Winkelman Receives 2006 Earl G. Harrison Award
On July 24, 2006 by Schnader in NewsFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Caroline M. Brobeil
Public Relations Manager
Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP
215-751-2061
cbrobeil@schnader.com
July 24, 2006 – Philadelphia, PA – Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP presented partner Nancy Winkelman with its 2006 Earl G. Harrison Pro Bono Award at a Firm-wide reception on June 19, 2006. Winkelman, co-chair of the Firm’s Appellate Practice Group and its Pro Bono Committee, was recognized for her career-long dedication to public service and pro bono work, mainly in the areas of disability law, prisoner civil rights and immigration.
“The Firm could not have chosen a more deserving recipient for this award,” remarked Schander Chairman Ralph Wellington. “The extent of Nancy’s pro bono commitment and activities is paralleled only by the conviction she brings to each representation. In all that she does, she exemplifies the principles and legacy of Earl G. Harrison.”
Winkelman has a long and noteworthy record of public service and pro bono matters. She has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Disabilities Law Project for more than a decade and currently serves as president of the Board. In 1997 and 1998, she worked on a trio of Third Circuit appeals involving the three-strikes provision of the Prisoner Litigation Reform Act (PRLA), which generally bars courts from granting in forma pauperis status to inmates who have had three prior lawsuits dismissed as frivolous. In 2000, she took on the Pennsylvania Parole Board’s policies in a Third Circuit appeal involving a Constitutional ex post facto clause issue. The next year, Winkelman went to the Supreme Court of the United States in a prisoner civil rights case involving the administrative exhaustion requirement of the PLRA and its application to claims seeking remedies not available under the prison grievance system.
More recently, Winkelman has focused her attention on immigration cases. In In re Camara, Winkelman and a team of Schnader lawyers filed a Third Circuit Petition for Review and Motion for Stay of Removal on behalf of a family from the Ivory Coast seeking political asylum, and then helped file a successful Petition for Mandamus in District Court, which enabled the entire family to remain safely in the United States.
Along with her own pro bono practice, for ten years Nancy has co-chaired Schnader’s Pro Bono Committee, providing advice and guidance to ensure the Firm’s pro bono program runs successfully. The Earl G. Harrison Pro Bono Award is only the latest in an impressive record of awards and honors Winkelman has received in recognition of her pro bono work. In 2000‚ the American Bar Association Section of Litigation recognized Nancy’s public service by awarding her the John Minor Wisdom Public Interest and Professionalism Award. In 2005, she received both the Pennsylvania Bar Association Pro Bono Award, recognizing excellence in providing pro bono legal services, and the first-ever “Passionately Pro Bono” Award from HIAS & Council, an immigration and asylum public-interest agency, in recognition of outstanding pro bono work on a particular asylum case.
Winkelman concentrates her practice in federal and state appellate litigation. She has handled cases in a variety of substantive areas before a number of appellate courts, including having presented argument before the Supreme Court of the United States. In 2004, Winkelman was selected as a fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, making her the ninth lawyer–and the first woman–to be selected as a fellow from the Third Circuit. Also in 2004, she received the Burton Award for Legal Achievement for her article, “Just a Brief Writer?” (Litigation, 2003), an award presented annually to 20 lawyers in the 500 largest law firms in the United States for excellence in legal writing.