Commitment and Continuity
Because the law is still a profession as well as a business, lawyers have special obligations to the administration of justice and the development of the law. We encourage our lawyers to meet these obligations through pro bono work, government service, service to the bar and teaching. We also urge our lawyers to write and speak on legal issues and to participate in the affairs of their larger communities. We are, as we have always been, a national leader in our pro bono services and charitable activities.
We strongly believe that we have a responsibility to help strengthen our communities. We have a long history of supporting public institutions and charitable organizations in the communities in which we practice. We encourage leadership and support on the part of our attorneys through matching gift programs and service on boards and committees.
For decades, we have been known for our record of pro bono representation and community service—a record based on the belief that there is more to our professional mandate than advocacy for the most powerful and successful members of society. Our commitment to providing a voice for the least powerful is demonstrated by pro bono contributions that range from cases of national importance before the US Supreme Court to litigation on behalf of individuals who lack the means to secure necessities as fundamental as housing, adequate medical care and a safe home environment. Through these efforts and through community service initiatives that have grown into thriving partnerships, we work to enhance the quality of life for many in our local neighborhoods and around the globe.
Pro Bono
A steadfast commitment to pro bono representation has been a hallmark of our firm since the early 20th century, when our partner Reginald Heber Smith—considered the father of legal aid in the United States—authored the seminal book Justice and the Poor and galvanized the organized bar nationally to secure equal justice for those unable to afford counsel. More than seven decades later, in 1992, our partner John Pickering led the effort to establish the Pro Bono Institute’s Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge and ensured that we were its charter signatory. Today, as measured by The American Lawyer, our pro bono program ranks as one of the top in the country.
Our lawyers have been involved in many of the influential legal cases and social developments that have shaped the nation. In 1954, Joseph Welch, assisted by James St. Clair and Jack Kimball, represented the US Army on a pro bono basis in the nationally televised Army-McCarthy hearings. In 1963, Lloyd Cutler and others served as a leading force in creating the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, at the behest of President John F. Kennedy.
Our pro bono efforts have also influenced historic developments around the globe. Through the Southern Africa Legal Support and Education Project, we joined with others to fight apartheid and establish the rule of law in South Africa. Our lawyers also helped write the constitutions of several central European countries after the fall of the Soviet Union.
On the domestic front, for more than a decade our lawyers have provided pro bono legal services to indigent persons through the WilmerHale Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School, a major clinical teaching facility that has assisted more than 20,000 low-income persons.
Recent Highlights
In recent pro bono efforts spanning a diverse range of issues and interests, we:
- Helped to achieve an important victory to remove barriers in public schools on behalf of Richmond, Virginia's citizens with disabilities. In an important ruling, the Court is requiring that Richmond City Public Schools comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act in order for the city's citizens with disabilities to have full access to services, programs and activities held at school facilities.
- Successfully aided in representing a class of children throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In a landmark ruling known as Rosie D., the Court found Massachusetts violated federal law in failing to provide children's mental health services to an estimated 15,000 children in and around the Commonwealth.
- Represented six Bosnian-Algerians, including Lakhdar Boumediene, who have been detained at Guantanamo since 2002. On June 12, 2008, the US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that detainees held in Guantanamo Bay have a constitutional right to challenge their detention in US civilian courts; and on November 20, 2008, a federal court upheld the claim of five Bosnian-Algerian men that the US government had no lawful basis for imprisoning them at Guantanamo Bay, where they have been held for nearly seven years.
- Successfully contended that the Eighth Amendment forbids the death penalty for persons under the age of 18 in one of the most important death-penalty decisions in recent years, Simmons v. Roper.
- Helped persuade the US Supreme Court to uphold the constitutionality of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform legislation.
- Succeeded in defending—in a series of federal lawsuits—the Massachusetts and Texas Interest On Lawyer Trust Account (IOLTA) programs that fund legal services for the poor.
- Served as counsel to the tenants' association at a HUD-subsidized property in a rapidly gentrifying Washington DC neighborhood and, through a series of complex agreements, enabled the tenants to obtain an ownership interest that allowed them to continue living in the neighborhood.
- Achieved what The Washington Post described as a “stunning reversal” of a miscarriage of justice in a nationally-reported case—undertaken with co-counsel from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and other firms—in Tulia, Texas, in which multiple defendants, nearly all African-American, were wrongfully convicted and sentenced on drug charges based on the completely uncorroborated testimony of a white undercover agent who was later indicted for perjury. (One of The New York Times "100 Notable Books of 2005," Tulia: Race, Cocaine, and Corruption in a Small Texas Town by Nate Blakeslee tells the sad yet ultimately triumphant story.)
- Provided research that helped the Human Rights Law Network establish a right to shelter for the millions of homeless in India and a right to treatment and health care for the estimated 5.5 million Indian citizens suffering from AIDS.
- Assisted World Hope International in creating First Step, a subsidiary which was able to establish a special economic zone (SEZ) in Sierra Leone. The SEZ will increase the quality of goods produced in Sierra Leone as well as enhance the quality of life for those who live there.
- Advised GALVmed, a non-profit global alliance of public, private and government partners, on developing a strategy that would ensure proper distribution of a cattle vaccine to farmers throughout Africa. This vaccine protects against East Coast Fever, a disease which kills one million cattle each year.
- Overturned the wrongful conviction of Dewey Bozella, who spent 26 in a New York prison for a murder he did not commit. Bozella is now free and living a life enriched by the graduate degree he pursued during his incarceration.
- Secured a “Deferred Action” visa for Yirdaw Anteneh, an Ethiopian man who faced deportation after his work visa expired while he was receiving urgent care for his failing liver.
- Represented the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in arbitration at The Hague’s Peace Palace. Boundary disputes giving rise to ongoing conflict were resolved, leaving peaceful political paths in their place.
- Obtained a settlement for Community Outreach for Vietnam Era Returnees (COVER) from the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), after the VA failed to reimburse and support COVER for the counseling services provided to Vietnam-era Veterans, imposing severe hardship on COVER and its staff.
- On behalf of the Coalition for the Homeless and a group of homeless men and women, we—together with Legal Aid co-counsel—succeeded in enforcing a consent decree that obligates the city of New York to provide sufficient shelter, of an adequate standard, to those in need.
Click here for a printable version of our Pro Bono brochure.