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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 15, 2005
CONTACT:
Tracy Schroth
Director of Communications
(510) 835-8098, x3013
John O'Toole, Director
(510) 835-8098, x3012
(Oakland, CA) - Attorney Patricia Arthur, nationally known for her work reforming youth prisons and increasing access to health care, housing, and other support and services for at-risk youth, is joining the National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) as senior attorney.
Arthur and three other attorneys will join NCYL Sept. 12. The other attorneys are Skadden fellow Bryn Martyna, Equal Justice Works fellow Laura Townsend, and Carin Ward. The addition of the four new attorneys increases NCYL's legal staff by 50 percent, from eight lawyers to 12.
Arthur is leaving Seattle, WA-based Columbia Legal Services after 25 years. She directed the organization's Institutions Project, which represents incarcerated youth, the disabled, and others confined to institutions in Washington State. Arthur is nationally known for a series of large-scale, precedent-setting cases in which she championed the rights of incarcerated youth to more humane treatment. Her victories include restricting or banning the use of isolation cells and pepper spray, restricting the incarceration of juveniles in adult prisons, and mandating that juvenile inmates receive treatment and an education. Arthur also worked on behalf of adult prisoners, the disabled, the mentally ill, and others who are institutionalized.
Arthur is the co-founder and founding President of TeamChild, a statewide advocacy organization based in Seattle that helps youth in trouble by addressing their basic health, housing, and educational needs.
Arthur said she joined NCYL in order to focus exclusively on children and youth.
"My position at NCYL provides the rarest of opportunities to work on a national scale for youth on issues that provide the greatest hope for change," Arthur said. She will focus on juvenile justice issues at NCYL.
She said she first applied for a job at NCYL fresh out of law school in 1979, but ultimately took a job with DNA-People's Legal Services, Inc. in Arizona, which provides free legal services to low-income residents on and near the Navajo Nation. Later, during her tenure at Columbia Legal Services, Arthur co-counseled cases with NCYL.
NCYL Director John O'Toole said, "Persuading Pat Arthur to leave Columbia Legal Services to work for NCYL is a major coup," he said. "She has the intelligence, passion, experience, and judgment that makes for a great lawyer."
Other new attorneys at NCYL include Skadden Fellow Bryn Martyna, a recent graduate of Stanford Law School, who will assist NCYL Senior Attorney Bill Grimm in carrying out reform of the foster care system in Washington State. The state agreed to broad reforms after NCYL and its co-counsel filed a class action lawsuit (Braam v. State of Washington) on behalf of thousands of foster children. Although the settlement calls for many improvements, it focuses on protecting children from the emotional harm caused by moving them repeatedly from one foster home to another. Martyna will work closely with an expert oversight panel, acting as liaison between the panel and stakeholders in the settlement, including foster children and parents, guardian ad litems, and Court Appointed Special Advocates. Martyna will serve in this role for the first two years of a seven-year implementation effort.
The Skadden Fellowship Foundation this year awarded 28 of the highly prestigious, two-year fellowships to judicial clerks and future law school graduates. All fellows work on projects of their own choosing, which help the poor or disadvantaged. The Skadden Fellowship Foundation, funded by the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, pays fellows' full salary, benefits, and all of their student loan payments during the fellowship period.
Equal Justice Works Fellow Laura Townsend, a recent graduate of Northwestern University Law School, will continue NCYL's work in the juvenile mental health courts. The courts divert youth with mental health problems from the juvenile justice system to community-based programs that provide treatment. Townsend will continue NCYL's efforts to include civil attorneys in the mental health court process. These attorneys represent youth on matters outside juvenile court jurisdiction, such as securing public benefits, participating in special education hearings, and sealing juvenile records. These efforts are aimed at improving the success of community treatment.
A pilot project in Santa Clara County, CA, which NCYL helped develop, has been extremely successful, and courts across the country have been adopting similar models. Townsend will assist these new courts in implementing the model, incorporating lessons learned from the pilot project in Santa Clara County.
Carin Ward, who just graduated from the University of Virginia Law School, will work with NCYL Deputy Director Patrick Gardner on children's mental health issues.
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