by Amy F. Robertson | Jun 15, 2017 | Uncategorized
We are very excited to announce that a team of lawyers and (then) law students from CREEC and the University of Denver Sturm College of Law’s Civil Rights Clinic (CRC) is one of four national finalists for the Trial Lawyer of the Year award presented by Public Justice. We have been nominated for our work on the Anderson and Decoteau cases. Public Justice — a nonprofit organization that pursues high-impact lawsuits to combat social and economic injustice, protect the Earth’s sustainability and challenge predatory corporate conduct and government abuses — presents its Trial Lawyer of the Year Award to the attorney(s) who made the greatest contribution to the public interest within the past year by trying or settling a precedent-setting, socially significant case. CREEC also wants to congratulate the other three finalist teams, especially our good friends at Schneider, Wallace, Cotrell, Konecky, Wotkyns, LLP; Goldstein Borgen Dardarian & Ho; Legal Aid at Work; and the Disability Rights Legal Center for their great work on the Los Angeles sidewalk case, Willits v. Los Angeles. Possibly the coolest thing to come from this nomination will be the chance to hang out with these rockstars in Boston at the Public Justice gala! CREEC and the CRC brought the Anderson and Decoteau cases on behalf of men incarcerated in the Colorado State Penitentiary (CSP) who had been denied outdoor exercise for years or even decades. These men, who were locked in 90 square foot cells for 23 hours a day, were only permitted to exercise in an empty cell similar to the ones they live in with a narrow slit of a window and a pull-up bar....
by Amy F. Robertson | Jun 8, 2017 | Uncategorized
Welcome, Liz! CREEC is very excited to welcome our new Fellow, Elizabeth (Liz) Jordan! Liz is CREEC’s first annual Fellow and we are thrilled that she will be utilizing her extensive human rights experience to advance CREEC’s mission. After graduating from Yale with a BA in Political Science and Latin American Studies, Liz conducted human rights research in Madrid, Spain as a Fulbright Scholar. She graduated from New York University School of Law in 2013 as an Arthur Garfield Hays Civil Liberties Fellow. While in law school she participated in numerous internships and clerkships which focused on human and civil rights. As a Law Clerk for Orleans Public Defenders, she assisted public defenders in all aspects of their cases including trial preparations and investigations. As a Hays Fellow Law Intern, she drafted memoranda regarding imprisonment of indigent criminal defendants for non-payment of fines, as well as racial profiling in schools for the ACLU Racial Justice Program. She also conducted group orientation in English and Spanish for detained immigrants for the Legal Aid Society, Immigration Law Unit. After graduating from law school, Liz became a Fellow at the Capital Appeals Project in New Orleans, where she represented clients with first-degree and second-degree murder convictions. Before coming to CREEC, she was an Immigration Staff Attorney for The Door’s Legal Services Center, where she represented approximately 200 unaccompanied minors facing deportation. Outside the office, you can find Liz outdoors, hiking skiing, or riding horses (seems like she’ll fit right in in Colorado). Liz also loves spending time in museums and cooking, but her favorite activity is yoga! Welcome, Liz! We are excited...
