Feb. 15, 2005

GW Law Clinics Receive $2.4 Million Gift

By Jamie L. Freedman

GW Law’s Jacob Burns Community Legal Clinics received a $2.4 million gift, its largest ever, thanks to a successful class action lawsuit against a Washington, DC, cable company.

The lawsuit, Bassin and Weems v. District Cablevision Limited Partnership, was filed in 1996 by attorney Philip Friedman of Friedman Law Offices, P.L.L.C., to recoup a fortune in illegal late fees from cable television giants. The case recently settled at $13.7 million. After providing each affected cable customer with an opportunity to recover the overcharges, Friedman asked the court to distribute the remaining funds among four DC clinics, including GW’s Law Clinics, as part of a “cy pres” award. “Cy pres” is a concept that comes from probate law and essentially strives to find the next best use for unclaimed money.

Friedman felt strongly that the money should go to “institutions that protect consumers in the District of Columbia and provide legal counsel to those least able to afford it.” He explained, “This was a community that was grossly underserved in terms of having access to courts and legal services. Here is money that individually may not have meant a lot to the people who had the right to get their five, 10, or 50 dollars, but suddenly these small sums of money aggregate into large sums of money that really can make a substantial difference in people’s lives.”

Friedman, who filed similar cases in Maryland, Indiana, Illinois, and Texas, said that he also wanted to underscore the importance of class actions in bringing real benefits to the people they are designed to protect. “You always hear that all the money goes to the lawyers and the consumers get nothing,” he stated. “This is an example of how class actions really do work. It not only stopped a predatory practice, but it took the money and used it for the longer term benefit of preventing further predatory practices.”

The endowment gift will make a substantial impact on GW’s Legal Clinics for years to come, according to GW Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs Carol Izumi. “Our clinical program is tremendously grateful to Phil Friedman for naming us as one of the cy pres beneficiaries,” she said. “The award acknowledges the 30-plus years of legal services we have offered to DC residents and will allow us to have an even greater impact on the community in the future.”

Nationally recognized, the University’s Legal Clinics focus on civil litigation, consumer mediation, domestic violence, federal, criminal, and appellate law, health law rights, immigration law, international human rights, public justice advocacy, small business/community economic development, and vaccine injury.

Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu