Bay Area Attorney Eric Lifschitz Receives Jack Berman Award
For Pro Bono Work Representing Clients Exposed to Toxic Mold

Justice Kathryn M. Werdegar presents award to tort attorney at
State Bar of California Annual Meeting

ANAHEIM, CALIF.—An attorney with a penchant for science and a passion for justice is being honored for putting both into practice on behalf of low-income families.

Eric Lifschitz, a sole practitioner who has devoted hundreds of hours representing clients suffering personal injury from exposure to toxic mold, has received the 2003 Jack Berman Award of Achievement for Distinguished Service to the Profession and the Public. The award is presented each year by the California Young Lawyers Association in memory of Jack Berman, a young pro bono attorney killed in a 1993 shooting at 101 California Street in San Francisco. Recipients must be active members of the State Bar of California who are in their first five years of practice or age 36 or younger.

California Supreme Court Justice Kathryn M. Werdegar will present the award to Lifschitz at a reception today co-sponsored by Continuing Education of the Bar • California (CEB) and the California Young Lawyers Association (CYLA) as part of the 2003 Annual Meeting of the State Bar of California. The reception is being held 5-7 p.m. Friday, September 5, 2003, in Huntington Rooms A-B at the Anaheim Hilton.

Lifschitz received his B.S. in chemistry from the University of Michigan in 1995 and began his career in the medical research and diagnostic fields. He went on to receive his J.D. in May 2001 from the University of San Francisco School of Law and was admitted to the State Bar of California and the Federal Patent Bar later that year. For the past year and a half he has worked with the Volunteer Legal Services Program of the Bar Association of San Francisco, contributing more than 175 hours in pro bono service. He has also volunteered with the San Francisco Tenants Union, Bay Area Legal Aid, and Barristers' Law Academy Mentoring Program at Mission High School.

Lifschitz's pro bono work began with eviction defense. Upon visiting clients' homes, however, he found some of the residences severely contaminated by toxic mold, and he shifted his focus from resisting eviction to working out relocation arrangements-at the same time preserving his clients' right to sue landlords for failing to meet their obligation to provide habitable living environments. Lifschitz then advocated lawsuits on a contingency fee basis, providing a financially viable way to continue his practice.

"I am honored to receive the Jack Berman Award," Lifschitz says. "My hope is that by receiving it, I will draw attention to the model I have discovered: that pro bono work for clients whose rights are abused by landlords provides opportunities for attorneys to discover viable claims of the poor, and that those claims justify the investment of capital. My pro bono service has opened the door to identifying potential clients for my contingency fee practice."

Along with the Jack Berman Award, Lifschitz will receive a CEB Gold Passport, which will entitle him to thousands of dollars' worth of CEB continuing legal education programs.

CEB, a statewide continuing legal education provider and publisher founded in 1947, is part of the University of California and is co-sponsored by the State Bar of California. For more information, go to ceb.com or call (510) 302-2000.

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Further information about Eric Lifschitz is available at www.sflegalaid.com.