WilmerHale celebrated its pro bono and community service accomplishments from 2024 at the annual Pro Bono and Community Service Awards ceremony last month, where Counsel Ryan Chabot and Senior Paralegal Lillie Shobe were recognized for their extraordinary pro bono and community service efforts.
Chabot, who is based in New York, won the John H. Pickering Award for his pro bono work last year, which included more than 600 hours dedicated to 14 matters. Noted for his reputation as a “brilliant advocate” and a “fierce defender of justice,” his work in 2024 involved cutting-edge, complex issues at the appellate level, including a habeas appeal before the Second Circuit involving a 1995 murder conviction, a Second Circuit immigration matter involving a young father facing deportation, a high-profile Second Amendment challenge to Los Angeles County’s concealed carry licensing regime, a Third Circuit appeal challenging New Jersey’s residency requirement in its medical aid-in-dying law and a challenge over the constitutionality of a visual body cavity search conducted by police officers.
“Nobody briefs or argues or litigates a case by themselves,” Chabot said, and thanked current and former colleagues who were integral to the success of multiple pro bono matters in 2024. He also thanked his family for their support throughout his career. “I could work a lot less if I did fewer pro bono hours, but I would be less fulfilled and it’s my family that pays the difference between those two things.”
Shobe, who works in the Denver office, was honored with the Reginald Heber Smith Award for Community Service, logging over 248 hours across 13 pro bono matters last year in addition to being a driving force behind the office’s community service efforts. Recognized for her “contagious sense of purpose” and for “embodying the values and principles Smith so fervently championed,” Shobe helped conceive and launch the office’s partnership with the Rocky Mountain Immigration Advocacy Network’s PASS program, which provides legal consultations to detained migrants, led Denver’s participation in the Community Fridges mutual aid project aimed at combating food insecurity and participated in the Legal Aid Foundation’s Associates Campaign, a yearly fundraising campaign to support Colorado Legal Services.
In her remarks at the award ceremony, Shobe talked about her work as an interpreter and paralegal on immigration cases, where she learned that interpreting is about more than translating the words. “It’s about presence, compassion and the ability to deeply listen to what is said, but also what is held back,” she said. “Once I tuned into that, I found myself bridging more than a language gap. I helped build trust in our clients who are hesitant to trust pro bono attorneys because of prior broken promises. I told them that they didn’t just have a pro bono attorney—they had a WilmerHale attorney.”
Following the award presentations, the event also featured an overview of WilmerHale’s 2024 pro bono and Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives.
Last year, WilmerHale lawyers donated 148,000 pro bono hours, at an average of 133 hours per lawyer. In addition, nearly 100% of the firm’s lawyers participated in pro bono work in 2024, the firm’s highest-ever participation rate. Among the firm’s most notable victories included a successful effort with ACLU and Planned Parenthood in Idaho to secure a preliminary injunction in the Ninth Circuit blocking the state from criminalizing referrals for out-of-state abortion care, and a settlement, obtained with the ACLU of Massachusetts, that limits immigration enforcement against noncitizen class members, providing an avenue for the dismissal of removal proceedings against them and clearing a path for many class members to become permanent residents.
Through longstanding relationships with community-based organizations, WilmerHale offers more than 100 volunteer opportunities annually across its offices. In 2024, the London office participated in the London Legal Walk in support of funding for free legal aid; the Boston office led weekly mock trial and moot court programs through Discovering Justice; and the Dayton office competed in the annual Battle of the Businesses to raise funds for the Special Olympics of Greater Dayton, to name just a few.
For more about WilmerHale’s pro bono and community service achievements, watch our highlight video below.