Please join us for a Zoom* lunchtime talk with Roberta ("Robbie") Kaplan, the founding partner of Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP and Lecturer in Law at Columbia Law School. In July 2017, Robbie left Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP after 25 years to found Kaplan Hecker & Fink, seeking to build what she calls a “new fashioned, old fashioned” law firm that combines a cutting-edge civil and criminal litigation practice with a groundbreaking commitment to using the courts to serve the public interest.
In one of their first cases as a firm, Kaplan Hecker sued the neo-Nazis and white supremacists who organized the racial- and religious-based violence that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017. The lawsuit took what has been described as an “audacious” legal approach, utilizing among other legal strategies an 1871 law that was intended to stop the mob-based violence of the Ku Klux Klan. Kaplan Hecker obtained a historic trial verdict and $26 million award to the plaintiffs, ensuring that the white nationalists would be held accountable for their actions.
Content Warning: The presentation will likely include a PowerPoint that has embedded videos, images, and testimony from the Charlottesville litigation, and this material includes, among other things, scenes of violence and hateful language. Please contact Eunice Hong ([email protected]) with any concerns.
*This event has moved online due to COVID-19 concerns. For those who already registered, lunch will continue to be served (in individually packaged boxes) in JG 101, and the room will be available for you to join by Zoom.
Because we no longer have space restrictions, the online event will be open to all CLS students. The Zoom info will be emailed to those who have registered and/or are waitlisted. If you did not previously register, and are interested in attending this event, please email Eunice Hong ([email protected]).
This event is sponsored by the Davis Polk Leadership Initiative.
