Michael Deutsch, has been a lawyer since 1969, representing political activists and victms of police and government civil rights violations. He has tried tens of civil and criminal cases in federal and state courts, and has written and argued numerous appeal including several in the United States Supreme Court. Mr. Deutsch was chosen as the public interest lawyer of the year in 2003 and as a finalist for this award in 2001. Mr. Deutsch was one of the lawyers for the Attica prisoners and helped to obtain a 12 million dollar settlement for their class-action civl rights suit resulting from the New York State officials vioaltions of their civil rights. Mr. Deutsch was also a past legal director of the New York based Center for Constitutional Rights.