Legal Services NYC-Bronx Board Chair Shares Thoughts on Supreme Court Nominee

Legal Services NYC-Bronx Board Chair Ellen P. Chapnick, Dean of the Social Justice Program at Columbia Law School, appeared on CNN on May 27th to talk about her friend and colleague, Supreme Court Nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor.

About Ellen P. Chapnick: 

In addition to being  the Legal Services NYC-Bronx Board Chair, Ellen Chapnick is the Dean of the Social Justice Program and a
Lecturer-in-Law at Columbia Law School. As Dean, her responsibilities include development and
implementation of projects that will further Columbia's excellence in
preparing the public interest, government and human rights lawyers of
the future. She also teaches the Externship on Pro Bono Practice and
Design. Prior to Columbia, she was a federal litigator at Wolf Popper
Ross Wolf & Jones, where, among other matters, she represented
class plaintiffs in In re Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Litigation, for which
she and her co-counsel shared TLPJ's 1995 Trial Lawyer of the Year
Award. She also had been a staff attorney at the Puerto Rican Institute
for Civil Rights in San Juan and at various labor unions. Ms.
Chapnick’s recent pro bono work includes serving as chair of the Association of American Law
Schools' Section on Pro Bono and Public Service Opportunities and
president of the Center for Constitutional Rights. Ms. Chapnick has
received the Association of American Law Schools' Father Robert F.
Drinan award, Sanctuary for Families' Abely Pro Bono Achievement Award,
Legal Aid Society of New York's award for outstanding pro bono publico
service and the Pro Bono Students America award for best Law School
public interest program. She is the author of several articles and the
Access to the Courts chapter in the American Bar Association's The Law
of Environmental Justice.

Ms. Chapnick is an honor graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and Cornell University, College of Arts and Sciences.