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2020 Pro Bono & Social Impact Report
DAVIS WRIGHT TREMAINE LLP
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A Note From Our Managing Partner I’m grateful for the opportunity to celebrate work that brings us together. Pro bono and social impact projects unite us in common cause. Our lawyers, professional staff, and clients come from a multitude of backgrounds, hold a wide range of beliefs, and apply a diversity of thought to every project they work on. But, they share a commitment to making our communities better and enriching the lives of the people we live and work alongside every day. Pro bono work is one of the best and most enduring aspects of the legal profession. How we incorporate that value into our firm and the ways in which we choose to use our time and abilities to improve our communities is driven by our culture. We are collaborative. We are committed to fostering a diverse, inclusive, and equitable environment. We have a strong service ethic and believe in building deep partnerships with our clients that focus on shared values and extend beyond the work that we do. And, we are committed to improving our communities, fostering access to justice, and ensuring that everyone has a voice in how we move forward together. The stories highlighted in this report epitomize our culture. I hope you draw as much inspiration from them as I do. There is so much more good we can do together. And we will.
Scott MacCormack
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Message From Joanna and Tom In a year where seemingly every email started with “in these unprecedented times,” where we were constantly reminded of the pervasive influence of systemic racism, and where we were mentally pushed to the limit, instead of retreating, our attorneys and staff members doubled down on doing good.
This report shows the incredible passion, time, and commitment that DWT brought to pro bono matters and social impact initiatives in 2020. It also highlights the force-multiplying power of corporate partnerships and what happens when law firms collaborate with their clients to do good together.
While dealing with the stresses of a global pandemic, our people volunteered their time and talents—often working alongside our clients—to fight for justice and equality. Despite the challenges, we launched more innovative projects, led more nationwide initiatives, protected more constitutional rights, and engaged more meaningfully on antiracism efforts than we had hoped we might achieve over the course of a single year. The pandemic, summer of racial reckoning, importance of fighting for justice, demanding equity, and protecting rights inspired our attorneys and staff to go above and beyond. And they did.
We hope that these stories and videos move and inspire you, like they did us. We can’t wait to continue this work into the next year and beyond. Sincerely,
Joanna Boisen Chief Pro Bono & Social Impact Officer
Thomas R Burke Partner and Chair, DWT Pro Bono Committee
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Content 05 Anti-Racist Civil Rights Litigation
27 Corporate/Client Partnerships
10 Voting Rights
31 Minority-Owned and Other Small Businesses
11 Clemency 15
Housing
17 Immigration 23 Veterans Appeals 24 Civil Rights 26 COVID Response
33 New Pre-Law Diversity Fellowship 34 Recognition 37 Pro Bono Week 38 Sustainability 39 DWT Lawyers/Staff Participating in the Above Matters
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Anti-Racist Civil Rights Litigation
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Aiding Inmates Jailed Under a Racist, Jim Crow-Era Law Two states in the U.S.—Louisiana and Oregon—have long had a shameful distinction: They’ve both allowed criminal conviction by non-unanimous juries. The intent was to disempower minority jurors and deprive people of color of a fair trial. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court finally threw out these laws as unconstitutional, and future defendants will no longer be subject to them. But what about the thousands of victims of this decades-long discrimination who are still behind bars? Davis Wright Tremaine has joined with partner organizations in both states to help repair the injustice. In Louisiana, we’re collaborating with the Promise of Justice Initiative in seeking postconviction relief for these inmates—more than half of whom are serving life sentences without the possibility of parole. Twenty-six DWT attorneys and six paralegals are helping litigate and conducting legal research on prospective cases. To optimize impact, we have also recruited lawyer participants from several of our largest clients, including Facebook, JPMorgan Chase, and Bloomberg. Will Friedman, counsel in our Washington, D.C., office, helped spearhead the project by bringing the Promise of Justice Initiative to our attention and making the necessary introduction. The teams are currently representing 12 clients and have devoted more than 530 hours to the effort so far.
In Oregon, we’ve also partnered with Lewis & Clark Law School’s Criminal Justice Reform Clinic to represent five Oregon inmates sentenced on the basis of nonunanimous jury verdicts. A dozen DWT attorneys have so far devoted more than 330 hours to the work. The Oregon State Bar New Lawyers Division recognized Olivier Jamin, an associate in our Portland office, for his leadership in this effort, honoring him with the 2020 Advancing Diversity Award. A third group of DWT lawyers, led by San Francisco partner Allison Davis, pursued a case before the U.S. Supreme Court that sought to make last year’s ruling retroactive. Our team filed an amicus brief on behalf of 14 former state and federal prosecutors in Louisiana, who argued that “‘finality’ is not the highest goal of our criminal justice system: Justice is.” The Court heard arguments in November and in May issued a ruling that they would not make their previous decision retroactive in a habeas proceeding.
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Working to Promote Police Accountability and Reform Racial disparities within the criminal justice system continue to be one of the most devastating and unjust sources of inequity in American society. The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law established its Criminal Justice Project to challenge these disparities. Our Washington, D.C., partner, Chava Brandriss, serves on the Lawyers’ Committee board and took the lead last year, in partnership with JPMorgan Chase, on conducting innovative, in-depth research and analysis relating to barriers to police accountability and reform. A combined team of 10 lawyers is participating. The research will be used to help shape the Lawyers’ Committee’s work by identifying jurisdictions in which they may be able to drive and support meaningful change and the issues to focus on. The ultimate goal is to remove barriers to reform in a system that discriminates against people of color, criminalizes poverty, and enables civil rights violations.
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I Wanted to Find a Community Where I Could Serve” Caesar Kalinowski is a military veteran with a strong commitment to giving back. His dedication to pro bono work last year earned him the annual “Julie Orr Heart of Justice” Award, which is named for our former pro bono manager and honors an outstanding DWT associate. Caesar describes how his life experience drives him to help the underserved, including veterans and people who are incarcerated.
Supporting the Movement to Reform Our Cash Bail System The cash bail system perpetuates inequalities and can be devastating to the lives of defendants and their families. The DWT team of Bradford Hardin, Matthew Diggs, and Anastasia Liounakos is representing four criminal court judges in Harris County, Texas, who have seen up close the ruinous effects of our current system and are engaged in litigation seeking reform. The case is ongoing.
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Defending the Rights of a Journalist of Color Swept Up in a Mass Arrest Last August, police in Washington, D.C., arrested multimedia journalist Kian Kelley-Chung and seized his equipment while he was covering Black Lives Matter protests in the Adams Morgan neighborhood. Although Mr. Kelley-Chung identified himself as a journalist, officers confiscated his two cameras and his smartphone and he was held in custody for over 18 hours. Thanks to the efforts of the National Press Photographers Association, working with DWT lawyers, D.C. police returned Mr. Kelley-Chung’s equipment. A team at DWT then filed suit, alleging violations of our client’s constitutional rights. Earlier this year we were proud to celebrate a substantial monetary settlement in the case. “Respecting the rights of photographers and reporters is not optional for police officers,” said Mr. Kelley-Chung’s attorney, Robert Corn-Revere. “Hopefully, outcomes like this will help reinforce that message.” Said Mr. Kelley-Chung: “It is important that people remember the power they have when they hold a camera, and their ability to hold the system accountable.” Also assisting in the case were Ronald London (now with Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) and Meenakshi Krishnan.
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Voting Rights Working to Secure Voting Access for Underrepresented Communities With our free and fair elections under extraordinary threat, DWT lawyers and staff took extraordinary steps to get engaged last year. Our team dedicated more than 1,665 pro bono hours to voting rights initiatives across the country. These efforts included helping staff a voting rights hotline administered by Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Together with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Public Defender Association, DWT also participated in an ongoing Jails Working Group, which seeks to promote voter registration and ballot distribution to individuals who are incarcerated in Wasington State prisons and are eligible to vote.
Our team is pursuing litigation as well. In partnership with the ACLU and Demos, DWT litigators, led by Seattle counsel Matt Jedreski, prevailed in federal court last year, blocking an Indiana law that would have purged voter rolls in violation of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. Another DWT team, which includes Matt, Adam Sieff, and Kate Kennedy, has sued to stop the 2021 voter-suppression law in Georgia.
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Clemency
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People Are So Much More Than the Worst Thing They’ve Done” Children who commit crimes are uniquely capable of transforming their lives as they mature. Recognizing that fact, Washington is one of the few states to offer the possibility of early release to individuals who were convicted of crimes in adult court before their 18th birthday. Securing that clemency is more likely with a legal advocate at your side. A team led by our Seattle partner-in-charge, Pete Johnson, and DWT’s pro bono program manager, Rachel Brown, was honored last year to help win release for a client who was incarcerated at age 14. Pete and Rachel share what inspired them to take the case and it has transformed them as well.
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The Comfort of Family A terminally ill prisoner at Stafford Creek Corrections Center in southwest Washington State was able to spend his last months of life in the comfort and care of his family, thanks to the work of a DWT team. Seattle associate Grant Damon-Feng, together with members of the inmate’s family, appeared virtually before the Washington State Clemency and Pardons Board last year on behalf of our client, who had an outstanding record during his 16 years of incarceration. The board unanimously agreed to recommend a commutation, which Gov. Jay Inslee granted. Among those who helped achieve this just and compassionate outcome were the Seattle Clemency Project, which championed the client’s case and enlisted our team to assist; the King County Prosecutor’s Office, which fully supported our client’s petition; and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which agreed to withdraw the immigration detainer previously placed on our client.
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Pardon Reduces Exposure to Deportation A felony conviction is grounds for deportation under the Immigration and Nationality Act—even if it was for nonviolent offenses that occurred decades ago. As a result, peaceful productive lives can be suddenly upended. That was the predicament faced by our client, who was separated from his family and placed in an immigration detention center when a 20-year-old conviction for attempted sale of drugs came to the attention of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Our client had been brought to the U.S. as a child from Colombia. Following his conviction, he had voluntarily entered rehab and became clean and crime-free. He also married, worked his way up to a managerial position at a hospitality company, took care of a sick relative, and volunteered in his community. But after receiving some bad advice from an immigration attorney, he attempted to help his wife apply for U.S. citizenship, which led to the flagging of his felony conviction to DHS. His case went through several appeals before immigration courts and things were looking bleak. A new strategy was needed. That’s when DWT was engaged. In 2019, the team of Victor Kovner, John Magliery, Danielle Toaltoan, and Rich Zukowsky worked with Bronx Defenders to draft and submit a pardon application and letters of reference to Governor Cuomo’s office. In January 2020, we received the very happy news that our client was one of 11 individuals to whom the governor granted clemency. With the state court conviction no longer on our client’s record, there are no automatic federal grounds for his removal. The Bronx Defenders continue to pursue legal remedies to ensure that no discretionary grounds apply to our client either, which would allow him to stay in this country.
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Housing
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Helping a Black Church Keep Seniors in the Neighborhood Seattle’s historically Black neighborhood, known as the Central District, has been undergoing intense gentrification over the last decade, driven by the city’s soaring home prices. So we’ve been especially proud to assist Mount Zion Housing Development (MZHD), an arm of Seattle’s second-oldest Black church, in its plans to build a new apartment building, close by the church, that will provide 62 affordable units to seniors who are at risk of displacement. Last December, Mt. Zion achieved a crucial milestone, as the Seattle Office of Housing announced millions of dollars in investment for the project. “There’s severe competition for public dollars, so this is a huge win for our client,” says Brent Droze, an associate in our real estate and land use practice group, who has been advising MZHD. Construction is now expected to get underway this summer. “It brings me immense satisfaction that we’ve helped advance this project to a point where it’s not merely a dream but an increasingly tangible reality,” says Brent, who has been supported by DWT partners Rhys Farren and Warren Koons. “This is the type of real change I think we all envision when we begin our careers as attorneys.”
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Immigration
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A Lawyer Makes All the Difference” Since 2017, we have partnered with Amazon, Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), and Bet Tzedek to help our nation’s most vulnerable immigrant population: unaccompanied minors. So far, the partnership has successfully obtained Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS), which provides lawful permanent residency, for 19 children and is close to obtaining SIJS status, asylum, or human trafficking visas for several more. Among the clients we’ve helped through this project is a young Salvadoran woman who fled to the U.S. by herself as a teenager. Kaitlyn Fallon has worked with the client since 2018. During that time, our client’s mother passed away in El Salvador and her father has gone to prison. Under the care of her aunt, who Kaitlyn helped establish as the official guardian, our client has persevered. Kaitlyn’s success on behalf of her client was featured last year in KIND’s online newsletter. In this video, senior leaders from the team describe the critical importance of this work and this partnership.
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KIND Recognition We’re proud that our partnership on behalf of KIND has received recognition that may inspire further commitment to this important work. Last year, the team of Amazon, Bet Tzedek, KIND, and DWT was honored with the Corporate Pro Bono Partnership Award by the Pro Bono Institute. Said the institute: “This partnership remains an exemplary model for other organizations to respond to the rapidly emerging needs of unaccompanied migrant children.” KIND’s Seattle office also honored Amazon’s John Donovan, Dennis Wallace, and Archita Taylor (now in private practice), together with DWT partner Jane Eckels and associate Breck Wilmot, as 2020 Pro Bono Attorneys of the Year. KIND recognized their “stellar advocacy” on behalf of a child victim of human trafficking. “The team worked diligently to develop rapport with the client to gather her story in a trauma-informed manner,” said KIND. Thanks to the team’s efforts, the client received approval for a T visa, which provides much needed, long-term stability.
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That Ability to Come Out of the Shadows Was Just a Spectacular Relief” San Francisco associate Anna Fero stepped in to help a client originally from Mexico whose U-visa was denied due to poor counsel.
It Took Five Years to Reach This Goal” A former interpreter for U.S. forces in Afghanistan safely made it to the U.S. with his family last year, thanks to tireless work from our Seattle associate Claudia Lin, along with law students from the University of Southern California. We’re also deploying our nationally recognized expertise in public records litigation in support of this work. Over the past two years, our pro bono committee chair, Thomas R. Burke, and New York associate Jack Browning have together helped the International Refugee Assistance Project secure records from the U.S. Department of Defense under the Freedom of Information Act. The work is ongoing and being driven by New York associate Nimra Azmi. These records will support the visa applications of more Afghans like our client, helping those who assisted this country at great danger to themselves to access this important visa.
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Working to Stop ICE From Targeting Activists Maru Mora-Villalpando has dedicated her life to the fight for immigrant justice. Over the past decade, she has organized multiple local and statewide campaigns and protests in support of immigrants and immigrant detainees and against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal and local authorities. In 2014, it became clear that ICE was tracking her. A few years later, she received notice that the Department of Homeland Security had started removal proceedings against her. When she got ahold of the document in which ICE recorded its evidence, it specifically mentioned her “extensive involvement with anti-ICE protests” and “advocacy for Latino causes.” None of the usual triggers for deportation— such as contact with the police, raids, or prior deportations—were present. Mora-Villalpando is far from alone in being targeted for her constitutionally protected speech. DWT has sued to stop the practice.
DWT associate Robbie Miller is spearheading the suit, along with partners Bruce E.H. Johnson and Ambika Kumar, two of the leading First Amendment lawyers in the country. Plaintiffs in the case are La Resistencia, an organization co-founded by Mora-Villalpando that works to combat human rights violations at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, and the Seattlebased Coalition of Anti-Racist Whites, which works to undo institutional racism. Our lawsuit argues that as a result of ICE’s unconstitutional practices, detainees’ family members are afraid to speak and our clients’ ability to carry out their missions has been compromised. ICE has twice tried and failed to get the suit dismissed. The Biden administration recently sought and received a temporary stay in the case while it develops updated civil immigration enforcement guidance.
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Uncovering Egregious Acts Being Committed in Our Name” Without the dedication of groups like the University of Washington Center for Human Rights (UWCHR), the treatment of undocumented immigrants in U.S. custody might never come to light. Last year, successful Freedom of Information Act litigation on behalf of UWCHR resulted in a headline-making November 2020 report. Our former Seattle associate Jordan Clark (now in-house at Expedia) and UWCHR director Angelina Godoy describe how essential these efforts are for holding our government accountable.
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Veterans Appeals In honor of Veterans Day, we agreed to take on nine Board of Veterans’ Appeals cases through the National Veterans Legal Services Program. These cases are currently in different stages, with some awaiting decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.
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Civil Rights
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Preserving the Rights of Patients and Providers at Planned Parenthood
Supporting the Equal Rights Amendment
Patients who come to a health care center cannot focus on their health if they are distracted, anxious, or afraid. But that is the environment that a group of protesters created over a period of many months outside a Planned Parenthood facility in Spokane, Washington.
Last year, our Portland litigator John DiLorenzo joined forces with his wife, Leanne Littrell DiLorenzo, and her organization VoteERA.org, in seeking to force the federal government to finally certify and incorporate the Equal Rights Amendment into the U.S. Constitution.
More than a quarter of Planned Parenthood patients are black, Indigenous, and/or people of color (BIPOC) and already face systemic inequities in their access to healthcare. Yet the aggressively loud protests—with drums, guitars, and amplification—together with harassment and obstruction of patients as they entered and exited, were causing patients in some cases to forgo treatment. Planned Parenthood staff also struggled to communicate with patients, document medical records correctly, or even answer the phone.
John, together with summer associate Lauren Harris, Michael Kellerman (now with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission), and Chip English, filed an amicus brief on behalf of VoteERA.org and in support of three states litigating in D.C. District Court. VoteERA.org helped pass the ERA in Oregon in 2014.
These demonstrations were clearly unlawful, as Washington law prohibits willfully disrupting the normal functioning of a health care facility. The Seattle-based women’s advocacy group Legal Voice challenged these activities in court, and—with support from a large team of DWT lawyers and staff led by counsel Vicky Slade—secured a preliminary injunction. The judge enjoined the protestors from carrying out their activities until an hour after the Planned Parenthood clinic closes at night and only from a location farther away. Our team is now working on a motion to turn the preliminary injunction into a permanent one.
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COVID Response Restaurant People Care About the Things That Matter Most” With the industry he’s served for years hard-hit by COVID-19, Riley Lagesen, chair of DWT’s restaurant practice group, saw the need for immediate, big, and visible support. Working pro bono, Riley teamed up with his longtime client Guy Fieri to launch the Restaurant Employee Relief Fund (RERF). The idea caught on big. Along the way there was a Jimmy Fallon appearance, a nacho showdown featuring Bill Murray and Shaquille O’Neal, and other fun for a cause. Here’s how it all went down. In addition to RERF, our pro bono team created a comprehensive resource guide for restaurant and retail workers on how to access unemployment, housing, health care, and other forms of assistance. These guides were individually tailored to four states where we have large offices—California, New York, Oregon, and Washington—and distributed to the affected workers of some of our largest clients and to qualified legal service organizations providing pro bono representation to those impacted.
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Corporate/Client Partnerships
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For Our Legal System to Be Healthy, We Need Good Access to Justice” Partnering with our clients is a critical way that we maximize resources for justice and magnify our impact. We’re honored to work shoulder-to-shoulder with clients including Amazon, Microsoft, and Starbucks, and to have the legal leaders at all three companies share their thoughts about the importance of this partnership.
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Joining With Microsoft to Protect Journalism Journalism is essential to a robust and enduring democracy. Yet journalists and newsrooms are facing unprecedented economic headwinds, as well as a hostile U.S. political environment and ongoing attempts by powerful interests to silence reporting through litigation. Recognizing the need to support the media’s vital mission, Microsoft and DWT launched a first-of-its-kind partnership to make free legal services available to reporters and small media organizations, especially those serving diverse and “news desert” communities. Launched as a pilot in October 2020, the Protecting Journalists Program (PJP) is initially serving clients in Washington and California. The program has engaged several organizations—including the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the First Amendment Coalition, and the Washington Coalition for Open Government—to screen and refer potential clients. Since launch, the PJP team has collaborated on more than a dozen matters that supported important news coverage nationally. In some cases, these stories might not have seen the light of day were it not for the legal assistance provided. As one example, a team of PJP attorneys provided pre-publication review for a journalist who wrote an article exposing a corrupt city government official. The story garnered national attention, and the official was forced to step down as a result of the article. The program taps the entrepreneurial spirit of Microsoft’s pro bono program, where big thinking and new initiatives are encouraged, and the media expertise and commitment to client pro bono partnerships of DWT. At least one Microsoft and one DWT attorney staff each matter, allowing the in-house counsel to learn the ropes from our group and expanding the number of legal professionals equipped to assist with this vital work. With a sophisticated, easy-to-plug-into process in place and a robust network of partners, PJP is positioned to achieve its goal of scaling up further and taking referrals from organizations nationwide.
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Guiding the Creation of In-House Pro Bono Programs Around the Country In addition to our direct pro bono work, our team is dedicated to expanding equal-justice resources for everyone by helping our clients launch effective, compliant pro bono programs of their own. Last year we held our second annual Pro Bono Summit, in which more than 200 participants from companies around the country logged in to make connections with some of the biggest players in corporate pro bono and to get detailed guidance on how to do pro bono in-house. Our program brought together companies with sophisticated pro bono programs—such as Amazon, Discover Financial, Microsoft, and T-Mobile—and those seeking to get started. Idea exchange and honest dialogue followed. The event also included panel presentations on national opportunities to help with racial equity and COVID-19related work. Attendees came away with a better understanding of how to avoid liability, increase opportunity, and get their colleagues engaged in the effort. In addition, we created tailored CLEs on pro bono for several of our major clients. Joanna Plichta Boisen, our chief pro bono and social impact officer, and DWT partner John McKay, talked about what counts toward pro bono, how to get involved, malpractice issues, engagement letters, corporate partnerships, and more.
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Minority-Owned and Other Small Businesses
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Addressing the Wealth Gap in Our Communities One of the most important ways to address the wealth gap in this country is to help business founders and owners from underrepresented communities. DWT has many different programs that further this goal. In Portland, our firm has a partnership with Lewis & Clark Law School’s Small Business Legal Clinic, which is committed to helping minority-owned businesses, including women, recent immigrants, and people from communities of color.
On the national level, our Project W initiative works to provide scalable, women-led startups with the connections, resources, and funding they need for success. All of Project W’s many programs have a strong emphasis on supporting BIPOC women. They include the Tech Equity Hub (an accelerator for Black and Latinx founders), SaaS Launch Lab (a partnership with Microsoft), Emerging Food Brands Lab, and Women Entrepreneurs Boot Camp.
The clients who come to the clinic have businesses that range from food carts to corner stores to cleaning services. They often need help understanding what kind of entity to form and how to do it. Sometimes they need help reviewing a lease or an employment agreement.
In response to last year’s extraordinary events, Project W held a series of 14 weekly workshops designed to help founders navigate the unprecedented challenges presented by the coronavirus pandemic. We also put out a call to investors, advisors, and experts in our extensive Project W network to volunteer at least 30 minutes of their time to mentor a Black founder. The response was tremendous. We ended up connecting 70 mentors (including a dozen DWT lawyers) for sessions with more than 120 mentees. Some of these relationships have continued into 2021.
Every month, Adam fields a handful of potential cases from the clinic; lawyers and paralegals in the office then raise their hands to help. The program has been virtual since the pandemic began but the work has remained steady.
Says Lynn Loacker, our New York partner-in-charge and the founder of Project W: “We are committed to working for meaningful, measurable, and sustainable change to close the gender and racial divides in the startup ecosystem.”
“It’s extremely fulfilling work,” says Adam Waks, an associate in our Portland office, who leads the effort.
“I’m proud to say that we have had widespread participation across practice groups,” says Adam.
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New Pre-Law Diversity Fellowship Building the Pipeline for Young Lawyers Our Pre-Law Diversity Fellowship was launched in 2020 by the firm’s Pro Bono and Social Impact (PB&SI) team in direct partnership with our Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I). The fellowship provides a select cohort of college sophomores and juniors in Washington State with financial support and valuable experiences to allow them to explore a career in the law. The fellowship is open to BIPOC applicants and those from diverse or underrepresented backgrounds. Five fellows were chosen to participate in 2020, and the firm is doubling the cohort size in 2021. The fellowship is one of the winning proposals that emerged from the 2019 “Imagine the Impact” competition, created by our Seattle partner-in-charge, Pete Johnson. Teams of lawyers and staff were challenged to create and propose high-value, social impact ideas that would be funded by the firm to benefit the community, a constituency, or a cause. Four esteemed local judges presided over a pitch session and selected two winning teams. This program is just one of the many ways our PB&SI and DE&I departments work together to effectuate meaningful change and mobilize resources for good.
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Recognition
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The Best Kind of Pro Bono Work Attorneys Can Do Is One That Has Personal Meaning”
Nearly Every Day We Can See Miracles Happen”
A measure of the firm’s increased commitment to closing the justice gap was the promotion last year of Joanna Plichta Boisen to chief pro bono and social impact officer. Boisen has been increasingly recognized as a powerful force for championing equity and justice—in Washington State and around the country. Last year, the Washington State Bar Association honored her with its Pro Bono and Public Service Award and produced this tribute video.
We were thrilled last year to be recognized for our longstanding pro bono support of the Little Bit Therapeutic Riding Center in Redmond, Washington, which does incredible work supporting people with disabilities. Our Bellevue associate, Christine Hawkins, is on the board of Little Bit, and her efforts helped earn us recognition as a 2020 Corporate Strides awardee. Christine and Little Bit’s executive director, Paula J. Del Giudice, introduce you to this inspiring organization.
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Helping People Is Just Part of Human Nature” Last year was a time of urgent and extraordinary need. Our lawyers and staff came forward. In our Seattle-area offices, we had record-breaking giving campaigns for Food Lifeline ($92,261) and the United Way ($134,568). We also created flash food drives in all our offices, raising more than $20,000 to help those experiencing food insecurity. Here’s a taste of the Food Lifeline fundraiser, known as Food Frenzy. We were thrilled to receive the 2020 Outstanding Employee Campaign Award from the United Way of King County (Wash.). The award is based on excellence in planning, organizing, and executing a workplace giving campaign that results in generous contributions to the United Way and the community.
Leading the Way for Pro Bono in Oregon Our Portland team is regularly recognized for its outstanding commitment to pro bono work, and this past year was no exception. We were again honored with the 2020 Oregon State Bar Pro Bono Challenge Award for the large law firm that devoted the most hours to pro bono. And associate Thomas Kim (who has since left the firm) was recognized with the Michael E. Haglund Pro Bono Award, which is presented annually to a young lawyer who has displayed a special commitment to service through either Legal Aid Services of Oregon, Oregon Law Center, or the Multnomah Bar Association Young Lawyers Section.
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Pro Bono Week Our Pro Bono and Social Impact team got people engaged firmwide in Pro Bono Week last year with a Ruth Bader Ginsburg-inspired theme for the week: “Fight for the Things You Care About!” The team distributed a list of activities to help lawyers, staff, and their families honor the memory of the late justice, who spent her career working hard to make systematic change for women and for those who did not have a voice. These activities included reading books about Justice Ginsburg to children, volunteering for organizations that fight voter suppression, and even doing the famous RBG Workout. Free RBG face masks were distributed to lawyers who had dedicated 144 or more hours to pro bono work and to staff who had made use of 15 or more hours of Volunteer Time Off.
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Sustainability We established a firmwide Sustainability Committee at the beginning of last year. Comprising more than 30 attorneys and staff from all eight of our offices, the committee is dedicated to implementing innovative, thoughtful, and intentional initiatives that will result in better business practices and benefits to the environment and our communities coast to coast. The committee is committed to cultivating positive habits among our attorneys and staff. We believe in our collective power to make a difference. Many businesses, including our clients, have begun to dramatically transform how they make decisions and conduct operations to confront the realities of escalating resource demand, environmental degradation, and climate change. We believe law firms should join their clients in this effort. Understanding sustainability helps us better counsel our clients about the steps they need to take. Our attorneys work with clients to not only develop innovative solutions to environmental challenges and build sustainability, but also to think of environmental stewardship as their own personal responsibility. We believe in encouraging environmentally sustainable practices—in ways both big and small. This means supporting our clients’ sustainability and decarbonization efforts through our legal work, in some instances pro bono, and also making changes firmwide to minimize our ecological impact.
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Current and Former DWT Lawyers and Staff Participating in These Matters
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PROMISE OF JUSTICE INITIATIVE
Lindsay Samuel
Bret Masterson
Vera Chen
CLEMENCY
Jean Tom
Susan Mecklem
Michelle Hall
Rachel Brown
Mark Trinchero
Allexia Arnold
Ana Luisa Morales
Christie Quinn
Adam Caldwell
Giancarlo Urey
Louisa Barash
Noel Nurrenbern
Katori Copeland
Nicolette Vairo
Ben Planchon
Pat Curran
Anora Wang
Jason Shattenkirk
Mark Bartlett LOUISIANA AMICUS BRIEF
Allison Davis
Laura Warf
Ashlee Aguiar
Courtney DeThomas
Rochelle Wilcox
Allison Davis
Roxanne Elings
Abigail Zeitlin
Kaitlyn Fallon
Jason Callan
Marissa Franco
Andrea Carino
Will Friedman
Vera Chen
Evan Christopher
David Gossett
Laurie Daley
Alli Condra
Olivier Jamin
Mark Desierto
Allison Davis
Wendy Kearns
Jennifer Dollar
Taylor Hurwitz
Judy Droz Keyes
Megan Duffy
Olivier Jamin
Jonathan Mark
Trevor Franklin
Alicia LeDuc
Shannon McNeal
Jessica Hanson
Heather Moelter
Jamil Nasir
Erica Hemmen
Alyssa Petroff
RAMOS PROJECT Carol Bernick Gregory Chaimov
Olivier Jamin Chris Morley Chris Swift
Rachel Brown Diane Butler Andrea Cariño Brith Croghan Laurie Daley Amy Dahl Grant Damon-Feng Matthew Diggs
PROMOTING POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY AND REFORM Amit Aulakh
Boya Gou Clayton Graham Christine Hawkins Sarah Hebard
Chava Brandriss
Erica Hemmen
Anne Marie Tavella
Frederick Haist
Rachel Herd
Sarah Hebard
Mark Trinchero
Kevin Petrasic
Mark Hutcheson
Tyler Quillin
Margie Laketa
Ashley Vulin
Rochelle Wilcox
Olivier Jamin
Katie Rosen
David McKenzie
Laura Ward
Rich Zukowsky
Pete Johnson
Jim Rosenfeld
Eric Marsh
Allison Bainter
Michael Buckalew
David Lawson
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Maureen Lawther
VOTING RIGHTS
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42
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