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Event
Our Armenia, Our Children 3rd Annual Fundraiser
The Society for Orphaned Armenian Relief, Chicago Chapter
3rd Annual Fundraiser
"Our Armenia, Our Children"
Book signing and Guest speaker will be Mark Geragos and Pat Harris, famed criminal defense attorneys. Mark will be speaking and signing his new book, Mistrial. Proceeds will benefit orphanages in Armenia.
Books will be available for purchase for $25
Hors d'oeuvres, Beer, Wine and Soft Drinks
Silent Auction,
Michael Aram autographed platter Raffle
Valet Parking available for $12
Mission Statement:
The Society for Orphaned Armenian Relief (SOAR) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to providing humanitarian relief to orphaned Armenian children and adults. Working with a loyal donor base and a trusted network of partners, SOAR distributes clothing, educational supplies, medicine, and other essential resources to orphaned Armenians throughout the world.
Vision Statement:
Through our steadfast humanitarian relief efforts, the Society for Orphaned Armenian Relief (SOAR) strives to provide orphaned Armenians throughout the world with resources fundamental to their physical, emotional, and intellectual development. Over time, we aim to provide this underprivileged population with the tools necessary to become accomplished, educated, and self-supporting Armenians.
Mark Geragos
As the Principal with the internationally known trial lawyer firm of Geragos & Geragos, Mark Geragos cemented his national reputation as a trial lawyer a dozen years ago with back-to-back State and Federal Court jury trial acquittals for renowned Whitewater figure Susan McDougal, later securing a presidential pardon for Ms. McDougal for a conviction sustained prior to his representation of her.
During the last decade, Geragos has won two consecutive dismissals of murder charges against clients by proving flawed eyewitness identification. One of those clients later won a $1.7 million settlement when the Geragos firm sued the City of Glendale for their false arrest of that client. In another twelve-week murder trial where the victim was the defendant's four-year-old daughter, Geragos was the lead lawyer where the jury did not convict his client. He convinced a San Mateo Superior Court Judge to grant probation in a weapons and drug case brought against Victor Willis, former Village People frontman, and was the attorney who successfully represented Chris Brown last year.
Geragos won dismissal of prostitution charges against James Bond movie director Lee Tamahori; dismissal of all felony charges - including kidnapping and torture - for Hung Bao Zhong, the recognized exiled leader of China's shadow government with an estimated 38 million followers worldwide; dismissal of murder charges for the third time for a USC co-ed charged with murder in the death of her fetus; and dismissal of a decades-old murder charge against Japanese national Kazuyoshi Miura, a case christened the "Japanese O.J. Case" by Japanese media.
Geragos was one of the lead lawyers in a pair of groundbreaking Federal Class Action Lawsuits against New York Life Insurance and AXA Corporation for insurance policies issued in the early 20th century during the genocide of over 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turk Regime, eventually settling these two cases for more than $37.5 million. He is currently suing the Government of Turkey for reparations arising out of the Armenian Genocide.
Geragos is the only lawyer besides Johnnie Cochran ever named "Lawyer of the Year" in both Criminal and Civil arenas. California Law Business Magazine named Geragos "One of the 100 Most Influential Attorneys in California" three years in a row, and Geragos has repeatedly been voted by his peers as one of Los Angeles' SuperLawyers. His $59 million jury verdict in a trade secrets case against pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Corporation was voted both "Top Ten Verdicts in 2008 in California" by the Daily Journal, as well as "Top Fifty Verdicts in the United States" by the National Law Journal.
Mark Geragos has represented some of the most prominent figures in the world. His client list has included former Congressman Gary Condit, former first brother Roger Clinton, Academy Award-nominated actress Winona Ryder, pop star Michael Jackson, Nicole Ritchie, singer Chris Brown, hip hop stars Nathaniel "Nate Dogg" Hale and Sean "Diddy" Combs (aka Puff Daddy), international arms dealer Sarkis Soghanalian, and the Sarkisyan family, whose seventeen-year-old daughter died when Cigna Corporation refused to authorize a liver transplant. For the last several years, Geragos has represented Barry Bonds' personal trainer, Greg Anderson, in his matter relating to the Federal Investigation into steroid use in Professional Sports.
Geragos has regularly appeared as both guest and legal commentator on the "Today Show," "Good Morning America," "Dateline NBC," "Larry King Live," "Greta Van Susteren's On the Record," "60 minutes," and "48 hours," and has lectured extensively and authored numerous articles and Law Review publications on the subject of Media and the Law.
Mark Geragos attended Haverford College in Pennsylvania as an undergraduate, and later earned his Juris Doctorate from Loyola Law School. He was born in Los Angeles.
Pat Harris
Pat Harris is one of the firm's primary trial lawyers, specializing in both felony criminal trials and major civil litigation, including civil rights' violations, wrongful death actions, and malicious prosecution cases. His trial successes in the past year alone have included three jury verdicts in excess of $2.5 million, as well as serving as co-counsel with Mark Geragos on a case in Santa Clara County that resulted in their client receiving a verdict of over $37 million against the pharmaceutical company, Pfizer.
Over the course of his thirteen years practicing law at Geragos & Geragos, Mr. Harris has also served as co-counsel with Mark Geragos on numerous other high-profile matters, including the cases of Susan McDougal, Scott Peterson, Michael Jackson, and Barry Bonds' trainer, Greg Anderson. Working on the Susan McDougal case led Mr. Harris to write a book entitled Susan McDougal: The Woman Who Wouldn't Talk. The book spent four weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and was praised by the New York Times book review as being "moving and compelling, composed... with dignity and compassion." Former President Bill Clinton wrote, "Every American who loves our Constitution... should read this book."
Mr. Harris was born in Clarksville, Arkansas. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and was a state finalist for a Rhodes Scholarship.
Before attending law school, Mr. Harris started his career as one of two legislative assistants for former Arkansas Congressman Bill Alexander (D-AR) in Washington, D.C. After leaving D.C., he served for a number of years as Vice President of Real Estate Development for Madison Financial Corporation in Little Rock, Arkansas. Mr. Harris grew proficient in the financial aspect of real estate development while acting as a liaison between the financial organization and the development corporation for several real estate projects.
After working for a number of years, Mr. Harris went to law school and earned his Juris Doctorate from the University of Michigan Law School in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He began his legal career in the Davidson County Public Defender's Office in Nashville, Tennessee, before moving to California and beginning work with Geragos & Geragos in 1997, where he focused his practice on criminal law.
His numerous victories include successfully representing a high school principal charged criminally with hate crimes, and then winning a countersuit on the principal's behalf for malicious prosecution for $600,000. Since 2008, Mr. Harris has begun trying cases in civil court with great success. In January of 2009, he won a $1.3 million jury trial verdict for a client who had been falsely accused of murder. He followed up on that triumph with a $1.2 million jury trial verdict against a truck hauling company and the City of Los Angeles for negligence in destroying the property of a Los Angeles resident. Most recently, Mr. Harris won a $350,000 jury trial verdict against Bank of America for wrongly seizing $140,000 from a customer's account.
While Mr. Harris' practice is largely based on courtroom trials, he has also been highly successful outside the courtroom, working with clients on cases ranging from sexual harassment to wrongful death. In the past two years alone, he has helped achieve client settlements in excess of $10 million.
Summary of Mistrial
A searing manifesto on the ills of the criminal justice system from two of America's most prominent defense attorneys.
The American legal system changed dramatically in 1994, when the O. J. Simpson trial became a television-ratings bonanza. Now it's all crime, all the time, on TV, from tabloid news to police procedurals on every network. Americans know more about the criminal justice system than ever before. Or do they?
In Mistrial, Mark Geragos and Pat Harris argue precisely the opposite: In pursuit of sensationalism, the media shows the public only a small, distorted sample of what really happens in our courtrooms. So, ironically, the more the public thinks it knows, the less informed it really is.
Mistrial debunks the myth of impartial American justice and draws the curtain on its ugly realitiesfrom stealth jurors who secretly swing for a conviction to cops who regularly lie on the witness stand to defense attorneys terrified of going to trial. Ultimately, the authors question whether a justice system model drawn up two centuries before blogs, television, and O. J. Simpson is still viable today.
In the aftermath of the Casey Anthony trial, the flaws in America's justice system are more glaring than ever. Geragos and Harris are legal experts and prominent criminal defense attorneys who have worked on everything from celebrity media-circuses to equally compelling cases defending individuals desperate to avoid the spotlight, and Mistrial's behind-the-scenes peek at their most fascinating cases will enthrall legal eagles and armchair litigators alikeas it blows the lid on what really happens in a courtroom.
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LocationMike Ditka's Restaurant -Chicago (View)
100 East Chestnut Street
Chicago, IL 60611
United States
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| Minimum Age: 21 |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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