Pro Bono Achievements
A Signature Pro Bono Program

Firmwide Awards

2008 Cornerstone Award for Pro Bono Legal Services, Lawyers Alliance for New York

2008 Pro Bono Publico Award, Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund

2008 Legal Service NYC Pro Bono Visionary Award

2007 Pro Bono Firm of the Year, District of Columbia Bar

2007 Pro Bono Champion Firm, Legal Services for New York City

2007 Pro Bono Award by The Legal Aid Society of New York for work in the areas of immigration and criminal law

2007 Pro Bono Award, Jacksonville Area Legal Aid Society

2006 Pro Bono Publico Award, Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF)

2006 Covenant House of Washington Award

Recognition of Individual Lawyers

2008 Northern California Innocence Project Award (Counsel John Van de Kamp)

2008 Legal Services for Children Pro Bono Recognition (Partner Ben Young)

2007 Legal Aid Society Pro Bono Awards (Numerous Individual Lawyers)

2006 New York Bar Association Pro Bono (Partner John Aerni)

2006 American Bar Association's Edmund S. Muskie Pro Bono Award (Partner Larry Schiffer)

Recent Achievements:

From Los Angeles to London, our lawyers are assisting the poor, under-resourced communities, groups who lack access to justice, charitable organizations and small businesses. Here are some of our most recent accomplishments:

Defending an Athlete's Right to Compete

In a groundbreaking decision sure to shape the future of sports competition, a panel of three arbitrators with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) unanimously overturned a ruling that had previously banned Oscar Pistorius, a South African double amputee sprinter, from competing in all International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) sanctioned events, including the upcoming 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The timing of this successful appeal allows Pistorius to continue his goal of qualifying for the Olympic Games. Pistorius appealed the decision before the CAS on February 13, 2008 with the hearings taking place on April 29 and 30. The decision by the arbitration panel was unanimous. In an 18 page ruling, the panel held that the decision of the IAAF was "revoked with immediate effect, and Pistorius is currently eligible to compete in IAAF-sanctioned events."

Partners Jeffrey Kessler, David Feher, Marco Consonni and a team of lawyers from the New York, Johannesburg and Milan offices represented Pistorius on a pro bono basis. The team used test findings gathered by Professor Hugh M. Herr of the  Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dr. Rodger Kram of the University  of  Colorado and Dr. Peter Weyand of Rice University, which concluded that Pistorius' prosthetics do not give him an unfair advantage.

The case has already received significant press coverage. Pistorius’s story was shown on ESPN’s news program E: 60 and was the cover story for the April issue of ESPN Magazine. He was interviewed on NBC's Today Show and appeared on the front page of the May 17 issue of The New York Times. The case has also been covered by CNN, Bloomberg, The Associated Press, World Radio Switzerland, Morning Star, BBC News, Daily Mail, the Guardian, Forbes.com and Reuters.

Advocating for the Immigrant Community

We are serving as co-counsel with the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF) on a case challenging the constitutionality of home raids conducted by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. This class action suit, filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan, alleges that ICE agents unlawfully seized, entered and searched the homes of Latinos in the lower New York area without judicially-issued warrants or other legal justification.

Plaintiffs allege that the raids were conducted as part of a pretext to increase the deportation of undocumented immigrants who have already been ordered to leave the country. The complaint describes how armed ICE agents have been improperly and illegally entering Latino households in the pre-dawn hours and awakening and terrifying children and adults alike, often while looking for individuals who do not reside in the raided home or could reasonably be expected to be in the home at the time of the raid. Once inside constitutionally protected areas, ICE agents have made unlawful collateral arrests of suspected undocumented aliens.

Fighting for the Rights of Detained Immigrant Children

Together with the ACLU and the University of Texas School of Law Immigration Clinic, we filed a claim on behalf of children being detained by the United States government at the T. Don Hutto facility (Hutto) in Taylor, Texas, a former medium-security prison, pending determination of their parents' asylum applications. The complaints that were filed against Michael Chertoff, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, as well as six officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, allege that the detention of children at Hutto is an abuse of discretion by federal officials and violates applicable legal standards.

The presiding federal judge issued a ruling which stated that the children's "continued detention in substandard conditions is an urgent problem." The parties reached a settlement in August, and the remaining children were released from the facility. Dewey & LeBoeuf associates played a key role in all aspects of the litigation, including trial preparation, conducting both fact and expert witness depositions, and weighing in on all strategy decisions.

Helping Teach For America

Teach For America recently chose Dewey & LeBoeuf as its external pro bono counsel. Teach For America is a not-for-profit organization that attracts a national corps of outstanding recent college graduates who commit two years to teach in urban and rural public schools and become leaders in the effort to expand educational opportunity. Collectively, the 3,700 members of its 2008 corps and the approximately 2,500 returning second-year corps members will impact the life prospects of more than 525,000 students next year in 26 urban and rural areas across the country. The firm handles corporate, tax and intellectual property matters for Teach For America. We have also helped  launch its new global effort, Teach for All, advising the client on complex tax issues and making sure it is able to do business in the United Kingdom and Chile.

Joining Forces with LawWorks

On November 15, our firm joined LawWorks (also known as the Solicitors' Pro Bono Group), which is the premier organization coordinating legal pro bono work across the major UK law firms. Dewey & LeBoeuf celebrated the event with an official ceremony to sign the LawWorks Protocol at our Mincing Lane office. LawWorks is an independent charity in London with a mission to support, promote and encourage a commitment to pro bono across the solicitors' profession. LawWorks aims to increase the delivery of free legal advice to individuals and communities in need.

So far, we have taken on several cases through LawWorks. In one of our cases, we are assisting a client with a complex boundary dispute including preparing for and attending a mediation with the other parties. In another, we are assisting a charitable foundation with a dispute concerning the supply of computer software. In addition to taking on in-depth individual cases, a number of our lawyers are providing "one off" urgent legal advice on a wide variety of legal issues through the LawWorks Internet-based helpline.

Working to Prevent Gun Violence

Dewey & LeBoeuf served as co-counsel to approximately 33 civic, public service and religious organizations who filed an amicus brief in the United States Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller.

The amici include the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence, the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, the National Association For The Advancement Of Colored People, New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America, the Methodist Federation for Social Action and other civic and religious organizations, all of whom take an active role in both supporting gun control legislation and in helping the victims of gun violence. Our firm was also privileged to have, as parties to our brief, 30 individuals who are either victims or family members of victims of gun violence. A number of those whose lives were shattered by the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007 and the North Valley Jewish Community Center shootings in 1999 were parties to our brief.

The question before the Court in Heller was the constitutionality of Washington, DC's gun control laws, which banned the possession of handguns in Washington, DC but allowed the possession of rifles and shotguns. At the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, a divided three-judge panel struck down the gun control law as unconstitutional and in violation of an individual's right to possess firearms under the Second Amendment. It was the first time in our nation's history that a federal appellate court struck a gun control law based on its reading of the Second Amendment. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court upheld the appeals court ruling that struck down the District of Columbia's ban on handguns.

A copy of the brief can be found on our Web site.

Merging Two Elder Care Not-for-Profit Groups

The mergers and acquisitions group in our Los Angeles office recently represented the Center for Healthy Aging (CHA), a not-for-profit organization located in Santa Monica, California, on a pro bono basis in connection with its merger with another not-for-profit group, WISE Senior Services (WISE). The combined entity will continue to provide social services to the elderly and will be renamed WISE & Healthy Aging. The team contributed significant time during 2007 to complete the merger and submitted the finalized merger agreement to the California Attorney General for approval in the fourth quarter of 2007. Following satisfaction of the remaining conditions to closing, the merger closed in December of 2007.

Obtaining Employment Settlement in London

As a Free Representation Unit (FRU) volunteer, a London associate represented an individual in an unfair dismissal claim before the Employment Tribunal. The associate obtained a favorable settlement for our client, a 64-year-old man who had been unfairly dismissed from his place of employment after ten years of work, without warning or an opportunity to discuss his status.

During his ten years of employment, our client had received positive reviews and was given no disciplinary warnings. His employer claimed that our client was being dismissed on the grounds of redundancy (i.e., because his job was no longer necessary); however, they had initially offered him no redundancy pay and only four weeks pay in lieu of notice. After the firm presented witness statements and documents to the Tribunal, our client was offered a settlement by his former employer which was negotiated to our client's satisfaction.

The FRU is a not-for-profit organization that provides legal representation before the Employment Tribunals and Social Security and Child Support Appeals Tribunals. It is the single largest provider of pro bono services in the UK.

Standing Up for Soldiers' Rights

The Washington, DC office successfully represented a soldier in his disability proceeding at the Physical Evaluation Board (PEB) at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

After returning from Iraq, the soldier's physical and mental health deteriorated significantly due to a number of disabling conditions. The soldier's first formal PEB hearing yielded unsatisfactory results and left the soldier grossly undercompensated. The soldier then, representing himself, unsuccessfully sought review of the PEB's initial decision two times before finally being denied any further review at the PEB level.

This is when Dewey & LeBoeuf intervened. After discovering procedural irregularities in the earlier PEB proceedings, our firm was able to obtain a new formal hearing for the soldier from the U.S. Army Physical Disability Agency. Our lawyers then set about gathering new, up-to-date evidence of the soldier's medical condition.

Notwithstanding the three earlier PEB determinations denying the soldier adequate compensation, we were able to persuade the PEB that the soldier, in fact, was disabled because of a combination of post-traumatic stress disorder, severe narcolepsy and obstructive sleep apnea, and was entitled to disability benefits equal to 70 percent of his salary (the highest possible disability benefit is 75 percent). This decision enabled our very satisfied client to obtain the benefits he was entitled to.

Protecting Voters' Rights

Dewey & LeBoeuf attorneys from New York and Los Angeles volunteered their time during the primary election to assist the Lawyers' Committee in its Election Protection effort.

In New York, a team of attorneys worked tirelessly with the committee over a three-month period to promote a hotline and various call centers for voters with concerns. On Election Day, two partners, one counsel and six associates staffed Hotline call centers to protect the rights of New York voters. An associate who was volunteering on Election Day was unable to vote at his own polling place due to malfunctioning machines. Luckily, being well-informed after attending Election Protection training, the associate told the poll workers that they were using the wrong ballots. Another one of the firm's lawyers promoted the Hotline during an Election Protection press conference on the steps of City Hall a week before Election Day, emphasizing the non-partisan nature of the Election Protection program and the firm's desire to see that every vote is counted.
 
In Los Angeles, a group of lawyers worked diligently over a period of almost two months to ensure that California voters would be able to cast a meaningful ballot on Super Tuesday. They were responsible for contacting the media and publicizing the Election Protection hotline number through the press. The Los Angeles Election Protection team reached out to hundreds of local and statewide radio stations, TV stations, newspapers and other media outlets to publicize the Election Protection effort, get the message out to the public that they had the right to vote, and let them know that they could call the Election Protection hotline in case they had any trouble exercising this most fundamental of rights.

On Election Day, one of our lawyers rushed to City Hall, along with two community organizers, to participate in an impromptu, emergency press conference with the Los Angeles City Council President and other community leaders. The press conference, which was filmed and recorded by several TV and radio stations, allowed community leaders to address an urgent problem (later nicknamed "bubble trouble" in the press) that some LA County voters were experiencing at the polls.

Helping Special Needs Children

Dewey and LeBoeuf's special education pro bono team recently achieved two victories for children in need.

New York associates represented an 11-year-old girl in requesting a hearing before the Department of Education. Because of a genetic disease, the young girl has already suffered multiple strokes as a young child, causing disabilities that make learning difficult and require special attention and facilities. Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, she is entitled to a free appropriate public education. The team brokered a settlement with the Department of Education, winning full tuition for our client at the Sterling School, where she is currently enrolled and enjoying marked educational improvement.

Two other New York associates reached a full settlement in another special education pro bono case. They represented a 15-year-old boy in requesting a hearing before the Department of Education. The boy is an intelligent young man with behavioral issues that interfered with his classroom performance. Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, he is entitled to a free and appropriate education, which his school failed to provide him. Our lawyers reached a settlement with the Department of Education that granted full tuition at the Robert Louis Stevenson School. The school provides specialized care and attention to students having difficulty navigating the public school system. The child's grades and behavior have already begun to improve after attending this school.

Keeping Families Together

Recently, Dewey & LeBoeuf lawyers, working in conjunction with a Legal Aid attorney, represented a Dominican permanent resident in removal proceedings before an immigration court judge. The case was resolved in our client's favor, allowing him to remain in the United States as a legal permanent resident.

The respondent had been deemed removable upon his return from the Dominican Republic due to a ten-year-old conviction. The respondent's travel to the Dominican Republic, his first in 14 years, was to visit his ailing grandparents. Our client has strong family ties to the United States, including four sisters, a brother, a permanent resident spouse and two young children who are US citizens. He was an exemplary candidate for an appeal of removal due to his long employment history and significant rehabilitation following the removable conviction.