Full Bien and Specter Reprint Here
On February 19, 2010 California Lawyer magazine named 44 attorneys around the state to receive the 14th annual California Lawyer Attorneys of the Year Awards. Their achievements had a significant impact in 2009, or their work is expected to have such an effect in the coming years. The awards recognize 27 accomplishments in 17 areas of legal practice. Michael Bien of Rosen, Bien & Galvan and Donald Specter of the Prison Law Office were among the winners. Full Bien and Specter Reprint Here
According to California Lawyer: “BIEN and SPECTER set a precedent on the ability of federal courts to cap state prison populations. In August, a special three-judge panel ordered the state to produce a plan for releasing roughly 50,000 inmates over two to three years to reduce the level of overcrowding from nearly 200 percent of capacity to 137.5 percent. The attorneys prevailed despite the restrictive Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995, passed by Congress to discourage inmate litigation and limit the ability of a single federal judge to order prisoner releases in overcrowding cases.”