinet of Governor Robert P. Casey from 1987 to 1991, and was a surrogate for Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. He introduced Obama in Philadelphia at the National Constitution Center before Obama's speech on race in America, "A More Perfect Union".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund</span> Organization in New York, United States

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. is an American civil rights organization and law firm based in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrick Murphy (Pennsylvania politician)</span> American politician (born 1973)

Patrick Joseph Murphy is an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd United States Under Secretary of the Army. He was the first veteran of the Iraq War to be elected to the United States House of Representatives, representing Pennsylvania's 8th congressional district from 2007 to 2011. Murphy is a former anchor of Taking the Hill on MSNBC. Murphy is currently on the faculty of Wharton Business School and the Distinguished Chair of Innovation at the United States Military Academy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Barristers' Association of Philadelphia</span>

The Barristers' Association of Philadelphia, Incorporated is a minority bar association located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which represents African-American attorneys. The association was established in 1950. The Barristers' Association of Philadelphia is an affiliate of the National Bar Association. One notable member of the Barristers is John F. Street, the former Mayor of Philadelphia. The purpose of the Barristers is to address the professional needs and development of Black lawyers in the City of Philadelphia through programs such as seminars, cultural events and publications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A. Leon Higginbotham Jr.</span> American judge

Aloysius Leon Higginbotham Jr. was an American civil rights advocate, historian, presidential adviser, and federal court judge. From 1990 to 1991, he served as chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Originally nominated to the bench by President Kennedy in 1963, Higginbotham was the seventh African-American Article III judge appointed in the United States, and the first African-American United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. He was elevated to the Third Circuit in 1977, serving as a federal judge for nearly 30 years in all. In 1995, President Bill Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Higginbotham used the name "Leon" informally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fred Gray (attorney)</span> American attorney and activist

Fred David Gray is an American civil rights attorney, preacher, activist, and state legislator from Alabama. He handled many prominent civil rights cases, such as Browder v. Gayle, and was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives in 1970, along with Thomas Reed, both from Tuskegee. They were the first black state legislators in Alabama in the 20th century. He served as the president of the National Bar Association in 1985, and in 2001 was elected as the first African-American President of the Alabama State Bar.

The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, or simply the Lawyers' Committee, is an American civil rights organization founded in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy.

Tony J. Payton Jr. is a former Democratic member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, representing the 179th legislative district encompassing the historic communities of Frankford, Oxford Circle, Hunting Park, Olney and Feltonville. He was elected in 2006. and sworn into his first term on January 2, 2007. He is now a registered lobbyist with Malady & Wooten, LLP.

John F. White Jr. is an American executive and former public servant and politician. White is a former Pennsylvania State Secretary of Welfare, Federal Housing Director, Democratic member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and Philadelphia City Councilman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NAACP</span> Civil rights organization in the United States

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du Bois, Mary White Ovington, Moorfield Storey, Ida B. Wells, Lillian Wald, and Henry Moskowitz. Over the years, leaders of the organization have included Thurgood Marshall and Roy Wilkins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John F. Keenan (politician)</span> American politician

John F. Keenan is a member of the Massachusetts State Senate for the Norfolk and Plymouth district.

White and Williams LLP is a law firm, headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, founded in 1899 by Thomas Raeburn White. White and Williams currently has approximately 225 lawyers and serves clients from ten offices located throughout Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland, Rhode Island, Delaware, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts.

This is a timeline of the civil rights movement in the United States, a nonviolent mid-20th century freedom movement to gain legal equality and the enforcement of constitutional rights for people of color. The goals of the movement included securing equal protection under the law, ending legally institutionalized racial discrimination, and gaining equal access to public facilities, education reform, fair housing, and the ability to vote.

Walter Jay Lear was an American physician and activist for healthcare reform and LGBT rights. Among his contributions, Lear was a founder of the Institute of Social Medicine and Community Health and the Maternity Care Coalition of Greater Philadelphia. In 1964 Lear was also a founder of the Medical Community for Human Rights. He received the American Public Health Association's Helen Rodriguez-Trias Award for his contributions to the cause of social justice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lubbie Harper Jr.</span> American judge (born 1942)

Lubbie Harper Jr. is an American lawyer and judge who was the third African American to become a justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court, serving from 2011 through 2012. While seconded to the court in 2008, he cast the deciding vote in Kerrigan v. Commissioner of Public Health, a ruling that legalized same-sex marriage in Connecticut. Harper also served as a justice on the Connecticut Superior Court (1997–2005) and on the Connecticut Appellate Court (2005–2011).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joanna McClinton</span> Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives since 2023

Joanna E. McClinton is an American politician from Pennsylvania currently serving as the 143rd Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives since February 28, 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, she is the first woman to serve as Speaker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Gay Scanlon</span> American politician (born 1959)

Mary Gay Scanlon is an American attorney and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, she has represented Pennsylvania's 5th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives since 2019. The district is based in Delaware County, a mostly suburban county west of Philadelphia, and also includes a southwestern portion of Philadelphia itself as well as slivers of Chester and Montgomery counties. Scanlon spent the final two months of 2018 as the member for Pennsylvania's 7th congressional district. She was elected to both positions on November 6, 2018. That day, she ran in a special election in the old 7th to serve out the term of her predecessor, Pat Meehan, and in a regular election for a full two-year term in the new 5th. She was sworn in as the member for the 7th on November 13, 2018, and transferred to the 5th on January 3, 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robin Bartleman</span> American politician and educator

Robin Bartleman is an American legislator and educator serving as a member of the Florida House of Representatives from the 103rd district. She assumed office on November 3, 2020. She is a Democrat, supporting affordable housing, resolving the state's property insurance crisis, dealing with flooding and increasing healthcare affordability.

References

  1. "History & Mission | Public Interest Law Center". www.pilcop.org. Retrieved 2016-10-04.
  2. "Part of a Network". Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
  3. "History & Mission". Public Interest Law Center. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
  4. "City man is Rhodes Scholar". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 24 November 2014. Retrieved 11 December 2014.
  5. "May Law Center Update" (PDF). May 1, 2000.
  6. "PBPC Celebrates 5th Anniversary | The Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center". pennbpc.org. Retrieved 2016-07-27.
  7. Epps, Joanne A. "Martin Luther King Breakfast with the Barristers' Association". Temple University Beasley School of Law. Retrieved 10 February 2015.
  8. "Law Center Honored to Receive NAACP Award | Public Interest Law Center". www.pilcop.org. Retrieved 2016-07-27.