In our 2023 Pro Bono Innovators special report, we highlight a selection of law firms, companies and non-profits that embody innovation and dedication in their pro bono work for the underserved.
Our team of editors closely evaluated this year’s nominations, exploring how nominees employed creative strategic approaches to solve pressing issues for their clients that often impacted their quality of life. Our team also considered the impact and breadth of the client matters, as well as the pro bono success history of the nominees.
Ultimately, we selected 16 honorees — 15 law firms and one company — to highlight in the second annual installment of our special report. Their work includes a variety of weighty issues from around the globe. And that work often involves teamwork — across legal practices, offices, firms and organizations.
This year, in one of our first joint awards, we honor Davis Wright Tremaine and Microsoft Corp. for their work providing free legal services, including assistance with pre-publication review and public records access, to independent journalists and newsrooms, especially those in underserved areas, through their ProJourn program.
The innovative program, which models how firms and in-house counsel can work together to achieve greater results, has grown into a network of law firms and corporate legal departments across six states. Prior to ProJourn’s launch, the firm also secured a successful outcome at the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on behalf of a prominent nonprofit investigative news organization, which faced a high-stakes libel lawsuit.
In other key matters, Morgan Lewis scored a victory for US Army soldiers and veterans in a string of class actions that culminated in September 2022. The firm successfully secured citizenship rights for thousands of formerly non-citizen US Army soldiers and veterans based on their military service. In another matter, the firm secured a favorable ruling from the Army Board of Corrections of Military Records regarding a “line of duty” determination in the 1941 death of Private Albert King in a Georgia on-base killing found to be racially motivated.
Latham & Watkins took its advocacy on behalf of Miguel Luna Perez, a deaf child denied reasonable accommodation by his school district for 12 years, to the US Supreme Court, where the team won a 9-0 ruling in Perez vs. Sturgis Public Schools and the Sturgis Board of Education. The high court agreed that the exhaustion requirement of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act doesn’t bar Americans with Disabilities Act (or other non-IDEA) claims when a disabled student seeks a remedy not authorized under the act. After the case was remanded to the district court, the parties reached a confidential settlement.
Congratulations to all of our 2023 honorees. Read their Q&As detailing their impressive work below.
Davis Wright Tremaine and Microsoft
Hughes Hubbard & Reed and Akin Gump
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
Thanks for reading. Circle back with us in January 2024 to learn more on how your law firm or organization can be considered for our next group of Pro Bono Innovators.
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