Caroline Irving is the director of Sales Development at Parfums Christian Dior and a member of Sanctuary’s Pro Bono Council.
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At this year’s Above & Beyond Awards, we are recognizing a powerful joint collaboration between attorneys at Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP and attorneys at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP for their unwavering commitment to their client, “Shiho.” The team helped Shiho gain full custody of her children, a final order of protection against her abusive husband, and a fair and appropriate child support order. We are pleased to honor this incredible team consisting of Dara L. Sheinfeld, Pro Bono Attorney at Davis Polk; Chui-Lai Cheung, Associate at Davis Polk; Jonathan White, Associate at Cahill Gordon; and Dan LeCours, former Associate at Cahill Gordon.
In the fall of 2012, Dara began assisting Shiho pro bono, with co-counsel from Sanctuary for Families. Shiho had experienced multiple severe instances of domestic violence by her husband and in 2012 she made the brave decision to leave the marriage, taking her 2 young children with her. Sanctuary for Families had been providing counseling to Shiho, and the legal team then jumped in to assist Shiho in court. The team filed a Custody and Family Offense Petition for Shiho, and she received a full temporary order of protection, for herself and her children, which was continued throughout the several years of litigation.
In 2013, Dara joined Sanctuary full time as the Family Law Director in the Bronx Family Justice Center and continued to represent Shiho, along with Barbara Kryszko, Sanctuary’s Family Law Director in the Brooklyn Family Justice Center. As Dara and Barbara prepared to move forward with a trial concerning family offense and custody matters, they sought pro bono assistance, and Associates Dan LeCours and Jonathan White at Cahill Gordon came on board to join the trial team. Jon and Dan provided much needed assistance by gathering evidence spanning more than 12 years, preparing exhibits and witness questions, and drafting motions. Additionally, Dan conducted a direct examination of one of the custody trial witnesses and Jon and Dan handled discovery and conducted the examinations of all witnesses in a simultaneous child support hearing. According to Barbara Kryszko, who nominated this team,
“Dan and Jon’s . . . overall ability to stay abreast of all the ongoing developments in the case were vital in our ability to provide Shiho with zealous, professional advocacy.”
In addition to their invaluable help with trial preparation, Jonathan and Dan’s immense support of Shiho extended to handling a difficult relationship with Shiho’s husband, who elected to appear pro se and who was an extremely challenging respondent. Her husband reached out incessantly to Jon, Dan, and the rest of the legal team – sometimes with hostility and threats because of his unrealistic desire to reunite with Shiho and their children. However, the team was undeterred, continuing to fight for Shiho in the family offense, custody, and child support proceedings.
When Dara moved to Davis Polk in 2017 to join their Pro Bono Program as a Pro Bono Attorney, she continued to represent Shiho in her new role. Chui-Lai Cheung, an Associate at the firm, joined the team to assist with trial preparations. Chui-Lai and Jonathan worked seamlessly together to support the trial team and took the lead in preparing the powerful written summation at the end of the trial. Chui-Lai noted that she benefited from this case by being able to be in a courtroom and gain a deeper understanding of how family law works.
Shiho has expressed her immense gratitude to the whole team for all their work during the past 7 years and recognizes that having them on her side made all the difference. In August 2019, a decision was handed down granting Shiho full custody of her children and a full final order of protection against her ex-husband. Furthermore, the court found that the father had committed 16 family offenses against Shiho, including numerous counts of criminal obstruction of breathing or blood circulation, menacing, assault, harassment, and criminal mischief, and had also, on several occasions, violated the temporary orders of protection.
In response to the ruling, Dara said,
“I’m just so happy for her that there is some finality, at least for now.”
This decision finalizes what Shiho has been fighting for for the past 7 years – she now has full custody of her children and the abuses she suffered have been recognized and validated. As they were leaving trial, in an emotional goodbye, Shiho told her team that she would miss them, but is thrilled to be out of court for the first time since 2012.
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Join us at our Above & Beyond celebration on November 12, 2019, at the RUMI Event Space, 229 W 28th St, New York, NY as we honor Dara, Jon, Dan, and Chui-Lai’s outstanding pro bono work. You can buy tickets here.
If you can’t join us, but would like to support Sanctuary for Family’s work, please consider making an Above & Beyond donation here.