Attorney & Staff Profiles

MIKE HEALEY | JOSEPH S. (“JAY”) HORNACK

GLEN S. DOWNEY | JULES LOBEL | ERICA CAPPABIANCO

Jules Lobel

Attorney Jules Lobel serves as ‘of counsel’ to the firm. Attorney Lobel is a tenured professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, where he lecturers law students on Constitutional Law, International Law, Human Rights and Foreign Relations Law.  He is a frequent lecturer in the United States and in Europe on issues involving Human Rights and International Law.

Attorney Lobel received a B.A. degree from New York University and a Law Degree from Rutgers University.  His current litigation work focuses on Constitutional and International Law issues.  He is presently the Vice President of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is based in New York City.  Attorney Lobel is admitted to practice in the State of New York.

Through the Center for Constitutional Rights, Jules Lobel has litigated important issues regarding the application of international law in the U.S. courts.  In the late 1980’s he advised the Nicaraguan government on the development of its first democratic constitution.  He has also advised the Burundi government on constitutional law issues.

Professor Lobel is editor of a text on civil rights litigation and of a collection of essays on the U.S. Constitution, “A Less Than Perfect Union” (Monthly Review Press, 1988).  He is also the author, with David Cole, of “Less Safe, Less Free: Why America is Losing the War on Terror.”  He is author of numerous articles on international law, foreign affairs, and the U.S. Constitution in publications including Yale Law Journal, Harvard International Law Journal, Cornell Law Review, Virginia Law Review, and many newspapers.  He is a member of the American Society of International Law.

Education:

  • J.D., 1981, Rutgers University
  • B.A., 1978, New York University

Bar/Court Admissions

  • New York
  • United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania
  • United States Court of Appeals –2nd Circuit
  • United States Court of Appeals--3rd Circuit
  • United States Supreme Court

FIRM NEWS:

  • Since November 2010 Jay Hornack has written a weekly column called “Panic Street Lawyer” for Ipso Facto, the online legal blog for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.  The column can be found here

  • Mike Healey was named to the Board of Directors of Action United.

  • Mike Healey was named to the Board of Directors of the ACLU of Pennsylvania.

  • Jules Lobel was named President of the Board of Directors of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

  • AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka appointed Mike Healey to the AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee Board of Directors  in May of 2010.

  • The PA labor History Society presented Mike Healey with its Mother Jones Award at its annual dinner on September 9, 2010, for his work on behalf of working people but particularly on behalf of the United Mine Workers.

  • In 2010, Jay Hornack was appointed to be on the initial Board of Directors for StartUptown, a nonprofit corporation created to function as an urban incubator for technology and social innovation in the Hill/Uptown area of Pittsburgh.

  • On September 23, 2010, Glen Downey co-hosted a panel discussion at the National Lawyer’s Guild Conference in New Orleans with attorney David Milton of Boston.  The topic of the discussion was “Strategies and Risk Assessment in Documenting Police Abuse: Video and Audio Taping Police Misconduct.”

OUR FIRM IN THE NEWS:

  • Pitt OKs Settlement in Lawsuit Over Arrest: The University of Pittsburgh will pay $48,500 in damages because one of its police officers arrested Elijah David Matheny, 29, of the Hill District for recording the incident. Read More.

  • Rainelli Case Transferred: A false reports criminal case against a nephew of Blair County District Attorney Richard A. Consiglio has been transferred to the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office. Read More.

  • Judge to Decide if DA has a Conflict: A Blair County judge must decide if it is a conflict of interest for Blair County District Attorney Richard A. Consiglio's office to prosecute criminal charges against one of his nephews. Read More.

  • Woman who threw bike during G-20 accepts probation: A Mount Washington woman accused of throwing her bicycle at a police officer during the G-20 Summit entered an Allegheny County court program this morning that will allow all the charges against her to be dismissed provided she successfully completes a nine-month period of probation. Read More.

  • Probation given to 1 in G-20 protest: A Mt. Washington woman who gained Internet notoriety because of video footage that appeared to show her throwing a bike at a police officer during the G-20 summit demonstrations will spend nine months on probation, an Allegheny County judge ordered Friday. Read More.

  • Global Village of the Damned: It's hard to remember now, but in the weeks leading up to last September's G-20 summit, officials warned that as many as 10,000 protesters might descend on Pittsburgh. Any number of them, breathless media accounts fretted, might come with feces to fling at police, or worse. Read More.

  • ACLU Sues City Of Pittsburgh Over G-20 Mass Arrests: The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania filed a federal lawsuit today on behalf of 25 people who were swept up in a mass arrest of demonstrators, observers, and passersby in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh hours after the G-20 Summit ended on September 25, 2009. Read More.

  • City sued over G-20 arrests: The American Civil Liberties Union today filed a federal suit against the city of Pittsburgh, Police Chief Nate Harper and more than 15 other police officers for allegedly violating the First Amendment rights of 25 people arrested on the final day of last year's G-20 summit. Read More.

  • ACLU Sues Pittsburgh Over G-20 Police Conduct: The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania has filed a lawsuit alleging police wrongly arrested and mistreated people during peaceful demonstrations at the G-20 economic summit in Pittsburgh last year. Read More.

  • Chartiers Valley board OKs Whitfield settlement: A divided Chartiers Valley school board has approved a $205,000 settlement agreement with former assistant superintendent Tammy Whitfield, who is now superintendent of the Blairsville-Saltsburg School District in Indiana County.  Read More.

  • For more news, click here.


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