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February 16, 2011 -- California Lawyer Magazine announced today that Altshuler Berzon LLP partner Stacey M. Leyton has been named a 2011 “California Lawyer of the Year” award recipient for successful litigation to prevent reductions in payments to providers of in-home support services in California. The In-Home Support Services ("IHSS") program provides assistance with activities of daily living to hundreds of thousands of elderly and disabled California residents, enabling them to live safely in their own homes.
This is the third year in a row that Altshuler Berzon has been honored with a California Lawyer of the Year Award. For prior stories, click here and here.
Stacey Leyton led a team of Altshuler Berzon attorneys and paralegals who represented IHSS receipients and providers in challenging a state law that would have dramatically reduced payments to IHSS providers. Also working on the litigation team were Altshuler Berzon attorneys Stephen P. Berzon, Scott A. Kronland, Peder J. Thoreen, Anne Arkush, and Caroline P. Cincotta.
Plaintiffs demonstrated that the reduced payments to IHSS providers would result in the unnecessary institutionalization of IHSS recipients and that the costs of in-home services are much lower than the costs of institutional care. Plaintiffs also demonstrated that California had adopted the reductions in violation of the federal Medicaid Act.
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued a preliminary injunction to block implementation of the state statute, and the preliminary injunction was affirmed on appeal by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The preliminary injunction remains in effect, and the case is now before the U.S. Supreme Court. In the meanwhile, the California Legislature responded to the litigation by adopting AB 1612, which postpones implementation of the cuts until July 1, 2012, and provides that the cuts cannot take effect at all unless there is a final judicial determination that they are lawful and valid.
The California Lawyer of the Year awards citation reads:
"STACEY M. LEYTON, Altshuler Berzon, San Francisco
"Category: PUBLIC INTEREST
"Arguing before the Ninth Circuit, LEYTON successfully defended a district court ruling that halted state plans to cut the wages of Medicaid caregivers who provided in-home services for elderly and disabled Californians. She represented a class of approximately 100,000 caregivers and their clients, arguing that the state had failed to correctly evaluate the effects of a statute that would have reduced the providers’ wages."