Law Office of Peter Henner (518) 768-8232 |
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LAW PRACTICE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE Peter
Henner has maintained a full time solo law practice since August 1,
1984, dedicated to the representation of individuals and organizations
who have been wronged by corporations or governments or who are
fighting for social justice, particularly victims of discrimination,
labor organizations and union dissidents, environmental advocates, and
opponents of obnoxious projects. Before opening his own office,
he had served as the General
Counsel for Council 82, AFSCME and as an Assistant Counsel for the New
York State Assembly
Majority. Since
Peter's initial admission to the bars of both Peter has been practicing law for
more than 30 years. If he is going to continue to practice, it is
more inportant than ever that his law practice promotes the cause of
justice. Peter seeks cases where he can meaningfully advocate for
social and political change. It
is not always clear who are the "good guys" in a particular
situation. In the environmental field, particularly when dealing
with
energy and solid waste issues, many competing forces have legitimate,
opposing
interests that are entitled to legal representation. In labor
relations,
issues are often even more muddled; not all unions and employees are
good, nor
is all management, especially in the public sector, bad. Many
lawyers
have used this fact to justify representation of plainly bad
actors. On
the other hand, there are lawyers who, for business reasons, will limit
their
practice to one side of a dispute (e.g. law firms that only represent
unions). In 2010, Peter represented the
teachers' association of a charter school, individual teachers and
parents, and ultimately the charter school itself, in a lawsuit
challenging the determination of the State of New York to close the
school. Peter strongly believes in public schools and, in
principle, does not
support the idea of charter schools as an alternative. However,
he also
believed that the particular charter school was
an important resource for the community and that the coalition of
parents, teachers and
local leaders deserved support in their efforts to keep the school
open. Some
of Peter's clients may not pass an artificial litmus test of "political
correctness".
However, Peter's practice is dedicated to the representation of
individuals, organizations and entities that are either affirmatively
working
to remedy a wrong or to promote a socially important principle, or who
are
responding to an attempt to deprive them of important rights or
benefits.
This is not to say that all of Peter's clients are in the right all of
the
time; it is to say that Peter selects clients based upon a belief that
representation of a particular client advances the cause of
justice. Peter
does not select clients on the basis of "labels", but sets firm
limits based on the actual activities of
the potential
client. For example, 1) although Peter primarily represents
unions and individual employees, he will
represent management in labor relations, especially governmental bodies
and non-profit organizations, but
not union busters, 2) he will represent landowners and
municipalities with
respect to land use matters, but not large developers or
significant
environmental violators, 3) he will represent individual police and
correction
officers accused of misconduct, especially when he believes that they
are
wrongly accused, but not corrupt law enforcement agencies. Peter's clients include the municipality
that is seeking to become a
"green" city, the community group seeking to stop an
ill-considered landfill, the civil servant fired for criticizing
the
County Executive, the female police Lieutenant seeking to smash
the blue glass ceiling of a large urban police department, the union
trying to organize a union-busting company,
the whistleblower seeking to expose government fraud, the
victim of environmental outrage, anywhere in the world, as well as
people and
groups who have been mistreated by arbitrary governmental actions, or
oppressed
by corporate greed and arrogance. Peter has
proactively investigated and litigated claims against corporate and
municipal
polluters under the Clean Water Act, and corporations that have
defrauded the In December 2011, Peter is representing the chairman of a state public authority in his efforts to ensure that the authority fulfills its public mission, the Town of New Scotland and a cross-section of the local community in litigation to reverse the decision of the Postal Service to close a local post office, and environmental activists who have been targeted for retaliatory building code enforcement by the City of Albany. He is also seeking to revive the Alliance for Environmental Renewal, an organization that he helped to establish in 1993 and represented in numerous citizen suits under the Clean Water Act.
A lawyer needs to make a living, but it is
critical that a law practice, especially one established by a career
activist, serve the goal of promoting a better world. To quote
Rabbi Hillel's most famous saying: "If I am not for myself, who will
be for me?
If I am not for others, what am I? And if not now, when?" |
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2011 Law office of Peter Henner |
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