On February 17, 2022, outstanding individuals and teams were honored for their exemplary legal work by Minnesota Lawyer. The 2021 Attorney of the Year Awards were presented at an in-person celebration held at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Minneapolis and also live-streamed.

Among the legal teams recognized as Attorneys of the Year were Rebecca Stillman, Anne Robertson, and Justin Perl of Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid (MMLA). The team began their work in 2019 to permanently stop a dangerous landlord under the Fair Housing Act. In Brown, Lee, and Young v. Reese Pfeiffer, the team settled its lawsuit against the defendant for severe and repeated sexual harassment of three African American female tenants.

“These women were all vulnerable, and he had the power to control whether or not they would have a place to live,” said Stillman. “They had no safe place to escape.”

The following year, the Department of Justice (DOJ) brought its own lawsuit showing a pattern of housing discrimination by Pfeiffer. Together, the collaborative lawsuits found 23 victims of Pfeiffer’s sexual harassment and upon settlement in 2021, he was ordered to pay $736,000 to the 23 victims and a $14,000 civil penalty to the United States. In addition to being permanently barred from managing properties, Pfeiffer, and his co-defendants, agreed to pay $140,000 in attorney fees to MMLA. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ann Bildtsen and Bahram Samie were also honored with the award. Read the article in Minnesota Lawyer.