Richard Gruenberger

Richard L. Gruenberger

Of Counsel
Director & Counsel for US Pro Bono Programs
New York
About

Richard Gruenberger is Counsel and Director of Pro Bono Programs for AKD Partners (US). He leads the firm’s veteran’s pro bono project and provides pro bono representation to veterans before the US Department of Veterans Affairs as well as assisting veterans with state law issues. He also provides pro bono representation to veterans seeking discharge upgrades. Richard served on the Legal Services Corporation's Veterans Task Force and currently serves on its implementation committee.

Richard also focuses his pro bono practice in several areas of litigation including family, disability and education law, and since joining the firm in 2007, has helped develop several initiatives in these areas. He has been a leader in a firm-wide effort to promote equal access to education. Other than project development and procuring pro bono opportunities for AKD Partners attorneys, Richard has an active caseload and mentors associates with their pro bono cases.

Bar admissionsNew York
Education
  • J.D., University of San Diego School of Law
  • B.S., Skidmore College

Prior Experience

Richard has dedicated his professional legal career to providing indigent individuals with equal access to justice. Before joining AKD Partners, he worked at the New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG), New York's largest privately funded legal services organization. He joined NYLAG in 1993, serving as a senior staff attorney where he represented clients in all facets of matrimonial and family law, in both the state and appellate courts. Later, he was tasked with creating NYLAG's first pro bono program and was named its Pro Bono Supervising Attorney in 1997. In that role, he supervised attorneys from most of New York’s leading firms in their representation of low-income clients.

By 2005, Richard was part of NYLAG's senior management team. With responsibility for the day-to-day operations of the office, he assisted with lobbying and fundraising efforts and recruited and hired attorneys and summer associates, while continuing his role leading NYLAG's pro bono program.

After graduating from Skidmore College with high honors, Richard spent two years in banking at Chase Manhattan Bank (now JP Morgan Chase), first in its Management Development Program and then in its Private Banking Group.

Civic and Charitable

Richard serves of the Board of Directors of Unchained at Last, the country's only organization dedicated to ending forced and child marriage through direct services and advocacy. This non-profit provides crucial legal and social services to help women, girls to escape arranged/forced marriages and promotes social, policy and legal change.

Connect

Phone

+1 212 776 3701
(Work, New York)