2005 Pro Bono Annual Review 2005 Pro Bono Annual Review
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2005 Pro Bono Annual Review 2005 Pro Bono Annual Review Table of Contents Message from the Chairman . 1 Pro Bono Year in Review . 2 Global Pro Bono . 4 Office Highlights . 8 Protecting a Student’s Civil Rights . 11 Human Rights & Refugee Practice . 14 Battling Housing Discrimination . 21 Justice for Immigrants in the Post-9/11 World . 22 Disaster Recovery Work . 26 The Trials of Pro Bono . 32 Equal Justice Works . 34 Pro Bono Committee . 36 Message from the Chairman R o b e r t M . D e l l At Latham & Watkins, our pro bono commitment is a hallmark of our firm. Providing quality legal services to those most in need and least able to pay is an integral part of being a lawyer, and at Latham we take that responsibility seriously. Since 2000, Latham has provided more than $200 million in pro bono legal services to low-income individuals and nonprofit organizations and to advance access to justice, which makes us one of the largest providers of free legal services in the world, a distinction of which we are quite proud. Our pro bono accomplishments include both litigation and transactional successes, large as well as small, encompassing almost every area of public interest law. Our pro bono practice is as broad and diverse as the attorneys in our firm and the communities we serve. As you read this annual review of our pro bono efforts, I hope you will get a sense of our deep tradition of community involvement and outstanding public service, and join us in celebrating the firm’s many pro bono accomplishments of 2005. Robert M. Dell Chairman and Managing Partner Latham & Watkins • 2005 Pro Bono Annual Review 1 Pro Bono Year in Review Since 2000, Latham personnel have provided more than $200 million in pro bono legal services. 2 Latham & Watkins • 2005 Pro Bono Annual Review Message from the Pro Bono Counsel A m o s E . H a r t s t o n Attorneys at Latham & Watkins recognize that, as in Review Year Pro Bono lawyers, we have a duty to help ensure that the doors of justice are open to all, regardless of income. Every year our attorneys, paralegals and staff donate As detailed in this thousands of hours of their time and expertise to help report, Latham’s pro those who might otherwise be denied access to justice. bono accomplishments By providing free legal services to low-income include litigation and individuals and nonprofit organizations without the transactional successes ability to pay, we uphold the traditions of our firm and ranging from human the ideals of our practice. At Latham, pro bono is rights and refugee central to our culture and an integral part of our issues, children’s rights, foster children adoptions, practice of law. homelessness prevention and landlord/tenant issues to community economic development, nonprofit This was another impressive year for our pro bono corporation counseling and representation, land use program. In 2005, Latham attorneys and summer permitting and approvals, family law, assistance to associates provided more than 117,000 hours of free victims of domestic violence, consumer law, public legal services valued in excess of $41 million, with benefits, international law, civil rights, disability- paralegals and other professional staff logging an related cases, and criminal trial and appellate additional 11,000 pro bono hours. In total, Latham proceedings including death penalty litigation. personnel provided more than 128,000 hours of free legal services, valued in excess of $43 million. More Latham partners with local, national and international than 1,100 attorneys and 180 summer associates in 18 legal services providers, bar associations, human rights offices across eight countries, including approximately and civil rights organizations, federal and local courts 76 percent of the firm’s US attorneys and 38 percent of and other nonprofit and community groups to identify our European and Asian attorneys, provided pro bono pro bono projects and community needs. These services in 2005. community organizations are an essential part of our pro bono practice. Our pro bono program relies on the Latham’s pro bono program stands out as an example efforts of the dedicated people at these organizations among private law firms of how a commitment to pro who devote themselves to serving the legal needs of bono can go hand in hand with profitability. While the poor and disadvantaged in our communities. continuing to achieve strong financial results, Latham has demonstrated year after year its unwavering Our dedication to pro bono reflects a fundamental part commitment to pro bono legal service. Latham’s pro of our firm’s culture. Latham encourages all of our bono program is consistently ranked as one of the attorneys to participate, and associate pro bono hours top pro bono programs among private law firms, are treated the same as commercial billable hours for demonstrating that committed lawyers at a global law purposes of associate pace, evaluation and bonuses. firm can make a difference in all types of public There is no cap on pro bono hours. interest matters. Since 2000, Latham personnel including attorneys, summer associates, paralegals and As a signatory of the Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge, other professional staff have provided more than Latham has committed to provide, at minimum, the 700,000 hours of pro bono assistance, totaling more equivalent of 60 hours per US attorney per year in pro than $200 million in free legal services. bono legal services. We have met this goal every year since making the commitment in 2000. We also have 2005 Firm Pro Bono Highlights* made significant strides in expanding our pro bono practice in Europe and Asia. By providing free legal Hours 117,000 services in our communities, Latham attorneys, Participating Attorneys 1,120 paralegals and staff across all of our offices continue our tradition of community involvement and public Participating Summer Associates 184 service. Participating Offices 18 Value of Services Provided $41.7 million * Includes only pro bono service by attorneys and summer associates Latham & Watkins • 2005 Pro Bono Annual Review 3 Global Pro Bono As Latham continues to expand internationally, so too our pro bono ‘‘ practice continues to develop internationally. We are proud of the increasing local pro bono work in our offices in Europe and Asia, as well as important multinational projects handled by teams of our attorneys around the globe.” — Jim Kearney Pro Bono Committee Chair 4 Latham & Watkins • 2005 Pro Bono Annual Review Latham attorneys in Europe and Asia contribute significantly to their communities through pro bono legal services. Over the last several years, the firm’s pro bono program has developed into a global practice, with attorneys now participating in 18 offices across eight countries. The firm also has taken on an assortment of compelling international pro bono matters that impact developing countries and concern important global issues. In 2005, more than 140 of the firm’s attorneys in Europe and Asia — representing approximately 38 percent of our attorneys based in these regions — participated in the pro bono program, providing more than $2.9 million in free legal services. A Post-Conflict Legal Global Pro Bono System in Sudan Over the last year, Latham & Watkins has been assisting the Civil Authority of the New Sudan (CANS), also known as the Sudanese People Liberation Movement (SPLM), in its nation-building endeavor, helping to establish the rule of law for a new constitutional democracy in Africa. Decades of conflict and civil war based upon geographic divisions, ethnic differences, religious and political ideology, and competition over resources left most portions of Southern Sudan without basic civil institutions, without Photo: Catherine Maywald access to basic services such as electricity or telephone Meeting room for the SPLM Southern Kordofan State constitutional drafting committee service, without educational opportunities and without the rule of law. Following an internationally brokered peace agreement signed in January 2005, Latham represented CANS, the new leader of the recently established Government of Southern Sudan, in its efforts to Photos: Nathan Miller design a post-conflict legal system. Through this Headquarters of Southern Sudanese government attorneys groundbreaking project — accomplished in partnership with Nathan Miller, Executive Director of Rule of Law International, a US-based non-governmental How does a new organization — Latham analyzed issues involved in creating a new national legal system, drafted heavily government build a legal annotated constitutional text and advised on strategies ‘‘ system from scratch when to enable our client to adequately articulate and defend its interests in four separate post-conflict constitutional it can muster no more than a processes at the federal and state levels. handful of lawyers? For CANS, Assembling a multinational team of more than 50 it was by strategically utilizing the Latham attorneys and 25 summer associates spanning tremendous resources and expertise nine offices around the world, we mobilized our global resources for our client, bringing together firm of the Latham team. The ideas, expertise in finance and banking, environment and enthusiasm and professionalism land resources, and human rights, among other subject that Latham brought to the table areas. Our global team provided unwavering dedication, as well as round-the-clock support for our were simply invaluable.” client, as the people of Southern Sudan worked to — Nathan Miller develop a new economic and political structure. Executive Director, Rule of Law International Latham & Watkins • 2005 Pro Bono Annual Review 5 Ashoka Social Entrepreneurship Around the World. Ashoka is a global, nonprofit organization which identifies and We are proud to use our invests in social entrepreneurs — supporting them, skills as attorneys and our their ideas and institutions through all phases of their Global Pro Bono careers. Ashoka has created fellowships for more than ‘‘ capabilities as a global law firm 1,700 Ashoka Fellows in 60 countries, resulting in to help pro bono clients like projects that have transformed the lives of millions of people in thousands of communities worldwide.