PARTICIPANT MEDIA’S THE VISITOR INSPIRES LAWYER TRAINING WORKSHOPS IN 10 U.S. CITIES

For Participant Media’s social action campaign for the film The Visitor, the law firm O’Melveny & Myers and the NGO National Legal Sanctuary for Community Advancement (NLSCA) have joined forces to offer a pro bono Continuing Legal Education training program in 10 cities across the country. These workshops for lawyers and law students consist of a screening of The Visitor, followed by a four hour training session on how to represent immigrants, detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), at bond hearings. The first workshop was held last month in San Francisco, with the next one scheduled to take place in Los Angeles next month. 

Jim Berk, CEO of Participant Media said, “In researching the social action campaign for The Visitor, we’ve learned that with 700,000 to 1.5 million undocumented immigrants entering the United States each year, there is an urgent need for attorneys equipped to handle the complexities involved in representing those who are detained by ICE and face deportation. We are glad we were able to bring together O’Melveny & Myers and NLSCA to address this much-needed initiative and are grateful for their efforts.”

"Thousands of men, women, and children are held in detention facilities for months, even years, on immigration-related matters in our country," said David Lash of O'Melveny and Myers LLP. "This program will train attorneys and legal advocates to serve as pro bono legal counsel to the many currently held in cells while waiting for the completion of their cases. This is a momentous and critical step in restoring dignity for the immigrant, our legal system, and our country."

Since judicial codes related to these legal proceedings vary by district, the curriculum for each training is being tailored to the specifications of each city. Lawyers who attend the workshops will receive Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credit. As part of this initiative, a national directory of attorneys trained to represent immigrants at bond hearings will be available on Participant’s social action network, TakePart.com.

For more information or to participate in this CLE program, go to TakePart.com/TheVisitor.

Directed by Independent Spirit Award-winner Tom McCarthy, The Visitor, is the story of an American college professor (Academy Award® nominee Richard Jenkins) and a young immigrant couple who struggle with the treatment of immigrants in a post - 9/11 world. The Participant Media-Groundswell Productions presentation, released by Overture Films, was universally praised by critics and became one of 2008’s most successful independently-produced films.

About Participant Media

Participant Media is a Los Angeles-based entertainment company that focuses on socially relevant, commercially viable feature films, documentaries and television, as well as publishing and digital media. Participant Media is headed by CEO Jim Berk and was founded in 2004 by philanthropist Jeff Skoll, who serves as Chairman. Ricky Strauss is President.

Participant exists to tell compelling, entertaining stories that bring to the forefront real issues that shape our lives. For each of its projects, Participant creates extensive social action and advocacy programs which provide ideas and tools to transform the impact of the media experience into individual and community action. Participant’s films include The Kite Runner, Charlie Wilson’s War, Darfur Now, An Inconvenient Truth, Good, Night and Good Luck., Syriana, Standard Operating Procedure and The Visitor.

About O’Melveny & Myers LLP

With more than 1,000 lawyers in 14 offices worldwide, O'Melveny & Myers LLP helps industry leaders across a broad array of sectors manage the complex challenges of succeeding in the global economy. We are a values-driven law firm, guided by the principles of excellence, leadership, and citizenship. Our commitment to these values is reflected in our dedication to improving access to justice through pro bono work and championing initiatives that increase the diversity of the legal profession. For more information, please visit www.omm.com

About National Legal Sanctuary for Community Advancement

National Legal Sanctuary for Community Advancement (NLCSCA) is a nonprofit organization established to advocate for those hailing from the 24 nations targeted by the U.S. government in the wake of September 11th. Under the policies to fight terrorism, Middle Eastern, Muslim and South Asian people in the U.S. continue to face institutionalized discrimination and widespread suspicion. NLSCA pursues legal remedies and exposes the injustices of current government policies while working to relieve our nation’s populace of damaging common prejudices. In this context, NLSCA has inaugurated a new civil rights legacy in California and in the nation—inspiring this country to fulfill its promise of a just society for all. www.legalsanctuary.org