The Vance Center Holds Discussion on Human Rights and Climate Law

 The Cyrus R. Vance Center runs an environment program that promotes prudent stewardship of natural resources and sustainable environmental use for climate change mitigation. It promotes these by collaborating with non-governmental organizations and matching them with lawyers for environmental protection initiatives like biodiversity conservation and water source protection. One of the organizations the center works with is Milbank.

On Oct. 18, 2023, the center and Milbank co-hosted a discussion on international climate litigation. Both organizations believe that countries have an obligation under human rights laws to address climate change. The discussion they co-hosted brought together government officials, finance professionals, and civil society groups to share knowledge and experiences on ways to promote climate justice.

Notable guests at the discussion included David Boyd, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment, and Lucia Solano, legal adviser at Colombia’s Permanent Mission to the UN. Some of the issues discussed included the role of human rights as a driver for equitable climate change, financing for developing countries, and the pressures and opportunities for investors in leading a just transition to a sustainable future. Other issues covered were the benefits of leveraging human rights in climate law, and the motivations behind Colombia’s engagement of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for an advisory opinion on climate change.

Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Benefits Habitat for Humanity

 In late 2023, an interesting storyline of extended giving emerged, as the Habitat for Humanity Susquehanna in Elkton, Maryland, utilized a large Norway spruce recently displayed to the world as the 2021 Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree.

The 79-foot-high tree was originally from the Elkton area of Cecil County, a majestic presence behind a rural Glen Farms home. Cut down and loaded onto a flatbed truck on Nov. 11, 2021, it was driven to New York City and adorned with a massive star loaded with Swarovski crystals and 50,000 colored lights. The traditional lighting ceremony was broadcast live, and thousands of visitors came to take pictures and enjoy the holiday ambiance during its one-month reign in Manhattan.

The trunk was ultimately milled into kiln-dried planks donated to Habitat for Humanity Susquehanna at the original tree owners’ request. The inscription “ROCKEFELLER CENTER CHRISTMAS TREE 2021” was burned into each sturdy plank. With wood from the tree already used to build one house, the most recent project to incorporate the two-by-six planks has involved crafting window trim, sills, and blocking for an Elkton-area ranch home in which a single mother of three resides. In this way, the tree’s journey has come full circle, unique from the usual practice of mulching the Christmas tree for NYC city parks’ use.

Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice Pro Bono Promotion

 

Dyan Gershman is the founder and partner at Gershman Law, PLLC, a New York City-based boutique corporate law firm established in 2014. In addition to her corporate and M&A work with startups, private equity investors, and large and mid-market companies in the United States and abroad, Dyan Gershman is an active member of the New York City Bar Association and related nonprofits, such as the Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice.

The Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice is a provider of pro bono legal services to social justice groups and law firms around the world. The philanthropic organization manages numerous programs with this goal in mind, including the Pro Bono Promotion program. First established in 2011, the program now functions as the cornerstone of all Vance Center efforts, with over 10,000 lawyers in 21 countries performing upwards of 200,000 hours of pro bono work every year. Members represent more than 540 international law firms.

While pro bono legal services are valued in virtually all industries and communities around the world, Vance Center programming often focuses on the nature of pro bono work itself, emphasizing markets where pro bono culture is unknown or in its earliest stages of development. The program has developed the Pro Bono Network of the Americas to advance pro bono activities throughout Latin America, while the Pro Bono Declaration of the Americas functions as a set of standards and expectations for providers of pro bono legal representation.

Other Vance Center programs include the Lawyers Council, Women in the Profession, and African Legal Fellows. More information about these programs and other justice center resources can be found online at vancecenter.org.

 Mediation - Forging Areas of Agreement and Compromise

Based in New York City, Dyan Gershman has a focus on US and international business law and handles corporate transactions and complex commercial contracts. Maintaining membership in the New York City Bar Association, Dyan Gershman is part of an organization that offers seminars on professional topics such as representing clients in mediation.

A type of dispute resolution, mediation presents an informal way of handling disputes without resorting to the expensive, time-consuming litigation and investigative processes. A mediator, acting as a neutral third party, delivers assistance in reaching a resolution that is voluntary and fully negotiated. Parties meet and discuss differing views, while working to understand past misunderstandings and define areas of agreement. Rather than seeking justice or the truth, the more manageable goal is finding a mutually acceptable outcome that both parties can tolerate.

What this means is that effective advocacy within a mediation setting takes more than the ability to present a persuasive legal argument. It requires well-honed negotiation skills, as well as the ability to communicate disparate viewpoints in ways that generate a sense of common ground. With impartiality at the forefront, the mediator must gain the trust of all parties involved, even as he or she devises the most practical way of resolving complex issues. With the parties involved controlling the narrative they may ultimately decide to resolve the dispute in the courtroom, but this at least provides an initial alternative resolution process.