Pro Bono Innovators 2025 Honoree Morrison Foerster

Morrison Foerster’s key pro bono matters included an innovative use of existing housing codes in litigation to address wildfire-related contamination of rental housing after the Los Angeles County wildfires of January 2025. In August 2025, L.A. County adopted a settlement presuming that the Eaton Fire affected all rental housing in Altadena and must be remediated, providing a model for other communities impacted by disasters. The firm also created a Detention Self-Help Kit in partnership with Justice Centre Hong Kong, supporting refugees and asylum seekers there with legal assistance. How did your firm strategize on how to approach these matters?

Los Angeles wildfires response: From the moment the fires began, we knew this couldn’t be a one-size-fits-all legal response. People were losing everything in real time, and our first priority was to get clear, reliable information into their hands. While the fires were still burning, we activated the Disaster Legal Assistance Collaborative, which MoFo helped create more than a decade ago. They coordinated with legal aid partners across California to publish rapid-response guidance on FEMA claims, housing rights, and emergency benefits. That gave survivors immediate help and gave our volunteers a foundation for action.

Once the flames subsided, we saw a new crisis—families returning to rental homes blanketed in toxic residue, with no county plan for inspection or requirement that landlords clean up. That’s when we stepped in to design a litigation strategy with Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County. Our approach was simple but effective: Use existing housing laws to compel enforcement, not create new ones.

We deliberately focused on a practical fix rather than a drawn-out legal fight. That mindset—acting fast, coordinating broadly, and aiming for immediate, systemic relief—is what ultimately turned a local disaster into a blueprint for future wildfire responses.

Hong Kong Justice Centre: When we started working with Justice Centre Hong Kong, our strategy was to pair legal expertise with community insight. Refugees and asylum seekers facing immigration detention are among the most marginalized people in Hong Kong, and we knew that any solution had to go beyond traditional casework. From the beginning, we worked side by side with Justice Centre to identify the biggest gaps—access to information, reliable legal resources, and support for people at risk of detention.

We approached the project in phases. First, we built infrastructure: Hong Kong’s first public case law database on immigration detention, giving lawyers and advocates a central, reliable source of precedent. Then, we turned to empowerment. We co-designed the Detention Self-Help Toolkit with members of the refugee community, testing every section for clarity and accessibility. Finally, we moved into direct engagement—training community paralegals, hosting legal workshops, and conducting detention visits for those with urgent needs.

Our strategy was to create a self-sustaining system where knowledge and capacity stay within the community. By combining research, education, and direct legal work, we built something durable—tools that help people assert their rights and lawyers deliver more effective advocacy long after the project ends.

What were the most innovative aspects of two of your client’s matters in your view? And who took the lead on driving innovation with the work?

LA Wildfire Response: The most innovative aspect of our work was applying a straightforward legal theory in a novel context—using existing housing codes to address wildfire-related contamination—and then securing a practical plan for compliance. Housing codes already cover harms like lead contamination, but they weren’t written with wildfires in mind. As megafires devastate communities, cities and counties often lack any plan for enforcing those codes to ensure remediation when smoke, ash, and heavy metals contaminate rental housing.

Our approach was to demonstrate that the housing code already applied to these conditions and to press Los Angeles County to act on its existing duties. Rather than litigating for a declaratory judgment, we focused on a solution that forced the county to move quickly and put enforcement mechanisms in place. The resulting settlement—the “Altadena Presumption”—obligates the county to presume wildfire damage in affected rental housing, inspect promptly upon tenant complaints, and require landlords to use certified professionals for remediation.

This outcome was innovative not because it invented a new legal theory, but because it turned a simple one into immediate, systemic relief. By pairing litigation with pragmatic problem-solving, we created a model for holding governments accountable to tenants in the wake of climate disasters.

Justice Centre: The most innovative aspects of this project were the creation of Hong Kong’s first publicly accessible immigration detention case law database and the development of a detention self-help toolkit co-designed with the refugee community.

Our case law database transformed an opaque and fragmented body of detention decisions into a structured, user-friendly resource. Before this project, legal practitioners and advocates struggled to identify relevant precedents. Our team distilled complex judgments into accessible summaries and actionable insights. This approach not only enhanced individual representation but also enabled systemic advocacy, providing NGOs and researchers with a foundation for policy reform. By making the database public and ensuring ongoing updates, the team built a sustainable tool that strengthens the entire ecosystem of refugee rights advocacy.

The Detention Self-Help Toolkit broke new ground in design and audience. Rather than drafting a technical legal manual, we collaborated directly with refugees to ensure clarity, usability, and cultural relevance. Launched in August 2024, the toolkit provides plain-language guidance on detention risks, rights, and remedies. The toolkit’s innovation lies in its dual function: a direct empowerment tool for individuals navigating detention and a training curriculum for Justice Centre’s Paralegals for Protection program. Already, seven refugee women are being trained as community paralegals to use the toolkit in guiding others, creating a multiplier effect.

By combining legal knowledge with community-driven design, we introduced resources that are practical, replicable, and capable of driving long-term systemic change.

Tell us more about the impact of these matters on the local, national, and/or global level.

LA Wildfire Response: The impact of this matter has been profound, beginning at the local level in Altadena. Hundreds of tenants who survived the Eaton Fire now have the assurance that their homes will be inspected, and landlords will be required to remediate if it is contaminated by toxic smoke, ash, or soot. The “Altadena Presumption” requires the county to act quickly and comprehensively, giving families the security of safe housing at a moment when many faced an impossible choice between displacement or living in hazardous conditions.

Nationally, our work demonstrates how pro bono litigation can hold government accountable in the wake of climate-related disasters. Wildfires are increasing in intensity across the country, and many other communities face the same risks of unsafe housing and inadequate enforcement. By establishing that local authorities must proactively address habitability after a disaster, we’ve created a precedent that other jurisdictions can look to as they grapple with similar crises.

Globally, this case adds to the growing body of climate-related advocacy that blends disaster response with human rights protections. We showed that lawyers can do more than respond in emergencies; we can build frameworks that protect vulnerable people long after the smoke clears.

Justice Centre: This project has generated impact on three levels. At the local level, refugees in Hong Kong are directly benefiting from resources that translate complex legal systems into practical tools. The Detention Self-Help Toolkit, launched in August 2024, has already supported more than 120 individuals through in-depth legal assistance and reached another 300 through community sessions. Training seven refugee women as paralegals is extending that reach, embedding legal knowledge inside the community itself.

At the national level, the immigration detention case law database has changed how lawyers and advocates engage with detention law. By making precedents easily searchable and accessible, the database has enabled over 130 trained lawyers and case workers to deliver stronger, more consistent representation. This has raised the quality of advocacy available to asylum seekers across Hong Kong and informed broader legal strategies to challenge unlawful detention practices.

At the global level, the project offers a model of innovation that is both replicable and sustainable. Few pro bono initiatives combine systemic legal infrastructure with community-led empowerment in this way. The database demonstrates how research can become a shared public tool, while the toolkit shows how collaboration with affected communities can multiply impact. Together, they illustrate how law firms and civil society can co-create durable resources that strengthen human rights protection beyond borders.

Why do you think your team ultimately achieved successful results in these two matters?

LA Wildfire Response: We achieved successful results because we combined urgency with collaboration. From the moment the fires began, we understood that survivors needed both immediate support and long-term protection. We quickly engaged with the Disaster Legal Assistance Collaborative, giving survivors and legal aid providers access to clear, updated information while clinics and recovery centers were still being set up. That early response built trust with the community and laid the groundwork for further action.

When it became clear that tenants were being forced back into unsafe homes, we worked with Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County to design a litigation strategy that pushed for systemic change. We knew that individual remedies were not enough; we needed a framework that would obligate the county to protect all tenants. By fusing disaster response with tenant protection law, we created a new legal pathway that led directly to the “Altadena Presumption.”

Ultimately, our success came from acting as one team—legal services organizations, private law firm litigators, pro bono counsel, and community partners—focused on the same goal: securing safe housing for fire survivors and setting a precedent for future climate-related disasters.

Justice Centre: We believe our success came from pairing legal knowledge with deep collaboration and humility. From the outset, we knew that technical excellence alone would not close the justice gap for refugees in Hong Kong. By working hand-in-hand with Justice Centre and directly engaging with the refugee community, we were able to design resources that were not only legally sound but also practical, accessible, and trusted.

For the case law database, our team applied rigorous research and analysis to transform scattered detention decisions into an organized, living resource. What made this effort successful was our willingness to go beyond compiling cases, interpreting them into clear insights that practitioners could use immediately to strengthen advocacy.

For the detention self-help toolkit, we succeeded because we listened. Refugee leaders shaped the language, tone, and content, ensuring the toolkit spoke to lived experience. This co-design process made the resource far more powerful than anything we could have produced alone.

Ultimately, we achieved results because we approached these matters not as outside experts, but as partners committed to building something lasting with the communities we serve. That shared ownership has been the key to both impact and sustainability.

Responses provided by Morrison Foerster Los Angeles litigation partners Kira Davis and Whitney O’Byrne, for the LA wildfires matter.

Responses provided by Morrison Foerster Hong Kong private equity partner Marcia Ellis, for the Hong Kong Justice Centre matter.