Public Interest Activities

The firm was founded with the explicit intent of furthering the public interest.  Originally focused on national energy policy issues, the firm's public interest activity has broadened to include a wide range of environmental, consumer, civil rights, and other public issues. Most of the firm's public interest work is done on a pro bono basis.

Among the public interest matters handled by the firm outside of the energy area are:

• Representation of Friends of the Earth in litigation seeking to prevent the construction of a dam on a river eligible for designation under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. Town of Summersville, W. Va. v. F.E.R.C., 780 F.2d 1034 (D.C. Cir. 1986).
  
• Representation of Consumers Union in administrative proceedings and litigation seeking fair enforcement of federal price controls.  Consumers Union of United States, Inc., Washington, D.C., 6 DOE ¶82,555 (1980).
  
  
• Representation of a coalition of environmental organizations in litigation to restrict the use of a carcinogenic termiticide.  National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides v. EPA, 679 F.Supp. 55 (D.D.C. 1988), reversed, No. 88-5147 (Feb. 3, 1989 D.C. Cir.).
  
• Representation of Consumers Union, on behalf of the travelling public, in the Eastern Airlines bankruptcy proceedings.  In re Ionosphere Clubs, Inc. and Eastern Air Lines, Inc., 1989 Bankr. LEXIS 1075 (Bk.S.D.N.Y. 1989).
  
  
• Representation of the class of patients at a hospital seeking to enforce the fiduciary obligations of the hospital's trustees to invest the hospital's surplus funds. Stern v. Lucy Webb Hayes National Training School for Deaconesses and Missionaries, 367 F.Supp. 536, 1973-2 CCH Trade Cas. Para. 74,808 (D.D.C. 1973) (class certification); 381 F.Supp. 1003 (1974) (merits).
  
  
• Defense of the president of a non-profit women's medical care facility in litigation against a board of directors which failed to meet its public obligations. In re Women's Medical Center of Washington, D.C., Inc., et al., Civil Action No. 0286-84, (D.C., Sup.Ct.).
  
  
• Representation of a member of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) subjected to expulsion proceedings by the DAR because she publicly criticized the organization's apparent policy of excluding black candidates.
  
  
• Representation before the federal Bureau of Prisons of Orthodox Jewish prisoners in the federal penitentiary system as a class seeking kosher meals.
  
  
• Representation of various public interest organizations in Freedom of Information Act proceedings.  E.g., Roeder v. Federal Elections Commission, No. 79-0216, Slip op. (D.D.C. July 5, 1979); See also Federal Election Commission, 44 Fed.Reg. 53924 (proposed rule making, September 17, 1979).
  
  
• Volunteer public service activities by the firm's attorneys have included chairing of bar committees in the areas of consumer affairs, antitrust law, lawyer specialization, and title registration, chairing the Board of Directors of Tax Analysts, membership on the Judicial Conference of the District of Columbia, and on the Committee on Public Interest Law of the Harvard Law School Alumni Association. 
  
  
• Members of the firm have from time to time served in quasi-judicial positions.  Mr. Lobel was appointed by the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas to serve as Referee for the Resellers Escrow Fund, see In Re Dept. of Energy Stripper Well Exemption Litigation, 853 F.2d 1579, 1584 (TECA 1988). Ms. Helfrich was a member of the Board of Professional Responsibility of the D.C. Court of Appeals.