News & Events

On Monday, July 2, 2007, Simpson Thacher pro bono client AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA) prevailed in an arbitration held before the Honorable Diane Wayne, a former Judge of the California Superior Court, concerning nearly $300,000 in liquidity advances provided to a start-up non-profit organization of lawyers. Founded by four friends at the outset of the AIDS epidemic, APLA initially consisted of a handful of volunteers answering a single-telephone "hotline" in a closet at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center. (At the time, the only information available about the mysterious, unnamed disease fit on a one-page fact sheet.) APLA has since furthered its primary mission of direct client services, prevention education and advocacy by, among other things, assisting other non-profits in the same field, including the counter-party to this dispute.

The Simpson Thacher litigation team was headed by Mike Kibler. Rob Pfister and former associate Jessica Levinson completed discovery and tried the case to conclusion, with the able assistance of summer associate Colleen Keating and paralegal Ann Drain.