November 25, 2009
THE GOOD WE DO: NEW YORK STATE BAR ASSOCIATION
RECOGNIZES ATTORNEYS FOR PRO BONO SERVICE
Skadden Arps Team Helps Make Low-income Housing a
Reality Despite Bad Economy
When Peter J. DiConza, Jr., an associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate,
Meagher & Flom LLP, saw the need to help provide low-income housing
in the Bronx for people with special needs, he jumped at the opportunity
to offer his pro bono team’s skills.
DiConza’s team helped Community Access negotiate a joint
venture agreement with Alembic Development Company LLC to develop a
106-unit, low-income housing project in the Bronx, which includes 55
units designated for people with special needs, and provides program
space for special services.
Formed in response to the state’s mass release of psychiatric
patients to the streets in 1974, Community Access has provided
supportive housing for homeless and mentally ill populations. It owns
and manages buildings and apartments of permanent and transitional
supportive housing in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx.
“They reviewed all of the documents, especially as we got close to
closing on the project and made suggestions and comments,” said
Maggi Knox, director of Project Development for Community Access. After
delays related to the dire financial and tax credit markets, the
project’s closing was held in May.
New York State Bar Association President Michael E. Getnick (Getnick
Livingston Atkinson & Priore, LLP of Utica and of counsel to Getnick
& Getnick of New York City), said, “Increasingly, more and
more New Yorkers and worthy non-profit organizations, are finding it
harder to keep their heads above water as they try to navigate our legal
system. Whether it’s low-income housing, foreclosure cases, or
child custody issues, every New Yorker should have equal access to
justice. The State Bar is proud to salute attorneys, like Peter DiConza
and his pro bono team, who truly live the words, and justice for
all.”
In honor of the first-ever National Pro Bono Week, the New York State
Bar Association is recognizing the significant contributions made by the
scores of attorneys like DiConza and his team who already participate in
pro bono, to educate the public and the legal profession about the
ever-growing unmet legal needs of low-income people and others who have
been hard hit by the economic downturn, and to encourage more attorneys
to volunteer. As part of its “The Good We Do” campaign, the
State Bar will be highlighting these attorneys performing pro bono
services and their impact on the greater good.
“You learn so much on these deals,” DiConza said
recently. Assisting non-profits with complicated legal proceedings
“helps you to broaden your legal knowledge and it helps you to
broaden your own skills.”
DiConza specializes in real estate finance and development law for
Skadden Arps. Since this project, DiConza has assisted with other
leases, and is working on another Community Access development project
as pro bono counsel. “It is just a great organization with only a
handful of assets and they help so many people,” he said.
DiConza is a graduate of the Fordham University School of Law and
received his bachelor of arts in Sociology from Johns Hopkins University
and a real estate finance certificate from New York University.
Founded in 1876, the 76,000-member New York State Bar Association is the
official statewide organization of lawyers in New York and the largest
voluntary state bar association in the nation. The State Bar’s
programs and activities have continuously served the public and improved
the justice system for more than 130 years.
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