Our Work

WLP Impact Litigation

Selected Impact Litigation (Federal):

Kuhns v. City of Allentown, C.A. No. 08-2606 (E.D. Pa.) (co-counsel for defendant Allentown Women’s Center in ongoing abortion protest case).

Choike v. Slippery Rock University, C.A. No. 06-0622 (W.D. Pa. 2006) (co-counsel for plaintiffs in Title IX class action challenging inequitable participation opportunities and treatment of female athletes at state university

Farley v. City of Philadelphia, No. 06-2110 (E.D. Pa. 2006) (co-counsel for plaintiff in civil rights action challenging prison’s deliberate indifference to woman in preterm labor).

Brady v. Sacred Heart University, No. 303-CV-514 (D. Conn. 2003) (co-counsel for plaintiff in Title IX action challenging university’s actions removing student from women’s basketball team, denying her scholarship, and instructing her to leave school due to pregnancy).

Jane Doe v. Pennsylvania State University, No. 4:02-CV-0369 (M.D. Pa. 2002) (co-counsel for plaintiff in Title IX action seeking relief from deliberate indifference to sexual harassment of female student).

Ferguson v. City of Charleston, 532 U.S. 67 (2001) (co-counsel for petitioners in challenge to hospital-based police searches of pregnant women suspected of drug use).

Crawley v. Catoe, 257 F.3d 395 (4th Cir. 2001) (counsel of record in appeal from denial of habeas corpus petition for South Carolina woman convicted of criminal child endangerment for untreated addiction during pregnancy) (argued).

Kemether v. Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association, Inc. and Del Val Athletic Association, C.A. No. 96-6986, 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17326 (E.D. Pa. 1999) (co-counsel in action under Title VII, Title IX, and the Pennsylvania ERA challenging refusal to assign female basketball referee to officiate boys’ basketball games).

Maldonado v. Houstoun, 157 F.3d 179 (3d Cir. 1998), cert. denied, 526 U.S. 1130 (1999) (co-counsel for plaintiffs-appellees in federal right-to-travel class action striking down one-year durational residency requirement for cash assistance benefits for families newly arriving in Pennsylvania from lower-benefit states) (argued).

Elizabeth Blackwell Health Center for Women v. Knoll, 61 F.3d 170 (3d Cir. 1995),cert. denied, 516 U.S. 1093 (1996) (co-counsel for plaintiffs-appellees in successful challenge to state law requiring rape and incest survivors to make police reports and requiring women with life-threatening pregnancies to have condition certified by two physicians in order to be eligible for Medicaid-funded abortions).

Roe v. Operation Rescue, 54 F.3d 133 (3d Cir. 1995) (argued) (civil contempt action against clinic blockaders), on remand, No. 88-5157 (E.D. Pa. May 23, 1995) (imposing $15,000 fines).

Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992) (co-counsel for plaintiffs-appellants on remand from U.S. Supreme Court, severing unconstitutional provisions of Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act), on remand, 822 F. Supp. 227 (E.D. Pa. 1993) (granting plaintiffs’ motion to reopen record), rev’d, 14 F.3d 848 (3d Cir. 1994), aff’d by510 U.S. 1309 (1994) (Souter, J., in chambers).

Beehler v. Jeffes, 664 F. Supp. 931 (M.D. Pa. 1986) (counsel for class of female inmates contesting unconstitutional and unsafe physical conditions and sex discrimination at the State Correctional Institution at Muncy).

Selected Impact Litigation (State):

Briley-Smith v. Smith, No. 1885 EDA 2004 (Pa. Super.2006) counsel for plaintiff-appellee in defendant-appellant’s challenge to issuance of protection from abuse order).

Egolf v. Seneca, No. 2004-03160-28-5 (Bucks Cty. C.P. Oct. 19, 2004) (co-counsel for defendant gay couple in action brought by twelve Pennsylvania legislators seeking declaratory judgment barring couple from marrying).

Stachokus v. Meyers, C.A. 63-E (Luzerne Cty. C.P. Aug. 5, 2002) (co-counsel for defendant pregnant woman seeking to lift ex parte state court injunction obtained by boyfriend ordering her not to terminate her pregnancy).

Success Against All Odds v. Department of Public Welfare, 700 A.2d 1340 (Pa. Commw. 1997) (co-counsel in class action challenging elimination of monthly $50 Child Support Pass-Through for 36,000 low-income families) (argued).

Harris v. Meadowlands Country Club, No. 97-17703 (CP Mont. Cty. 1997) (co-counsel for plaintiffs challenging denial of equal treatment of female members under Pennsylvania Human Relations Act).

Newberg v. Bd. of Pub. Educ., 26 Pa. D. & C. 3d 682 (Ct. C.P., Phila. County 1983), appeal quashed, 478 A. 2d 1352 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1984) (co-counsel in lawsuit challenging exclusion of girls from Philadelphia's prestigious Central High School as unconstitutional).

Selected Amicus Curiae Representation:

Reedy v. Evanson, No. 09-2210 (3rd Cir. 2009) (counsel for thirty-nine non-profit organizations seeking reversal of lower court’s dismissal of civil action by woman who was sexually assaulted during the course of a robbery and then arrested by the police).

Prowel v. Wise Business Forms, No. 07-3997 (3d Cir. Aug. 28, 2009) (co-counsel for twenty-one organizations representing women in non-traditional employment seeking reversal of dismissal of sex discrimination claims based on sex stereotyping).

Hunter v. Hunter, 771 N.W.2d 694 (Mich. 2009) (co-counsel for California Women’s Law Center, Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund, Northwest Women’s Law Center and the Women’s Law Project in support of appellant mother seeking to prevent the arbitrary and unjustly prejudicial deprivation of custody to mothers in favor of third parties based on factors irrelevant to parental fitness).

C.C.H. v. Phila. Phillies, Inc., 596 Pa. 23, 940 A.2d 336 (Pa. 2008)(co-counsel for thirty non-profit organizations committed to vindicating the legal rights of sexual assault victims opposing the defense of consent in civil cases stemming from sexual contact with a minor under the age of 13).

Anspach v. City of Philadelphia, 503 F.3d 256 (3d Cir. 2007) (counsel for amici curiae supporting city health center against lawsuit by parents of teenage girl who consented to emergency contraception without parental involvement).

Fraternal Order Of Eagles, Tenino Aerie No. 564, Et Al., v. Grand Aerie, Fraternal Order Of Eagles, Et Al., 148 Wn.2d 224 (Wa. 2002) (co-counsel for eleven local and national organizations seeking a narrow interpretation of the fraternal organization exception to Washington’s public accommodation anti-discrimination law).

In re Adoption of R.B.F., 803 A.2d 1195 (Pa. 2002) (counsel for Philadelphia Bar Association, Family Law Section of Allegheny County Bar Association, and others in support of second-parent adoption).

P.R. v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania 801 A.2d 478 (Pa. 2002) (co-counsel for amici curiae supporting expungement of child abuse report which would bar employment where injury to child was accidental).

T.B. v. L.R.M., 786 A.2d 913 (Pa. 2001) (counsel for Support Center for Child Advocates and fifty-four other organizations in support of petitioner, lesbian co-parent seeking third-party standing to sue for visitation with child).

Schieber v. City of Philadelphia(3rd Cir. 2001) (counsel for thirty-nine organizations seeking to hold government officials responsible for the sexual assault and murder of a young woman by a serial rapist).

Stenberg v. Carhart, 530 U.S. 914 (2000) (counsel for seventy-five amici curiae supporting women’s equality in abortion procedure ban case).

Commonwealth v. Fischer, 560 Pa. 410 (PA 2000) (co-counsel for thirty-six organizations committed to vindicating the legal rights of sexual assault victims who urged the court to reject Fischer’s attempt to excuse his forceful, unconsented-to sexual assault on the basis of a mistake of fact defense).

Saenz v. Roe, 526 U.S. 489 (1999) (counsel for domestic violence programs supporting challenge to California welfare residency rule).

Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co. v. Insurance Comm’r of Pa., 65 Commw. 249, 442 A.2d 382 aff’d 505 Pa. 571, 482 A.2d 542 (1984) (co-counsel for Women’s Law Project and NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund seeking prohibition on use of gender to set insurance rates under Pennsylvania Equal Rights Amendment).