For Immediate Release
August 30, 2004

Contact:
Elissa Free, (202) 662-9500

Philip Friedman (center) presents check to: Professor Angela Campbell, Director of the Institute for Public Representation (IPR); Professor David Vladeck, IPR; Wallace Mlyniec, Associate Dean for Clinical Education/public Service and Professor Hope Babcock, Director, IPR's environmental law program.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As part of a large class action settlement in the state of Maryland, the environmental law clinic at Georgetown University Law Center is the beneficiary of more than $63,000, which it will use to further protect citizens of the region from environmental harm. These “cy pres” funds represent a portion of the proceeds not claimed in a $13.5 million class action settlement against local cable companies. Distributions also went to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the University of Baltimore School of Law.

Lead counsel for the plaintiffs, Philip Friedman of Friedman Law Offices PLLC in Washington, D.C., presented the funds to the law clinic in recognition of its efforts to preserve the quality of the Chesapeake Bay, a vital natural resource for all Marylanders. "While this money will help the clinic continue with its important efforts,” Friedman said, “it underscores the critical role that class actions can and do play in making wrongdoers accountable for their actions, and bringing lasting justice to large numbers of people.”

"We are absolutely delighted with this generous gift that will help us continue to protect the natural resources of the Chesapeake Bay and provide legal services to those living in the Bay watershed who suffer disproportionately from environmental harms,” said Professor Hope Babcock, director of Georgetown's environmental clinical law program.

Part of the Law Center's Institute for Public Representation, the environmental law clinic came into being in 1991 and has succeeded in protecting communities in the metropolitan area from destructive land uses such as trash and hazardous waste dumps. It has also fought to protect the area's natural environment from unwanted development.

In addition to Friedman's firm, seven other law firms served as counsel for the class:

•  Quinn, Gordon & Wolf (Towson, Md.)

•  Foard, Gisriel, O'Brien & Ward, (Towson, Md.)

•  Williams, Handley, Moore, Shockley & Harrison (Ocean City, Md.)

•  Baldwin, Briscoe & Mattingly (California, Md.)

•  Beins, Goldberg & Gleiberman (Washington, D.C.)

•  Mason Law Firm (Washington, D.C.)

•  DiTommaso & Lubin (Chicago, Il.)

About Georgetown University Law Center

Georgetown University Law Center is one of the world's premier law schools. It has the largest full-time faculty in the nation and is pre-eminent in several areas, including constitutional, international, tax and clinical law. Drawing on its Jesuit heritage, it has a strong tradition of public service and is dedicated to the principle that law is but a means, justice is the end. With this principle in mind, the Law Center has built an environment that cultivates an exchange of ideas and the pursuit of academic excellence. It brings together an extraordinarily varied group of teachers, scholars and practitioners, as well as an outstanding student body.

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