Legal Team’s Work for AIDS Victim Honored
An Orange County legal team has won a State Bar of California Pro Bono Service Award for representing a man who lost his job after his employer learned he was infected with the AIDS virus.
The volunteers from Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi in Costa Mesa were led by Holly Williams, an associate at the firm, and included Thomas Miller, Robert Terry and Lori Baunsgard. State Bar President Tom Stolpman said they helped to close an “alarming gap in legal services for the poor.”
Working on a referral from the Public Law Center in Santa Ana, the team set out to regain the client’s job, health insurance and lost wages. The man wound up with a six-figure settlement and was scheduled to return to work.
The client died just as the confidential settlement was reached, said Chip Reveal, a Robins, Kaplan partner. Reveal said the man’s employer could have tried to back out of the deal, but honored it by paying the settlement to the AIDS victim’s estate.
E. Scott Reckard covers workplace issues for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-7407 and at scott.reckard@latimes.com
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