Margaret "Mickey" Kranz, '76 (B.A. in English)

Two years after the floodwaters receded from New Orleans, residents there are still trying to overcome the bureaucratic breakdowns that accompanied Hurricane Katrina. So when Margaret "Mickey" Kranz wanted to lend a hand in the rebuilding effort, she didn't answer the call with a hammer and nails as so many others have done. The 1976 graduate of the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University and accomplished health care industry lawyer traveled to New Orleans to assist residents in navigating the complex legal process of applying for grants, filing insurance claims and trying to put their lives back in order from a paperwork point of view.

Kranz' volunteer efforts to help the victims of the devastation started immediately after Katrina swept through. Her minister at the Unitarian Universalist church in Garden City, New York reached out to another minister in Louisiana whose congregation had lost everything, including use of their house of worship and their homes. During the past two years, Kranz' church, along with others on the East Coast, tried to do what they could to help -- raising money, applying for grants and collecting school supplies for the children in the area. Kranz felt like she could do more though and when she herself ran into a bit of bad fortune, the first thought she had was to help others.

This past May, her employer of 13 years, New York-based Cabrini Medical Center was placed on the Berger Commission "closing list" and the legal department was outsourced, leaving her without a job.

"I believe that when you get lemons, make lemonade, so I used that opportunity to do some pro bono work in New Orleans," she said.

The Garden City resident spent two weeks in the Big Easy, helping homeowners apply for financial assistance through The Road Home Louisiana Program, a Federal grant program designed to help residents of Louisiana affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita rebuild their homes.

The task wasn't easy. New Orleans is a community property state and often, particularly in poorer sections, houses get passed from family member to family member without any documentation.

"It was a different kind of work," she said. "Each case was more complicated than the last."

Kranz, who graduated from Hofstra Law School with distinction in 1982, was honored for her work by the Louisiana Supreme Court and the Louisiana Bar Association in October 2007 during a touching ceremony to show appreciation for volunteer lawyers who served in Louisiana.

"It was moving," she said. "I find that when you help people, they have a real need to say 'thank you.' It's part of their healing process."

Kranz, nicknamed "Mickey" after Mickey Mantle, joined the New York office of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C. in August 2007 as Of Counsel in the firm's Health Law Section. In her practice, she represents individual healthcare practitioners as well as for-profit and not-for-profit companies that provide health care, or service the health care industry, throughout the United States and abroad.

"I am very excited to be working at Mintz Levin," Kranz said. "It is a truly wonderful firm with a strong commitment to diversity and to pro bono work. All that--and great legal work as well!"

Posted: November 20, 2007