The Pro Bono Tradition at Debevoise

Debevoise has a deep and longstanding commitment to pro bono legal service.  Our work on behalf of pro bono clients involves all areas of our practice, and our pro bono engagements range from major impact litigations of national and international import to representations of individuals in the communities in which our offices are located.  We strongly encourage our lawyers to participate in pro bono activities from their first days with the firm, and we support their pro bono work throughout their Debevoise careers.  We believe that pro bono work not only provides desperately needed legal services in the communities in which we live and practice, but also that it enriches the lives and practices of our lawyers.  Debevoise is a charter signatory to the Pro Bono Institute’s Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge, under which we have agreed to commit time to pro bono matters (as defined by the Challenge) equal to at least five percent of our billed time each year.

Our Pro Bono Commitment

Our dedication to pro bono legal service is evidenced not only by the large number and extensive range of pro bono matters we handle each year, but also by our consistent ranking among the nation's top law firms for pro bono work.  For all four years from 2003 through 2007, The American Lawyer’s A-List ranked Debevoise the number one law firm in the United States based in part on our commitment to pro bono legal service.  Debevoise has also ranked first among New York City law firms in The American Lawyer’s AmLaw 100 pro bono survey for nine of the past ten years, and in the top 10 nationally for ten years running.  The firm’s London office recently garnered special recognition for its own pro bono efforts.  In May 2008, The Lawyer magazine shortlisted Debevoise as one of six firms in London (and the only U.S.-based firm there) being considered for recognition as “Pro Bono Team of the Year.”

In recent years, Debevoise has been recognized for its pro bono work by a variety of other organizations.  In the past two years, we have been honored for our work on Guantanamo detainee matters.  In 2007 we received the Southern Center for Human Rights Frederick Douglass Human Rights Award and the National Legal Aid and Defenders Association Beacon of Justice Award, and in 2006, Debevoise received a Special Recognition Award from the Center for Constitutional Rights.  In 2007, the firm also received the first ever Sylvia Rivera Law Project Award for Outstanding Pro Bono Service, for our work on two cases involving transgender rights.  In 2006 and 2007, Debevoise was honored by The Legal Aid Society for its work as co-counsel with their Prisoners’ Rights Project on Amador, et al. v. DOC Superintendent Anginell Andrews, et al., (described below), and for its work on Rockefeller Drug Law re-sentencing cases.  In 2006, the American Bar Association named Debevoise a recipient of its Pro Bono Publico Award, recognizing "outstanding contributions of legal services to those who cannot afford representation.”

Sources of Our Pro Bono Work

Debevoise lawyers obtain pro bono work from a variety of sources.  In many cases, pro bono assignments are referred to Debevoise by some of the many legal service organizations with which the firm has longstanding relationships, such as The Legal Aid Society, Human Rights First and New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, Inc.  Other pro bono projects grow out of interests that our lawyers pursue outside of the firm.  In all instances, our lawyers are encouraged to present proposals for pro bono engagements to the firm’s pro bono committee, which approves all such engagements before they are undertaken by the firm.  Once an engagement is approved, it is handled as is any matter, with the dedication of all available firm resources appropriate to the needs of the representation.

Broad Partnerships

We have ongoing relationships with many public interest legal service organizations including Lawyers Alliance for New York, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Human Rights First, The Legal Aid Society, Center for Constitutional Rights, inMotion, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, Inc., the Robin Hood Foundation, and the Urban Justice Center.  Our lawyers also regularly perform pro bono criminal defense work, through participation in assignments from the federal Criminal Justice Act panel and membership in the Office of the Appellate Defender.

Additionally, in recent years summer associates have participated in one- and two-week externships at organizations such as the Vera Institute, MFY Legal Services, Brooklyn Legal Services Corporation A, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, the Legal Action Center, ACORN, The Legal Aid Society’s Juvenile Rights Division, Mental Hygiene Legal Services, the Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation, PRLDEF, the Center for Reproductive Rights, Legal Momentum, the Anti-Discrimination Center and the Housing Court Summer Assistance Project of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

In addition to our longstanding dedication to pro bono legal service, Debevoise has a deep and lasting commitment to public service.  One of the many ways in which this commitment manifests itself is through the number of Debevoise lawyers who serve on the boards of directors of legal service organizations, arts organizations, educational institutions and other charitable institutions.  Among other organizations, Debevoise lawyers serve on the boards of directors of the Brennan Center for Justice; Brooklyn Legal Services Corporation A; Center for Reproductive Rights; Human Rights First; Justice Resource Center; Lawyers Alliance for New York; Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law; The Legal Aid Society; Legal Services for New York City; MFY Legal Services, Inc.; New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, Inc.; Prisoners Legal Services; South Brooklyn Legal Services; Urban Justice Center; Volunteers of Legal Service; National Center for Law and Economic Justice; America Harvest, Inc.; Catalyst, Inc.; Citymeals on Wheels; Classic Stage Company; Cornell University; Dutchess Land Conservancy; Freer Gallery of Art/Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution; Friends of Khmer Culture; Neighborhood Coalition for Shelter; New School University; The New York Historical Society; Posse Foundation; Prep for Prep; The Symphony Space, Inc.; and Union Settlement Association.

Pro Bono and Corporate Lawyers

Although many of our largest pro bono projects involve litigation, a number of our corporate lawyers are actively involved in ongoing pro bono matters.  We have provided a wide range of legal services through our transactional pro bono program.  Our lawyers provide legal advice to inner-city micro-enterprises through partnerships with the Business Outreach Center, the Neighborhood Entrepreneur Law Project and the New York Alliance for New Americans.  We assisted the Neighborhood Coalition for Shelter in drafting a loan agreement for rehabilitating its Manhattan residence for homeless people.  Our lawyers are also working on a joint venture housing project in the Bronx.  We provided tax advice to Nazareth Housing, an organization dedicated to preventing homelessness, during their creation of the Marion Agnes House that will be home to 15 very low-income families.  We helped the New York Mortgage Coalition, a group of lending institutions that provides affordable mortgage counseling to low and moderate-income individuals and families, in reviewing service provider agreements with community-based organizations.  Our corporate lawyers in London attend regular legal advice clinics at the Hackney Community Law Centre and hold a legal advice clinic in London for social entrepreneurs, providing legal advice on topics such as charity, company and contract law.

Debevoise Pro Bono by the Numbers

• In 2007, Debevoise attorneys in the U.S. performed 57,707 hours of pro bono work, averaging 131.2 hours per attorney in the firm’s U.S. offices.
• 94.7% of attorneys in the firm’s U.S. offices did pro bono work, and 62.9% did at least 20 hours of pro bono work.
• In 2007, 88.6% of Debevoise summer associates participated in pro bono matters.

• Achieving a significant settlement in one of the firm's larger and longest lasting civil rights pro bono matters, after many years of stalemate and close to 40 years of litigation.  In E.E.O.C., et al. v. Local 28 of the Sheet Metal Workers’ Int’l Assoc., Debevoise worked with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, as well as the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the State of New York and City of New York, to challenge the discriminatory practices of a labor union on behalf of a class of the union’s black and Hispanic members.  In early 2008, the Court approved a total of $6.2 million in a settlement for approximately 150 black and Hispanic sheet metal workers.  The parties have also agreed to significant changes in the union’s job-referral system as well as monitoring systems aimed at equalizing members' access to work opportunities.
• Successfully litigating before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) the rights of 51 Mexican nationals on death row in the United States under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.  In Avena and other Mexican Nationals (Mexico v. United States), the ICJ held in March 2004 that the United States had violated the Vienna Convention in the cases of these individuals, and it ordered U.S. courts to review and reconsider their convictions in light of the violations.  Debevoise lawyers not only handled the case before the ICJ, but have since litigated cases involving the review of individual convictions ordered by the ICJ in Avena.  In March 2005, for example, Debevoise lawyers argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in Medellin v. Dretke the appeal of a Mexican national sentenced to death by a Texas state court, in which the Supreme Court had agreed to decide whether courts in the United States were required to comply with the ICJ judgment in Avena.  In April 2005, the Supreme Court declined to decide whether the Avena judgment was enforceable in United States courts because President Bush had determined that state courts would provide the required review and reconsideration.  The Supreme Court's decision explicitly contemplated, however, that Mr. Medellín would have an opportunity to return to the Supreme Court to seek review of the state court's treatment of his petition.  In September 2005, Debevoise lawyers argued before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on whether Texas must give effect to the Avena judgment and the President's determination.  When that Court denied relief, Debevoise returned to the Supreme Court, which again granted certiorari to determine whether the courts of the United States must comply with the Avena decision and whether the President had independent authority to order compliance.  Again, Debevoise argued before the Supreme Court on behalf of the Mexican national.  In March 2008, the Court held that the judgment was not enforceable in a domestic court unless Congress enacted implementing legislation, and held further that the President did not have independent authority to order compliance.  Hence, further action will be needed for the United States to fulfill its commitment under the Vienna Convention.
• Representing Sudanese, Yemeni, and Afghan detainees at Guantánamo Bay in conjunction with the Center for Constitutional Rights in matters regarding the detainees’ status and their conditions of detention.  In addition, we are counsel in the leading case under the Detainee Treatment Act in which the government’s petition for interlocutory certiorari is currently being considered by the Supreme Court.
• Working with the Constitutional Litigation Clinic at Rutgers Law School in Jama v. Correctional Services Corporation, on behalf of nine foreign nationals who were mistreated and subjected to abusive conditions of confinement while detained awaiting their political asylum or deportation hearings.  Following a seven-week federal court jury trial, during which time all but one plaintiff settled, the jury returned a favorable verdict for the remaining plaintiff on two of her three claims.
• Taking part in a pilot project through Volunteers of Legal Service in which law firms are matched with schools in low-income neighborhoods in New York City to provide pro bono civil legal services to students’ families.  Debevoise is working with the KIPP Academy, a middle school in the Bronx, where we hold a monthly legal clinic and provide advice on housing, family law, immigration, public benefits, and basic trusts and estates matters.  At the end of each clinic session, Debevoise lawyers take on matters that require follow-up beyond brief advice.
• Supervising a free legal advice service at the Hackney Community Law Centre in London in conjunction with a leading law school and public interest charities.  As one of the service’s many innovative features, primary responsibility for the weekly sessions rests with law students, under the supervision of qualified and experienced lawyers from the firm.  Rather than simply shadowing the lawyers, the students take a hands-on role in assisting clients.  Lord Irvine of Lairg, the former English Lord Chancellor, has publicly commended the project, which benefits the students as well as their pro bono clients.
• Providing a legal advice clinic in London for social entrepreneurs in collaboration with UnLtd, the Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs, and pro bono charity LawWorks.  Debevoise lawyers provide legal advice on topics such as charity, company and contract law.
• Working with the Center for Reproductive Rights on Hill, et al. v. Kemp, et al., a First and Fourteenth Amendment challenge to Oklahoma’s special license plate system, and in particular its “Choose Life” and “Respect Life” license plates (where no pro-choice license plates are available) and associated funding provisions.
• Joining the Prisoners’ Rights Project of The Legal Aid Society in a class action lawsuit, Amador, et al. v. DOC Superintendent Anginell Andrews, et al., that seeks to end sexual abuse of female inmates by male guards in New York State women’s prisons.
• Achieving a landmark settlement in Brad H., et al. v. City of New York, a class action challenge to New York City’s practice of releasing mentally ill jail inmates without planning for their continued, post-release treatment in the community.  The settlement came after years of litigation in which Debevoise secured and defended on appeal a sweeping preliminary injunction against the City.  Our lawyers continue to work with two court appointees to monitor the City’s implementation of this comprehensive settlement.
• Representing a death row inmate in state habeas corpus proceedings in Georgia.  Debevoise associates collected over 125 witness affidavits and conducted many more interviews in conjunction with Georgia counsel and investigators in preparation for a five-day evidentiary hearing in Butts County, Georgia, which Debevoise lawyers conducted along with Georgia counsel at the end of June 2006.
• Representing the Committee to Protect Journalists in support of its efforts to combat violations of press freedom worldwide.  We have filed amicus briefs for CPJ in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the courts of Croatia and Taiwan to challenge criminal libel prosecutions of journalists.  In addition, we advocated against a proposed law in Hong Kong that would have grievously curtailed freedom of expression.
• After a four week jury trial, winning an acquittal on seven counts of a federal indictment filed against a client, whom the firm represents pursuant to the Criminal Justice Act (CJA), in the Southern District of New York.  The client was convicted on two related counts but would have faced life in prison if he had been convicted on all of the charges.
• Routinely representing individual political asylum seekers, individuals challenging adverse public housing determinations, individuals seeking Social Security disability benefits, individuals in matrimonial and other family law disputes, and numerous others.
• Providing support to victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.  Through the City Bar Justice Center Initiative, Debevoise associates staffed a weekly shift at the legal help desk located at the New York City Office of Emergency Management’s Disaster Assistance Service Center, where they conducted intake services.  In addition, Debevoise is providing Southeast Louisiana Legal Services with ongoing assistance, in response to Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, with pro bono legal services and financial support.