Events
Raun Rasmussen Raun Rasmussen has exhibited a lifelong commitment to ensuring access to justice for all, devoting his career to providing high quality legal services to low-income persons on a range of issues. Since 2003, Mr. Rasmussen has served as the Chief of Litigation and Advocacy at Legal Services for New York City (LSNY), supervising the Legal Support Unit, which provides comprehensive litigation and advocacy, leadership, support, and training to LSNY advocates and other poverty advocates throughout New York City. Prior to joining LSNY, he worked at South Brooklyn Legal Services (SBLS), a LSNY program, as a housing attorney and then as Director of Litigation. While at SBLS, Mr. Ras¬muss¬en helped develo¬p a highly successful foreclo¬sure prevention project designed to combat predatory lending practices and help senior homeowners prevent the loss of their homes. He also created and supervised the development of the Child Care Network Support Project, which continues to provide legal services and training to home-based child care providers, and is a national model for this kind of micro-entrepreneur community development work. During his notable career, Mr. Rasmussen has defended hundreds of low income families in eviction proceedings and commenced affirmative litigation in state and federal court in cases involving housing, consumer, environmental, zoning, family, disability, HIV, and social security issues. A few examples of cases Mr. Rasmussen has helped litigate are Gonzalez v. Metropolitan Transportation Authority, a suit filed on behalf of several individual clients and disability advocacy groups who claimed that the MTA violated the Americans with Disabilities Act in its administration of the city-wide paratransit system, and Kent Avenue Block Association v. New York City Board of Standards and Appeals, a suit challenging the granting of a zoning variance that would allow the construction of racially segregated housing. Mr. Rasmussen has also co-counseled with New York Lawyers for the Public Interest on a number of cases, including Organization of Waterfront Neighborhoods v. Carpinello, a suit challenging the City Department of Sanitation’s adoption of comprehensive siting regulations for solid waste transfer facilities that would have led to the concentration of noxious transfer stations in predominantly low-income neighborhoods of color. Mr. Rasmussen’s commitment to ensuring access to justice for all was evident early on in his career. Following his graduation from Harvard Law School, he worked as a law clerk at Chambers, Ferguson, Watt, Wallas & Adkins, P.A., researching and writing briefs for federal and state court appeals in civil rights, criminal and employment discrimination cases. In addition to utilizing his legal expertise and skill to assist low-income persons, Mr. Rasmussen has acted as a mentor to countless attorneys and has served as an Adjunct Professor of Legal Writing at New York Law School. He has also writ¬ten numerous articles on legal writing, land use and zoning, foreclosure, ethics, affirmative litigation and child care-related legal issues, including Zoning and Land-Use Laws: Tools to Create Housing and Services for Our Clients, 37 Clearinghouse Review 441 (2003); Protecting Seniors From Predatory Lenders, New York Law Journal, February 4, 1998; and Defending Rent-Controlled Tenants Against Eviction, New York Law Journal, December 8, 1992. Mr. Rasmussen received his B.A. from Amherst College and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. We are honored to present the Felix A. Fishman Award to Raun Rasmussen for his unwavering commitment to ensuring access to justice for all. |
 |
|
|
Useful Links
|