PHILADELPHIA, October 20, 2021: Morgan Lewis partner Nathan Andrisani has received the Pennsylvania Innocence Project’s Edward D. Ohlbaum Volunteer Award for his considerable pro bono efforts in support of the nonprofit’s mission, which includes the prevention of wrongful convictions and exoneration of those convicted of crimes they did not commit. An esteemed professor and lawyer, Edward Ohlbaum was a champion for the American justice system, a tireless advocate for the wrongly convicted, a defender of children’s rights, and an early supporter of the Pennsylvania Innocence Project’s work.
In partnership with the nonprofit, Nate led Morgan Lewis’s seven-year effort to obtain the 2020 release of a man wrongfully convicted of murder. After serving more than 30 years of a life sentence with no possibility of parole, the arguments and evidence presented by Nate and the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, including that of false eyewitness testimony and constitutional due-process violations, the court vacated the conviction. A year prior, Nate and the Pennsylvania Innocence Project secured the dismissal of pending murder charges against another man, who spent nearly a year in prison and more than three years on house arrest, after disproving the damaging allegations against him.
Co-leader of the firm’s Mobilizing for Equality Taskforce working group on law enforcement policy, Nate’s pro bono practice primarily focuses on criminal justice matters. He is an active member of his community and has been dedicated to a number of charitable and philanthropic causes during his career at the firm, including United Way and the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Philadelphia, Delaware & Susquehanna Valley.
Nate formally received the Edward D. Ohlbaum Volunteer Award during Pennsylvania Innocence Project’s virtual annual celebration, “Dedicated to Justice,” on October 20.