Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowlege the following individuals, who have contributed to the Manual and its recent updates.

Jeffrey S. Gutman, a professor of clinical law at George Washington University School of Law, coordinated and managed recent updates to  the Federal Practice Manual. Prior to coming to the Law School in 1994, Professor Gutman served as a trial attorney in the Federal Programs Branch, Civil Division, Department of Justice. His work at Justice principally involved representing the federal government in constitutional and administrative challenges to federal statutes and regulations in federal courts throughout the country. Among the cases he litigated were challenges to the military base closing statute, firearms control legislation and regulations, legislation governing the receipt of honoraria by federal employees, the savings and loan reform statutes, and private meetings of government advisers. Dean Gutman clerked for a federal district court judge in California after graduating from law school. He directs the Public Justice Advocacy Clinic, teaches Civil Procedure, and has served as associate dean for academic affairs from 2000 to 2008.

Gill Deford is the Director of Litigation at the Center for Medicare Advocacy. Mr. Deford was a staff attorney for eighteen years with the National Senior Citizens Law Center in Los Angeles, specializing in health law, public pensions, ERISA, and SSI. He was later the director of a Massachusetts agency providing legal assistance to people with mental disabilities and a staff attorney with the health law team at AARP Foundation Litigation in Washington, D.C.  Since 1999 he has been with the Connecticut office of the Center for Medicare Advocacy, where his work focuses on federal court litigation and appellate practice, usually involving class actions or organizational representation. His law degree is from the University of Virginia and his Bachelor’s Degree is from Harvard University.

Gregory Bass has been in legal services since 1981, with programs in Alabama, Washington, California, and Connecticut. For the past 12 years, Mr. Bass has been at Greater Hartford Legal Aid, where he is litigation director focusing on federal and state court class actions and individual litigation. Throughout his career, Greg has worked in a number of different areas, including benefits, housing, health, family, senior, consumer, employment, and civil rights. He has taught at numerous legal services trainings, many of which have been through the Center for Legal Aid Education.

Jane Perkins is the Legal Director for the National Health Law Program (NHeLP), working out of the North Carolina office. Ms. Perkins focuses on Medicaid, particularly the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment (EPSDT) program and discrimination in the delivery of health care, particularly on ensuring language access in health care settings. She engages in litigation and policy advocacy on these topics, manages NHeLP's litigation docket, and has written manuals, fact sheets and numerous articles on Medicaid, civil rights, and federal court access. She also provides legal assistance and training to consumer advocates and health care consumers. She is the co-author of Ensuring Linguistic Access in Health Care Settings: Legal Rights and Responsibilities, a language access resource manual. Ms. Perkins was a 1997 recipient of the Reginald Heber Smith Award from the National Legal Aid and Defender Association for dedicated service and outstanding achievement as an indigent defense attorney. She was also named by LawDragon Magazine as one of the top 500 lawyers in the US in 2005 and one of the top 3,000 plaintiffs lawyers in 2006. She earned her M.P.H. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1982; her J.D. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in 1981; and her B.A. from Davidson College in 1978.

Richard Rothschild focuses on welfare and other benefits issues, access to courts issues, and is an expert on attorneys fees case law and litigation. Mr. Rothschild served as principal counsel in Serrano v. Priest, the landmark school financing case, Hunt v. Superior Court, where the California Supreme Court held that counties must provide health care to all indigent residents, Nelson v. Board of Supervisors, which held that a county may not prevent homeless people from receiving subsistence General Assistance payments on the ground they lack a valid residential address, and Gardner v. Los Angeles, which invalidated Los Angeles County's attempt to reduce General Assistance cash payments to offset the alleged value of health care provided by the county and led to a $60 million settlement for GA recipients. He graduated second in his class in 1975 from the University of Southern California Law School where he was a law review editor and a member of the Order of the Coif. He was a law clerk for California Supreme Court Associate Justice Stanley Mosk before joining the Center as a staff attorney in 1976.

Rochelle Bobroff is the Directing Attorney of the Herbert Semmel Federal Rights Project at the National Senior Citizens Law Center, which was formed to protect court access for individuals harmed by violations of federal law.  She gives trainings nationwide and has written articles regarding judicial access issues, including preemption, section 1983, and sovereign immunity.  She directs a listserv that informs hundreds of attorneys of the latest developments in federal rights cases, and provides technical assistance to lawyers litigating these issues. She has written several amicus briefs in support of court access for safety net and civil rights cases.  She was previously a Senior Attorney with the AARP Foundation Litigation group, where she litigated and wrote amicus briefs for Medicaid and Social Security cases.  She began her legal career at the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau’s Southern Maryland office, handling a wide range of legal services cases.