by Jeremy Leaming
The nation lost one of its leading advocates for the less fortunate and for equality with the death of Michael A. Rothenberg, longtime head of the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYLPI).
Rothenberg, who served as the executive director of NYLPI, was found dead at the age of 47 on Feb. 23. The cause of death was a fall from the roof of a building in Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reports that the New York Police Department found his body on “a terrace at 100 Jay St., after he had apparently fallen from the roof.”
The Daily Eagle noted that after graduating from the New York University Law School, he “became a litigator in the housing unit of Brooklyn Legal Services. He then won a fellowship at the Rockefeller Family Foundation, and subsequently worked on jury reform at the Vera Institute of Justice. He joined New York Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYLPI) as associate director in 1997.”
He told the NYU Law Review, the Eagle reports, that his goal was “to create a center where lawyers and community organizers can come together to create lasting social change for people in communities in need.”