The Conference on Public Service and the Law

at the University of Virginia School of Law

Public Private Partnerships Workshop

Today, most law students seem to consider the choice between private practice and public service as an either/or proposition. In what ways do the public and private sectors work together to promote social justice and provide legal services to otherwise underrepresented portions of the community?

Richard Schragger
Professor of Law, University of Virginia
A scholar of local government law, land use, and legal theory, Richard Schragger returned to Virginia after a year as a Visiting Professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. Before joining the faculty, he was a Visiting Professor at the Quinnipiac University School of Law in Hamden, Connecticut, and a Visiting Scholar at Yale Law School. His publications and research interests focus on questions of scale and power in democratic theory, constitutional law, and property.

Karen Grisez
Special Counsel for Public Service, Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP
Karen T. Grisez is Special Counsel for Public Service, resident in Fried FrankÕs Washington, DC office. She joined the firm as a litigation associate in 1990 and became Public Service Counsel in 1996. In her role as Public Service Counsel, Ms. Grisez manages the intake and placement of pro bono matters; acts as liaison to national and local bar associations and legal services providers and provides substantive advice and assistance to other attorneys in the traditional pro bono practice areas.

Mary Levy
Director of the Education Project for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs
For the last several years, Mary Levy has played a major role in developing the District of ColumbiaÕs school finance legislation, performing fiscal analysis, research and educa-tion advocacy since 1980 on behalf of Parents United for the D.C. Public Schools, a city-wide parent advocacy group. She also worked from 1988 until 1998 as a consultant to the D.C. Committee on Public Education, a business and civic leaders' group, monitoring implementation of COPE's broad recommen-dations for reform of the D.C. Public Schools and analyzing DCPS staffing, budget and expenditures for COPE's periodic reports. Before joining the Washington Lawyers' Committee in 1990, Ms. Levy was in private practice, as a partner in Rauh, Lichtman, Levy & Turner (formerly Rauh, Silard & Lichtman). Her work consisted principally of civil litigation in school finance, labor law, civil rights, employment discrimination, and con-stitutional law. Ms. Levy received her J.D. from George Washington University in 1976.

Yvette Missri
Head of Pro Bono, Volunteers and Intake Program, The Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia

Debbie Segal
Chair of the ABA's Standing Committee on Pro Bono
Public Service and Pro Bono Partner at Kilpatrick Stockton in Atlanta
In 2002, Debbie Segal was appointed to chair the American Bar AssociationÕs Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service, where she served as a member from 1991 to 1997. She also served as a member of the ABA Steering Committee on the Unmet Legal Needs of Children and on the ABA Commission on Domestic Violence. Ms. Segal is Kilpatrick StocktonÕs Pro Bono Partner and leads the firmÕs attorneys in providing pro bono legal services to low-income clients, community groups and nonprofit organizations. Ms. Segal joined Kilpatrick Stockton from the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation, where, as executive director, she was responsible for the administration of the cityÕs largest Pro Bono Program.