(Chicago – July 11, 2007) – Chicago attorney Lowell E. Sachnoff has made a lifetime believing in people like Walid Ibrahim and other victims of civil rights violations. As a result, the Reed Smith Sachnoff & Weaver name partner has made a career of not only practicing the law, but influencing its change.

Today, the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law will recognize Sachnoff with its Edwin A. Rothschild Award for Lifetime Achievement in Civil Rights. Sachnoff is the fourth recipient of the award since it was established in 1997. The award will be presented at the Committee’s 38th Annual Meeting in the grand ballroom of The Palmer House Hilton Hotel, 17 E. Monroe St., Chicago.

Sachnoff helped found the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee in 1969 to protect the civil rights of the poor, disenfranchised and society’s most vulnerable. He also had served as its chairman, and he continues to serve on the board of the National Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

The son of Ukrainian parents who fled Eastern Europe to escape oppression against Jews and immigrated to Chicago’s historic Maxwell Street during The Depression, as a child, Sachnoff witnessed first hand the devastating effects of poverty and discrimination. He now resides in Evanston, Ill.

He later attended Harvard College on an academic scholarship and Harvard Law School, where he graduated in 1957. He also served as an officer with the Office of Naval Intelligence during the Korean War before founding Sachnoff & Weaver in 1963.

“Dean Erwin Griswold always told his students they have an obligation to do more than represent the narrow economic interests clients, but to use the law to make our society a just and equitable society,” Sachnoff said of his law school dean. “It may seem like a cliché, but I have always felt obligated to do more and to give something back.”

For instance, in the 1960s he left private practice to serve as General Counsel for the Illinois Department of Mental Health where he spearheaded revisions to the state mental health code to enhance protections for the rights of the mentally ill.

In the mid-1980s, Sachnoff and a team of lawyers he led won a landmark jury verdict against the City of Chicago and its policy that allowed police to routinely strip search women for minor traffic stops and misdemeanors. 

And he served as lead counsel for a national class of women’s health clinics in obtaining a nationwide injunction in1998 against forcible blockades of clinic entrances. The injunction was later lifted and superseded by the federal Freedom of Access to Clinics Act of 1994.

Today, Sachnoff continues to fight for those like Walid Ibrahim Mustafa Abu Hijazi, a Guantanamo prisoner for five years who has yet to be charged with a crime. Swept up in U.S.-backed bounties promising “wealth and power beyond all dreams,” Walid has been unable to provide any information about terrorist activities largely due to severe mental illness. But the 27-year-old continues to be held.

Sachnoff and other Reed Smith partners are working in collaboration with the Center for Constitutional Rights to represent prisoners like Walid, whose mental illness has worsened during what Sachnoff described as “five years detention in stark, mind-numbing solitary confinement.” Guantanamo, he explained, has been a prison with no laws – “a legal black hole” – where prisoners for years have had no rights, no lawyer access and no ability to contest their detention.

Michael A. LoVallo, managing partner of Reed Smith’s Chicago office and president of Sachnoff & Weaver prior to this year’s merger between the two firms, called Sachnoff’s work inspirational.

“Lowell has been a role model for younger lawyers in the firm who are encouraged to devote their time and energy to work that has kept the firm in the forefront of the advancement of a just society,” LoVallo said.  “The shared values and commitment to civil rights among lawyers at both Reed Smith and Sachnoff & Weaver  was an instrumental component of our merger,” he added. In 2006, 64 percent of Reed Smith’s U.S. attorneys provided pro bono services totaling 36,484 hours.

Named after Edwin Rothschild, a founding member of the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee and a lifelong member, the lifetime achievement award has only been presented on occasion when warranted. Past recipients include Tom Morsch, a Northwestern University law professor and a former attorney at Sidley Austin; Judd Miner of Miner, Barnhill & Galland, and Ron Miller at Miller Shakman & Beem.

“As a founder of the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, Lowell Sachnoff has been a leader in the effort to bring the talent and expertise of the private bar to the fight for civil rights and social justice,” Executive Director Clyde E. Murphy of the Committee said. “His receipt of the Edwin A. Rothschild Award for Lifetime Achievement in Civil Rights recognizes the vision, tenacity and leadership Lowell has brought to this effort in Chicago and nationally.”

###

About Reed Smith

Reed Smith is one of the 15 largest law firms in the world, with more than 1,500 lawyers in 21 offices throughout the United States, Europe and the Middle East. Founded in 1877, the firm represents leading international businesses from Fortune 100 corporations to mid-market and emerging enterprises. Its attorneys provide litigation services in multi-jurisdictional matters and other high stake disputes, deliver regulatory counsel, and execute the full range of strategic domestic and cross-border transactions. Reed Smith is a preeminent advisor to industries including financial services, life sciences, health care, advertising and media, shipping, international trade and commodities, real estate, and education. For more information, visit reedsmith.com.

US: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Oakland, Princeton, Falls Church, Wilmington, Century City, Richmond, Leesburg

UK and Europe: London, Paris, Munich, Birmingham, Piraeus

Middle East: Abu Dhabi, Dubai