Pro Bono
Cowan, Liebowitz & Latman is committed to providing pro bono legal work and public service. We believe that pro bono work makes our attorneys better lawyers and better people; and our extensive history of providing pro bono services is a reflection of who we are and what we aspire to be.
The diverse pro bono legal work in which we are involved includes charitable and community service on behalf of trade and bar associations, human rights groups and educational causes. We have handled matters involving professional organizations within the legal community, such as The American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) and the New York City Bar Association.
The firm, as well as individual attorneys, have won various awards for their pro bono representation. For example, The 2007 Beacon of Justice Award was presented to our firm by the National Legal Aid & Defender Association in recognition of the pro bono representation we provided in support of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. One of our attorneys has acted as counsel to an inmate on death row in South Carolina and has received the Thurgood Marshall Award from the New York City Bar Association for the pro bono representation of an individual sentenced to death. Many of our attorneys also serve on boards and act as advisors to non-profit entities and public interest organizations, such as Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, UJA-Federation of New York and New World Records.
We draw upon our expertise in intellectual property law to assist a variety of intellectual property-intensive non-profits, trade and bar associations and government agencies in the U.S. and throughout the world. Members of our firm have prepared and filed amicus briefs in almost every federal circuit, as well as in the U.S. Supreme Court on a broad range of intellectual property issues. Notably, we prepared and filed two amicus briefs for the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of the AIPLA, supporting the constitutionality of Copyright Term Extension Act in Eldred v. Ashcroft, 123 S. Ct. 769 (2003) and supporting the broad protectibility of computer software under the Copyright Act in Lotus v. Borland, 116 S. Ct. 804 (1996).
We also prepared an amicus brief for the Copyright and Literary Property Committee of the New York City Bar Association in the Seventh Circuit's Liu v. Pricewaterhouse, 302 F.3d 749 (7th Cir. 2002), regarding the application of the work-made-for-hire doctrine. Recently, the Chairman of our firm, began advising the country of Malawi through the International Senior Lawyers Project on the modernization of Malawi's intellectual property laws. These are just a few of the many pro bono matters we have handled.
Our attorneys are also dedicated to teaching the next generation of students and lawyers, and inspiring them to perform community service. In addition to the presentations we make in numerous forums, we teach courses at various law schools, including Columbia University and New York University law schools. We have also participated in educational forums, taught courses, and served as mock trial judges at Yale University, the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Fordham Law School, NYU Law School, and Seton Hall University School of Law, among others.
For representative cases, click here.