Richard Chernick, JAMS and Crowell & Moring Honored at Inner City Law Center’s 24th Annual Awards Luncheon
LOS ANGELES, CA (May 5th, 2024) On May 8, more than 400 leaders from the Los Angeles legal, business, and civic communities will gather for Inner City Law Center’s 24th Annual Luncheon at the Omni Los Angeles Hotel to support Inner City Law Center’s transformative work in Skid Row and honor champions in the fight to end homelessness.
In 2023, Inner City Law Center served over 3,000 community members, provided free legal representation to over 1,700 clients, including over 728 tenants facing eviction. Inner City Law Center’s impact relies on pro bono work from 834 attorneys and legal staff who donated more than 14,700 hours last year to help Inner City Law Center clients stand up to slumlords and fight back against unjust evictions. Inner City Law Center’s Annual Awards Luncheon is an opportunity to recognize some of Los Angeles’s most dedicated and prolific pro bono advocates.
Each year at Inner City Law Center’s Annual Awards Luncheon, the Katharine Krause Award is presented to an individual or entity that has made notable contributions to our client communities. Katharine Krause was a well-respected attorney, an early leader of the public interest law community, and an Inner City Law Center Board member.
“JAMS, and especially Vice President Richard Chernick, are longtime Inner City Law Center supporters. JAMS and Richard have shown a deep commitment to legal aid and community service in Los Angeles,” said Adam Murray, Chief Executive Officer at Inner City Law Center. “It is an exceptional pleasure to honor Richard and JAMS with the Katharine Krause Award because Richard worked shoulder to shoulder with Katharine at the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles. This has a special meaning for him.”
At the luncheon, Inner City Law Center will also recognize Crowell & Morning’s many hours of pro bono work to address the homeless crisis in Los Angeles by honoring the law firm with the 2024 Humanitarian Award.
Inner City Law Center’s Humanitarian Award is presented to an individual or entity who has demonstrated a remarkable commitment to the most vulnerable members of the community in Los Angeles. Past recipients of the Humanitarian Award include former Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl (2023), violinist and MacArthur Genius Grant winner Vijay Gupta (2019), as well as former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (2002).
“The many hours of pro bono legal work that lawyers from Crowell & Morning have donated fighting for Inner City Law Center clients show an incredible commitment to the fight to prevent and address homeless in Los Angeles,” said Inner City Law Center Board President Kenneth Trujillo-Jamison. “Between 2021 and 2023 alone, Crowell & Moring donated more than 650 hours of legal services (valued at more than half a million dollars) to help Inner City Law Center clients fight unlawful evictions, stand up to slumlords, and claim public benefits.”
Other highlights of the Annual Awards Luncheon include a moving video of Inner City Law Center clients sharing their stories of facing or overcoming homelessness.
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About Inner City Law Center
Founded in 1980, Inner City Law Center is a nonprofit, poverty-law firm working to end the homelessness crisis by providing free legal services to the most vulnerable residents of Los Angeles. It is the only legal aid organization with headquarters in Skid Row.
Inner City Law Center’s staff of more than 130 (including 70 lawyers), together with hundreds of volunteers, fight for people facing eviction, struggling with landlord harassment, fighting to secure their veteran or disability benefits, or standing up to slum housing conditions.
Contact: Jacqueline Burbank, Communications Manager, jburbank@innercitylaw.org or (213) 947-7902
