Recent Efforts

Pro bono is an important part of who we are and what we have done historically. It is an integral part of the firm's culture and is recognized as such—not something you do at the end of the day. Many of our lawyers participate in pro bono, and our staff members participate in public service, because they share the same belief, that it is the right thing to do.

Lawyers receive full billable credit for pro bono work and participation is strictly voluntary. Many of our lawyers participate in pro bono work because it presents the opportunity to advance their skill set and to build strong relationships with both clients and colleagues at the firm. Lawyers from across departments and across offices participate, so there is the opportunity to get to know those with whom you might not otherwise work. You also have the opportunity to take primary responsibility for matters very early on in your career and to work on matters that may be outside your normal practice area. In the long run, this helps you better service your clients because you gain a deeper understanding of what your colleagues in other practices do.

At WilmerHale, you can do the type of pro bono work that interests you. There is no particular litmus test for the types of cases we take and we advocate on various sides of today’s leading issues. The firm gives you access to an incredible range of matters. In recent pro bono efforts, we:

• Obtained an injunction from Maryland's highest court against all further executions in that state because of a failure to promulgate lethal injection procedures in conformity with the Maryland Administrative Procedure Act
  
  
• WilmerHale represented six Bosnian-Algerians, including Lakhdar Boumediene, who have been detained at Guantanamo since 2002. On June 12, 2008, the Supreme Court ruled 5-to-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 at Guantanamo Bay, where they have been held for nearly seven years. (cick here for more)
  
  
• Continued to serve as national legal counsel for City Year, supporting its public policy work and United States and South African operations engaging young people for a year of national service
  
  
• Achieved a significant victory on behalf of Senegalese teenager Amadou Ly when immigration authorities announced that they would drop deportation proceedings and allow him to live and study in the United States
  
  
• Successfully brought a class action lawsuit, Rosie D. v. Romney, on behalf of nine named plaintiffs, ages five to 18, and obtained a landmark ruling that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts violated federal law by failing to provide behavioral health services to an estimated 15,000 children with serious emotional disturbance
  
  
• Secured an impressive jury verdict in the US District Court for the District of Columbia for our client, Timothy D. Naegele, who was indicted in April 2005 on 11 counts of bankruptcy fraud and making false statements and was acquitted of the last counts, resulting in the termination of all charges
  
  
• Obtained a favorable ruling when a US District Court ordered the City of Richmond, Richmond City Council, and its Mayor to fund a five-year plan for eliminating barriers to access in Richmond's schools for citizens with disabilities
  
  
• Successfully appealed the convictions of Martin Tankleff, a Long Island man imprisoned for 17 years for the murders of his parents, based largely on a false confession that he gave after an interrogation conducted without Miranda warnings
  
  
• 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, Texas and Washington State Interest On Lawyer Trust Account (IOLTA) programs that fund legal services for the poor
  
  
• Obtained a favorable settlement for our clients—five African-American individuals who brought a Section 1983 action against Robertson County, Texas, and five individual law enforcement defendants—who alleged that they were wrongfully targeted for investigation and arrest on drug dealing charges in violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments
  
  
• 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
  
  
• Provided research that helped the Human Rights Law Network to establish a right to shelter for the millions of homeless in India, and a right to treatment and healthcare for the estimated 5.5 million Indian citizens suffering from AIDS
  
  
• Worked with the American Civil Liberties Union in a successful challenge to a regulation enacted by New York’s Chief Administrative Judge that barred trial judges from implementing fee increases for lawyers assigned to represent indigent criminal defendants
  
  
• Represented indigent persons through the WilmerHale Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School, a major clinical teaching facility that has assisted tens of thousands of low-income persons since the firm and its Harvard Law School alumni partners funded this unique collaboration with Harvard Law School in 1992