Public Counsel - Pro Bono Online

Dan Grunfeld Accepts Key Position
in Villaraigosa Administration

Public Counsel's longtime President and CEO, Daniel Grunfeld, has accepted a top position in the administration of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Grunfeld will serve as Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy where he will play a leadership role in coordinating, prioritizing, supporting and implementing the Mayor's policy agenda. In this position, he will be a member of the Mayor's executive leadership team.

"Los Angeles is a renaissance city, bursting with infinite hope, rich opportunity and extraordinary inspiration and creativity. I look forward to working with Mayor Villaraigosa and my new colleagues in the Mayor's Office to help Los Angeles fulfill its destiny as a model city for the 21st Century," said Grunfeld. "I leave Public Counsel knowing that it will never leave me. It has been the highlight of my professional life. Whatever I may have meant to Public Counsel pales in comparison to what Public Counsel has, and will always, mean to me."

Public Counsel past Chairperson, Karlene Goller, Vice President and Deputy General Counsel for the Los Angeles Times, remarked, "For ten years, Dan has provided Public Counsel and our thousands of clients with exemplary leadership and effective service. Although Dan leaves us now, our mission of providing quality legal services to this city's neediest residents continues as it has for three decades. We will undertake it under a new president and dedicated and capable staff and volunteers who are devoted to providing our clients with equal treatment and quality advice that they would not otherwise receive and that a decent society should demand."

Grunfeld has served as President and CEO for Public Counsel since January 1998. During his tenure, Public Counsel nearly tripled in size becoming the largest pro bono public interest law firm in the world. In 2006, with the assistance of over 3,600 volunteers, Public Counsel provided services to over 25,000 individuals and nonprofit organizations, providing over $66 million in free assistance. In the past decade, Public Counsel has developed, implemented and expanded numerous new programs to meet evolving community needs, including: strategic and legal advice to micro-businesses and community-based health clinics; the institution of a special education program; expansion of the Adoptions Program, which will soon complete the successful adoption of its 6,000th child out of the foster care system; the co-forming of The Los Angeles Pro Bono Council; assistance to Katrina evacuees in Los Angeles; and creation of the first state court appellate law pro bono project. In recent years, Public Counsel's work and impact have expanded nationally and internationally.

"During his nearly ten years as the leader of Public Counsel, Dan took a great organization and pushed it, led it and inspired it to higher heights than ever before. Along the way he established himself as an unparalleled leader in the fight against poverty in California and beyond. More than any other leader of any other important legal services organization, Dan has accomplished more with his intelligence, passion, creativity and stature, becoming a singular voice in the battle to ensure a fair chance for all of our neighbors. He has done more with his position than anyone else, making our community a better, far more humane, place," said David Lash, former Executive Director of Bet Tzedek and now Managing Pro Bono Counsel with O'Melveny & Myers LLP.

"Part of Grunfeld's legacy is Public Counsel's extraordinarily talented team of full-time in-house lawyers headed by a nationally-respected Directing Attorney in each major subject matter area; and, in addition, extraordinary individuals heading its financial, administrative and fundraising functions," said Martin Zohn of Proskauer Rose LLP, the Board's Vice Chairperson.

Public Counsel has launched a national search to select Grunfeld's successor. "It would be hard to overstate Dan's contributions, either to our community in general or to Public Counsel in particular," said Wayne Barsky of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, who became Chairperson of Public Counsel's Board in September. "We are confident that, thanks to the efforts of Dan and all of the outstanding staff of Public Counsel, we will attract a wide array of similarly spirited and accomplished candidates deeply committed to the cause of equal justice."