Firm Honored by Rockland County Community Foundation
The Rockland Community Foundation recognized Latham as its Fundholder of the Year at its Annual Signature Awards Reception. In addition, the Fund for East Ramapo’s Public School Students, established by the firm two years ago, was named Fund of the Year.
In March 2022, Latham announced the formation of a donor-advised charitable fund benefiting the public school students of the East Ramapo Central School District in the Hudson Valley area of New York as well as an opening grant of US$125,000 to the Martin Luther King Multi-Purpose Center. The Fund for East Ramapo’s Public School Students was established through the Rockland Community Foundation using almost US$4 million in attorneys’ fees awarded to Latham as a result of the successful voting rights lawsuit spearheaded by the firm against the East Ramapo Central School District.
Together with the New York Civil Liberties Union, Latham brought the lawsuit against the school district in November 2017 on behalf of the Spring Valley National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and seven Black and Latino voters, alleging the district’s at-large method for school board elections denied the Black and Latino residents an equal opportunity to elect their preferred candidates under the federal Voting Rights Act. Following a nearly six-week bench trial in New York federal court, the Latham litigators prevailed in this hotly contested case seeking to restore and protect the vote of minority citizens in Rockland County.
The mission of the Fund for East Ramapo’s Public School Students is to partner with the East Ramapo community to identify areas of greatest need for its public school students and to support education and enrichment opportunities for those students. Over the past two years, the fund has granted more than US$185,000 to local East Ramapo organizations, including CANDLE, the Gerome Momperousse Center for Education, the Martin Luther King Multipurpose Center, the New York Civil Liberties Union, The Susan G. and Edmund W. Gordon Community Partnership, VCS Inc., and Wonder Girls.