Parsons Behle & Latimer (Parsons) is proud to announce that attorneys Brian M. Rothschild and Alex N. Vandiver have been awarded the Utah Federal Bar Association’s (Utah FBA) annual Pro Bono Award for 2024. The Utah FBA awarded the honor based on the Pinedo v. USA matter. The attorneys were celebrated at the Utah FBA’s annual awards dinner on April 25 at the Little America Hotel. Other awards given at the celebration were judge of the year and lawyers of the year.
Rothschild says, “Getting a divorce, being paid wages and benefits, discharge of debts, access to government benefits, and deprivation of our property and liberty are all governed by a legal system so complex that we as attorneys get to charge our clients hundreds of dollars an hour to navigate it. As attorneys, we greatly benefit from the complexity of the systems we have created. We have a concomitant duty to provide our services navigating that system to those who cannot afford our services.” Both Rothschild and Vandiver are well known at Parsons and the legal community for their dedication to providing pro bono legal counsel to clients in need.
Vandiver provides this summary of the Pinedo v. USA matter, for which the attorney team won the award:
This case arises out of an injury that Plaintiff Fabian Maldonado Pinedo sustained in July 2013 when he was an immigration detainee awaiting deportation by the United States Immigration and Customs enforcement agency (ICE). According to Mr. Maldonado, when he was being transferred from one cell to another at the holding facility – during which he was fully restrained by leg shackles, a belly chain and handcuffs—Immigration Enforcement Agent (IEA) and Defendant John Martinson, Jr. threw him headfirst to the concrete floor to punish him for questioning Agent Martinson’s authority. Mr. Maldonado brings a tort claim of assault and battery and a civil rights claim of excessive force. The Court then denied Mr. Maldonado’s Westfall Petition, tossing the civil rights claims against the U.S. and ICE. At that point, Mr. Maldonado’s attorneys withdrew from the case and the Court appointed Brian Rothschild as Mr. Maldonado’s pro bono attorney.
The two attorneys pursued the tort claims against IEA and John Martinson individually. Parsons’ attorneys settled the case shortly before trial.
Of receiving the honor, Vandiver says, “While I am very grateful for this award, I feel as though I do not deserve it. I am merely doing what I am supposed to be doing. We all have a duty to contribute to our communities, and I am only using the knowledge and skill that has been bestowed upon me to help my community. I hope this award may encourage others to become more involved.”
Parsons congratulates these worthy attorneys for their hard work, dedication and commitment to providing pro bono legal services to those in need and for being named the recipients of this prestigious pro bono award.
