Human Rights First Recognizes Finnegan with the 2010 Frankel Award for the Firm’s Pro Bono Efforts

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 21, 2010

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Human Rights First Recognizes Finnegan with the 2010 Frankel Award for the Firm’s Pro Bono Efforts

WASHINGTON, DC - On Friday, October 21, 2010, at its annual awards dinner, Human Rights First (HRF) announced that it was presenting Finnegan with its 2010 Frankel Award.  The award, established in 2002, pays tribute to lawyers and law firms for outstanding pro bono work on behalf of refugees seeking asylum.  Finnegan was selected based on its long history of taking on and winning a wide range of challenging asylum cases for pro bono clients in the Washington, D.C. area. 

Finnegan has worked with HRF since 1998.  One of Finnegan's first clients was a political dissident from Sudan whom the firm shepherded through obtaining asylum to citizenship.  Finnegan represented an Iranian dissident political journalist from asylum to citizenship including safely evacuating his children from Lebanon during the conflict in 2006, and a persecuted ethnic minority from the Congo from asylum to permanent residency.  Recently, Finnegan successfully obtained asylum for persecuted refugees from Ethiopia and an Afro-Columbian political activist and his family.

About Finnegan

With more than 375 intellectual property lawyers, Finnegan is one of the largest IP law firms in the world. From offices in Washington, DC; Atlanta, Georgia; Cambridge, Massachusetts; Palo Alto, California; Reston, Virginia; Brussels, Belgium; Shanghai, China; Taipei, Taiwan; and Tokyo, Japan, the firm practices all aspects of patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secret law, including counseling, prosecution, licensing, and litigation. Finnegan also represents clients on IP issues related to international trade, portfolio management, the Internet, e-commerce, government contracts, antitrust, and unfair competition. For additional information on the firm, please visit www.finnegan.com.

About The Frankel Award

Human Rights First honors the memory of Judge Marvin E. Frankel, a founding father of HRF, by annually presenting an award in his name to law firms who have demonstrated an outstanding commitment to human rights-related pro bono representation.  Under Judge Frankel’s leadership, HRF developed a nationally recognized pro bono program for asylum seekers, placing cases with partner law firms across the country and providing training and support. The program now generates over 70,000 pro bono attorney hours a year through the efforts of lawyers in New York and Washington who represent more than 1,000 refugees from more than 80 countries in their asylum proceedings.

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