Pryor Cashman encourages and supports lawyers and staff members who are active participants in their local communities. The values we hold up in the workplace extend past the workday, and we seek to make the places we live thrive and prosper.

We also support our attorneys with ambitions for leadership roles in charitable, cultural, and civic organizations. This work may be done in their communities and those communities with the greatest need for volunteer and, when appropriate, pro bono legal services.

Community Highlights

Island Harvest

Pryor Cashman is proud to partner with Island Harvest, a nonprofit food bank aiming to end hunger and reduce food waste on Long Island.

The firm participates in Island Harvest’s Bethpage Turkey Drive. Every year, there are thousands of families on Long Island who cannot afford a holiday dinner. Island Harvest works to supply meals and accepts donations of turkeys, dry and canned goods, personal care items, and more.

The entire Pryor Cashman community gets involved through an annual Turkey Drive Fundraiser. “It’s amazing what those dollars really translate into,” said Barry Landsman, an attorney in the firm’s Real Estate Group who facilitates the annual effort and is passionate about the cause.

The firm’s goal is “helping get turkeys on tables,” said Barry, “so people don’t have to explain to their kids why they can’t afford to have Thanksgiving dinner.” Pryor Cashman’s attorneys and staff are generous donors to the Turkey Drive. In 2023, the firm raised more than $31,000 for Island Harvest; with $35 supporting one holiday meal, that works out to over 800 meals provided to Long Island residents.

Barry became aware of Island Harvest more than 20 years ago, and after a few years of donating turkeys and other items, he got the firm involved. Since then, the firm’s support and donations have grown substantially each year. As Barry notes, “This is a Pryor Cashman event.”

For more information on how to donate to the Turkey Drive or get involved with Island Harvest, visit https://www.islandharvest.org/turkeys-trimmings/

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Pancreatic Cancer Early Detection (PRECEDE) Consortium

When our longtime partner Jamie Brickell was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in March 2020, there was a major cause for concern. With only a 10% five-year survival rate, pancreatic cancer is a death sentence if it is not discovered early enough. Luckily for Jamie, his cancer was still in Stage One, and he was introduced to Dr. Diane Simeone and her team at NYU Langone, who treated and cured his cancer.

Led by Dr. Simeone, the Pancreatic Cancer Early Detection (PRECEDE) Consortium is an international, multi-institutional collaborative group of world-renowned clinical leaders that have developed a novel model of data sharing and collaboration to utilize artificial intelligence and machine learning to develop better screening protocols and risk assessment models to identify high-risk individuals and to advance early detection research and clinical care around the world. Now, Jamie’s story has led him to become the group’s unofficial “poster boy” for the success that can come from early detection of pancreatic cancer.

“Actions do speak louder than words,” Jamie noted. “When I went to my friend Dyan Finguerra-DuCharme to ask for help with filing a trademark, she was all in on the cause and moved to make it an official pro bono partnership. And that energy and commitment was so inspiring. Since then, there have been over a dozen friends and colleagues, including Jeff Johnson, who have chipped in on everything from IP filing, 501(c)(3) work, personally helping with fundraising, and everything else. It’s given me renewed purpose and appreciation for my Pryor Cashman family as everyone has really rallied around the cause to help future patients to avoid that proverbial ‘death sentence.’”

Learn more about PRECEDE here: https://precedestudy.org/