MoProBono - Spring 2018 Update

4 MoProBono Spring 2018 New York of counsel Jayson Cohen is passionate about fighting injustice. During law school, he developed the desire to give a voice to underrepresented members of the community. Recently, he reignited this passion by serving as a member of a Morrison & Foerster pro bono team that achieved stunning success in reforming and completely overhauling unreasonable “hot check” court practices in Arkansas. “Hot checks” are those returned for insufficient funds. “While in law school I became very interested in 14th Amendment due process and equal protection issues,” Jayson explained. “As a patent litigator, however, I’m very much engaged with commercial clients, so for the first few years of practice at Morrison & Foerster, I was not as involved in pro bono as I’d liked to have been. “But starting in 2016, I had more time and decided I wanted to get more involved. So I spoke with Morrison & Foerster senior pro bono counsel Jennifer Brown about how I could do so. Initially I worked on a couple of pro bono matters, and when the Arkansas hot check case came up, I stepped in to join a team co-led by Morrison & Foerster partner Alex Lawrence and then-partner Chet Kerr, with associates Joe Sulzbach, Erica Richards, Andrew Kissner, Rob Baehr, and senior paralegal Susan Tice. The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the Arkansas ACLU served as co-counsel.” Morrison & Foerster’s suit, filed in August 2016 in federal court in Little Rock, detailed how the Sherwood, Arkansas hot check division of the local district court trapped poor people who bounced a check in a quagmire of ever- mounting fees and costs, sending many to what amounted to debtors’ prison for being unable to pay. “As a member of the team I helped analyze legal issues and facts surrounding the case and drafted parts of the complaint,” said Jayson. “I also went to Arkansas to investigate, where I visited the prison where hot check case defendants were jailed. The case was a challenging one and fought primarily on procedural grounds. I was fortunate to argue against the motion to dismiss before the federal court. In the end we got a good settlement that institutionalized constitutional procedures, including a complete overhaul of the court’s practices. It was as good an outcome as if we’d litigated it. “This case has affected thousands of poor people who now no longer face the threat of lifelong debt and jail time because they made the mistake of passing a bad check. It’s a true victory for equal justice under the law. While our case lit a fire in Arkansas, it’s just one piece of the puzzle. Hopefully it will spread to other jurisdictions. “Overall, my work on the Arkansas hot check case and other Morrison & Foerster pro bono cases has provided me with the ability to not just talk the talk but walk the walk. Not only have I been able to use my strategic litigation knowledge; this is also an opportunity to help make change I believe in. I’m looking forward to continuing my involvement in Morrison & Foerster’s pro bono efforts in the future.” VERBATIM “This case has affected thousands of poor people who now no longer face the threat of lifelong debt and jail time because they made the mistake of passing a bad check. It’s a true victory for equal justice under the law.” JAYSON COHEN