Squire Patton Boggs Cares
Squire Patton Boggs has a long-standing commitment to pro bono services that promote equal justice and provide service for those with limited resources.
Our pro bono legacy is deeply rooted in our dedication to the communities where we live and work, both in the US and around the world. We actively encourage and support our lawyers in answering the call to serve and volunteer their legal services each year by providing billable credit, awards and other recognitions for performing pro bono work.
Our lawyers work on a diverse range of pro bono matters that advance social justice, support nonprofit organizations across the globe, protect our global resources and provide individual assistance to those in need. In addition, the firm’s Public Service Initiative (PSI), a team of lawyers in our New York office, is dedicated to handling the most challenging constitutional criminal justice issues, innocence cases, and challenges to the death penalty.
In 2023, the pro bono work of our lawyers and staff consisted of:
30k+
Hours Worked
300+
Active Matters
18
Countries
Our Work
Our work includes ensuring access to justice for individual clients in matters that include housing, family/custody, domestic violence, immigration and assistance to veterans. Our lawyers have also represented numerous US and international nonprofit organizations, advised low-revenue small businesses – including those serving disadvantaged communities – and initiated a Pro Bono Patent Program to support economically disadvantaged inventors. As a firm, we have amplified our efforts to promote racial equity including by advising organizations that are serving communities of color. Our pro bono department is also home to the Public Service Initiative (PSI), a free-standing public interest law project, dedicated to handling complex and resource-intensive criminal justice matters in jurisdictions where indigent clients have limited access to legal counsel. From immigration to natural resources protection to international child abduction cases to successful asylum representation for members of the LGBTQ+ community, our lawyers are on the forefront of offering critical, groundbreaking legal work where and when it is needed most. Below is a sampling of some of the pro bono work our lawyers have performed.
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Civil Rights
- Representing the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights San Francisco in its Freedom of Information requests to the city of Sacramento and its police department regarding their treatment of Black Lives Matter protestors.
- Represented amici, religious bodies and organizations to argue to the US Supreme Court in S.F.F.A. vs. Harvard and University of North Carolina, that diversity in higher education is essential to obtaining the necessary growth and experience to lead and serve in both secular and religious spaces.
- Successfully appealed religious freedom case on behalf of a California inmate, a member of the Sikh faith, challenging prison grooming rules that required him to cut his hair, contrary to his religious beliefs.
- Represented amicus curiae, the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, in urging a state Supreme Court to hold that evidence seized as a result of unconstitutional, racially motivated traffic stops should be suppressed under the equal protection and unreasonable searches and seizure provisions of both the state and US Constitutions.
- Working with the Law Firm Antiracism Alliance to develop a voting rights case database that will be used as a national tool in ensuring voter protection and racial equality in voting.
- Represented the mother of a two-year-old girl in an international child abduction case, in conjunction with the Office of Children’s Issues at the US Department of State under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.
- Preparing submissions to the European Court of Human Rights relating to the rights of prisoners and inpatients in Swiss hospitals and prisons to access vegan meals.
- Assisting the Japanese Federation of Bar Associations with studies regarding criminal procedures and rights, ultimately aiming to promote reform of Japanese criminal procedure and rights.
Criminal Justice
- Won a new trial for client in Ohio v. Browning in a series of landmark decisions under the Ohio constitution, regarding the right to a fair trial and how evidence of judicial bias must be analyzed.
- Secured the immediate release of client sentenced to life in prison as a young offender under Washington D.C.’s Incarceration Reduction Amendment Act (IRAA), allowing him to come home after serving two decades in prison.
- Representing qualified individuals in an expedited pardon applications process as part of Governor DeWine’s Expedited Pardon Project.
- Created a report on police accountability in Ohio for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, researching issues including local demographics, hiring and training practices and reform efforts.
- Leading a Sixth Circuit Appellate Clinic at two Ohio law schools, which involves supervising and litigating criminal appellate cases before the Sixth Circuit.
- In addition, our PSI project focuses its efforts on complex criminal justice litigation, public policy reform and related public education to combat the systemic inequities of our justice system.
Immigrant Rights
- Obtained asylum relief for a gay, HIV+ man from the small dual island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis, who was seeking asylum in the US based on the fear of past and future persecution were he to return to his home country.
- Assisting Ukraine Nationals in filing applications for Temporary Protective Status (TPS) and in obtaining employment in the US.
- Obtained favorable rulings for two Central American minors in Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) proceedings that allowed the clients’ family members to obtain custody over them.
- Assisted an active-duty sergeant in the US Army in sponsoring his father for US permanent residency and petitioning the US Consulate in Cameroon to accept a waiver of inadmissibility application.
- Persuaded the Ninth Circuit to overturn a Board of Immigration Appeals order denying the application of a client for political asylum and withholding of removal (denial of deportation) following his flight from discrimination and persecution in Armenia.
LGBTQ+ Rights
- Partnering with Equality Ohio to assist LGBTQ+ individuals with legal name and gender change recognition.
- Served as pro bono co-counsel for a large amicus group – consisting of law school professors, Jewish and non-Jewish organizations, rabbis and scholars devoted to justice and equality, including the rights of LGBTQ+ persons – in filing an amicus brief with the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department in the case of YU Pride Alliance, et al., vs. Yeshiva University and President Ari Berman.
- Represented an openly gay member of the US military who challenged the constitutionality of his discharge from service.
- Represented the National Center for Lesbian Rights in a landmark custody trial, the conclusion of a four-year-long fight between two mothers over their daughter.
- Authored amicus briefs on behalf of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children and nine other child advocacy organizations challenging a directive from the Governor of Texas and the Texas Attorney General that gender-affirming healthcare constitutes child abuse under Texas law.
Nonprofit Organizations
- Led a team of financial services and corporate attorneys to create a nonprofit entity aiming to support economic equality, advise and strategize on entity formation matters.
- Supervised law students in providing legal advice to startups as part of the Startup Legal Garage program at UC College of Law San Francisco.
- Partnering with the New Voices Foundation, an organization focused on creating a more inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem, to launch legal clinic providing pro bono counsel to start-up companies that seek to serve and/or produce economic impact in communities of color.
- Providing continuing legal support to More Than A Vote, an organization founded by Lebron James and over 40 entertainers and athletes whose mission is engagement, education and protection of black voters.
- Serving as privacy and governance counsel for a women scientist organization that aims to make science open, inclusive and accessible, and to transform society by fighting racism, patriarchy and oppressive societal norms.
- Provided employment law advice to Villekula e.V., a non-profit association based in Germany providing health, environmental and nutrition education for children and young people.
- Providing pro bono services to The Asia Foundation and its affiliate Give2Asia, the leading 501(c)(3) organization facilitating charitable gifts to Asia.
- Serving as counsel for numerous outdoor recreation nonprofits, including the American Mountain Guides Association, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and the Leave No Trace Association.
- Serving as pro bono general corporate counsel for the GRYD Foundation, a public/private partnership with the city of Los Angeles gang reduction and youth development division.
Securing Access to Justice
- Partnered with the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland for more than 40 years, including staffing brief-advice clinics and securing dozens of protective orders for victims of domestic violence seeking protective orders against their abusers.
- Participated in the California Habeas Project, a collaboration of several respected California nonprofit organizations and law firms dedicated to protecting the rights of domestic violence survivors with murder convictions by challenging the legality of their confinement through writs of habeas corpus provided by Penal Code section 1473.5. Penal Code section 1473.5 provides women with the opportunity to use expert testimony on physical abuse and its lasting psychological impacts to supplement their defense against charges of murder.
- Secured a favorable ruling and financial compensation for a Slovak citizen in a precedent-setting medical malpractice indemnification claim that resulted in the medical laboratory settling the case.
Throughout my legal career, I have sought out 'good trouble, necessary trouble,' as the late John Lewis referred to the fight for justice and equal rights. That search has been nurtured and supported by Squire Patton Boggs and the incredibly talented and conscientious attorneys at the firm. Our Public Service Initiative is a testament to the firm's commitment to improving our criminal justice system and ensuring equal rights and equal justice for all, regardless of race or class.
Corrine Irish, Partner
Public Service Initiative
The Public Service Initiative (PSI) is a full-service public interest law project housed within our firm. The PSI team of lawyers and legal staff has successfully litigated complex cases implicating constitutional protections, including capital punishment, juvenile life without parole and innocence cases. PSI adopts a strategy of broad-based advocacy on behalf of its clients that can include individual and impact litigation, policy reform and media advocacy. Highlights of its recent work include:
DNA Testing Secured by PSI Clears Death Row Client Christopher Barbour and Identifies Man Already Serving Life for a Different Murder
After 30 years of asserting that he was wrongfully convicted, Alabama death row client Christopher Barbour finally had a federal hearing on his actual innocence.
PSI Continues to Pursue the Exoneration of Death Row Client Rodney Reed
Three years ago, PSI joined the legal team (including the Innocence Project in New York) for Rodney Reed, a man sentenced to death in Texas, who was nearly executed in November 2019. Mr. Reed has a strong claim of actual innocence, as well as other powerful claims concerning the state’s use of unreliable evidence and suppression of exculpatory evidence.
PSI Continues to Fight for Relief for Client Kenneth Reams
Having secured a decision that vacated Kenneth Reams’s death sentence, PSI and co-counsel the NAACP LDF are now working to secure relief on the life sentence Mr. Reams is serving in Arkansas.
PSI Secures the Release of Albert Woodfox, of the Angola 3, Who Served More Time in Solitary Confinement Than Anyone in US History
PSI secured the release of Albert Woodfox, of the Angola 3, who served 44 years in solitary confinement – a story that is told in Mr. Woodfox’s highly praised memoir, Solitary.
PSI’s Principal Amicus Brief Plays a Critical Role in Persuading the US Supreme Court That Indigent Defendants Are Entitled to Independent Experts
PSI submitted the principal amicus brief on behalf of several national defense organizations in McWilliams v. Dunn, which – as evidenced by the majority opinion’s reliance on the brief – was critical to convincing the US Supreme Court that an indigent defendant is entitled to a mental health expert independent of the state and prosecution.
PSI Secures the Release and Full Pardon for Client Joseph J. Dick Jr., of the Norfolk Four, Who Was Wrongfully Convicted in 1999
PSI secured a court ruling stating that Joseph J. Dick Jr. was innocent, leading to the dismissal of all criminal charges against him and his co-defendants (the Norfolk Four) and, one year later, an absolute pardon for all of them from the Governor of Virginia.
