Pro Bono Work / Community Service
McDermott Will & Emery recognizes and appreciates the need to give back to the communities of which it is a part and to assist those who are unable to afford legal services.
We therefore offer our summer associates a comprehensive pro bono and community service program through which 100 percent of our summer associates since 2006 have provided pro bono legal services to disadvantaged members of our communities and participated in volunteer service activities.
As participating in our pro bono and community service program inevitably leads to some of our summer associates’ fondest memories, please take a moment to read about some of the pro bono matters and community service activities that our summer associates participated in during the summer of 2009.
McDermott is advising the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative on a number of issues, including compliance with employment and employment tax laws in 54 countries in Africa, Asia, Central America and Eastern Europe. BOSTON | BRUSSELS | CHICAGO | LONDON | LOS ANGELES | NEW YORK | ORANGE COUNTY | SHANGHAI | WASHINGTON, D.C.
In an extraordinary custody dispute ruling, a court held that McDermott’s evidence was “overwhelming” that any visitation by a father with his 15-year-old daughter was “onerous, stringent and rigorous” and therefore ceased all visitation between our client and her father. CHICAGO
McDermott secured asylum for a victim of female genital mutilation from Guinea who was also persecuted based on her Fulani ethnic heritage and her membership in a political opposition party. WASHINGTON, D.C.
Through our partnership with Lawyers Without Borders, McDermott is developing a “know your rights” comic book on domestic violence, trafficking and succession laws in Kenya. HOUSTON
Through our partnership with The Justice Center, McDermott filed an amicus brief in Holmes v. State in the United States Supreme Court,arguing that the states’ capital sentencing procedures are “utterly perfunctory” and fail to ensure that capital sentences are not “disproportionate to the penalty imposed in similar cases,” and therefore the Court should hold that proportionality review is constitutionally required in capital sentencing statutes and schemes. CHICAGO | HOUSTON | NEW YORK
In 2009, McDermott and CLCM published an in-depth study—entitled “Until They Die A Natural Death: Youth Sentenced to Life Without Parole in Massachusetts”— which focuses on the impact of Massachusetts’s practice of trying youth charged with first degree murder in adult court and, if convicted, imposing mandatory life sentences without the possibility for parole. McDermott devoted more than 2,300 hours to the project, including interviewing more than 30 prisoners serving a mandatory life without parole sentence in Massachusetts for crimes committed when they were between the ages of 14 and 17. BOSTON | CHICAGO | NEW YORK | WASHINGTON, D.C.
McDermott completed comprehensive legal assessments for the AIDS Legal Council of Chicago, which protects the legal rights of men, women and children living with HIV/AIDS and the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago, which is one of the city's largest and oldest legal aid organizations, and is currently completing an assessment for the Chicago Community Loan Fund, which provides low-cost, flexible financing to nonprofits as a means of revitalizing low- and moderate-income neighborhoods throughout metropolitan Chicago. CHICAGO
After filing a motion to modify custody due to the mother’s inappropriate behavior, including alcohol and drug abuse, gang affiliation and facilitation of her 8-year-old son’s truancy, McDermott secured custody for the father and suspended the mother’s visitation rights. WASHINGTON, D.C.
Despite vigorous opposition from United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement prosecutors, McDermott persuaded an immigration law judge to release on bond from pre-hearing detention a Venezuelan man who faces possible deportation on charges of overstaying his work visa. BOSTON
To view McDermott’s Pro Bono & Community Service website, click here