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Affordable Insulin Initiative Takes a Step Forward

By: alan-yatvin

In the June of 2016, the Board of Directors of the American Diabetes Association (ADA) asked Board Member Alan L. Yatvin to chair the ADA’s Insulin Access Workgroup to address the problem of access to affordable insulin.  Charged with helping to develop and inform ADA policy, the Workgroup was made up of members and officers of the Board of Directors.  Working with then-Chief Advocacy Officer, Shereen Arent, the Workgroup developed a Resolution on Insulin Affordability which was approved by the Board on November 17, 2016.

Yatvin then worked with ADA staff to build and publicize an on-line petition based on the resolution, seeking transparency in the insulin supply chain and affordable insulin.  The petition also called on Congress to hold hearings to identify the reasons for the dramatic increases in insulin prices and to act to ensure all people who need insulin have affordable access to this lifesaving medication.  The Stand up for Affordable Insulin Petition, has garnered over 300 thousand signatures and is the ADA’s most successful petition. Continue reading “Affordable Insulin Initiative Takes a Step Forward”

Zucker speaks at seminar for Philadelphia Commerce Court judges pro tempore

By: alan-yatvin

Partner Marc Zucker recently co-planned and participated in a panel presentation with three judges of the Commerce Program of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, designed to train sophisticated business litigators to serve as judges pro tempore at court-sponsored mediations and settlement conferences.  More than 40 experienced business litigators attorneys attended the two-hour Philadelphia Bar Association seminar on March 19, 2018, in addition to the three judges.  Among other topics, Zucker and his fellow panelists addressed new procedural developments, new roles for Commerce JPTs and best practices in preparing for and conducting a settlement conference or mediation. A business litigation partner of the firm, Zucker frequently serves as a private mediator or arbitrator, in addition to his volunteer service to the court.

On the passing of Linda Brown: Remembering Brown v. Board of Education

By: alan-yatvin

On Sunday, March 25, 2018, Linda Brown of Topeka, Kansas, passed away at age 75.  Brown was an educational consultant, civil rights activist and public speaker.  But to many she was also the face of a historic decision on desegregation in public education.

In 1950, then seven year old Linda Brown asked her father, Oliver, why she had to make a long walk across train tracks and a busy street to catch a bus to an elementary school across town, when the Sumner Elementary School, attended by her friends from the integrated neighborhood in which she lived, was just four blocks from her house. Oliver Brown promised his daughter he would try to change that. Topeka’s high schools and junior high schools were already integrated, but its elementary schools remained segregated.  On the advice of the NAACP, he took her to Sumner to enroll, but they were turned away.  Oliver Brown then agreed to be a plaintiff in a suit against the Topeka Board of Education.  That suit led to a landmark decision from the United States Supreme Court outlawing so-called separate but equal discrimination in public education.  By the time of the 2004 ruling, Linda Brown was enrolled in an integrated junior high school.(( https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/03/26/597154953/linda-brown-who-was-at-center-of-brown-v-board-of-education-dies))

On the 50th anniversary of the Brown decision, I wrote an essay for Philadelphia’s newspaper serving the legal community, The Legal Intelligencer.  On the occasion of Linda Brown’s passing, I am republishing that essay about the case her father brought to fulfill a promise to her.

Continue reading “On the passing of Linda Brown: Remembering Brown v. Board of Education”

A snowy December night in The Hague

By: alan-yatvin

I was in The Hague for a meeting of the Association of Defense Counsel at the International Courts (ADC-ICT).  This was my last day in The Netherlands before heading home and it was snowing.

Winter Landscape with Skaters by Hendrick Avercamp

With images of Hendrick Avercamp’s impish 17th century paintings and childhood memories of Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates (book and movie) dancing in my head, I set out for the “centrum” to fill the last afternoon of my vacation.  However, that snowy, frozen canal climate is long gone from this country.  Unused to so much snow in a short period of time the Dutch city was, if not paralyzed, substantially slowed down. Continue reading “A snowy December night in The Hague”

Sex-Shamed To Death: How Oklahoma Prosecutors Used Sex And Infidelity To Put A Woman On Death Row

By: alan-yatvin

Today we write to recommend an essay by our long-time friend and colleague, Marc Bookman.  Marc is the co-director of the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation, a non-profit agency helping adults and juveniles facing severe punishments.

Marc’s essay, Sex-Shamed To Death: How Oklahoma Prosecutors Used Sex And Infidelity To Put A Woman On Death Row, was published on October 10, 2017, by IN JUSTICE TODAY, a publication of Harvard’s Fair Punishment Project.

Court of Appeals agrees with Yatvin on student’s right to attorney’s fees

By: alan-yatvin

In 2008, Alan L. Yatvin filed an administrative complaint under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) on behalf of Emily R., a second grader in the Ridley School District, in suburban Philadelphia. On March 30, 2017, after two previous appearances on this case in the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Yatvin was again before the Court for oral argument. Continue reading “Court of Appeals agrees with Yatvin on student’s right to attorney’s fees”