Bar Buzz: Pro Bono Publico award goes to Patrick Arenz

Patrick Arenz of Robins Kaplan has received the American Bar Association’s Pro Bono Publico awards, which spotlight pro bono efforts by lawyers, law firms and other institutions.

Arenz was part of a trial team that secured a $950,000 jury verdict in a federal lawsuit on behalf of a sex tourism victim who was found by the jury to have been sexually assaulted by a U.S. citizen in Laos when she was 14 years old. Vang v. Prataya is believed to be the first civil jury verdict ever in a sex tourism case.

Linda Miller and Adam Kohnstamm were also on the team. The team has been selected as one of four finalists for Public Justice’s 2018 Trial Lawyer of the Year in recognition of the case. Public Justice is supported by the Public Justice Foundation, a nonprofit and advocates for social justice issues.

Earlier this year, Arenz was named to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal’s 40 under 40 list.

The law firm Ballard Spahr, which is based in Philadelphia but also has a Minneapolis office, was also named.