Our firm’s commitment to doing work for the public good manifests through the pro bono efforts of lawyers in every one of our global offices. We take on matters impacting individuals or small groups as well as litigation driving large-scale societal change. We also advocate for nonprofit organizations and low-income entrepreneurs working to better the lives of those in their communities.
OUR DEDICATION
WE’RE ALL IN (LITERALLY)
In 2023 and for the fifth consecutive year, 100% of our nearly 2,000 lawyers met our Pro Bono Challenge by devoting at least 20 billable hours—with many far exceeding that number—to pro bono work. This extraordinary dedication across our entire firm is one of our deepest sources of pride.
COMMUNITY IMPACT WEEK
Thousands of lawyers and staff across our firm come together every year for a focused period of special programming tackling a critical issue that affects our pro bono clients.
MOBILIZING FOR EQUALITY
As a law firm, we’re determined to use our power to ensure justice. In the somber aftermath of George Floyd's murder at the hands of a police officer—against the backdrop of a rising tide of intolerance, inequality, and brutality—Morgan Lewis resolved to do our part to answer the call. We launched Mobilizing for Equality (MFE) to reflect our commitment to more forcefully combat racial injustice and unite in the movement for equality for all. Since that time, 14 MFE working groups have been executing on substantive racial justice projects. This includes our Racial Justice Pro Bono working group, which provides pro bono legal services to racially disadvantaged individuals and legal services organizations with racial justice missions.
AWARDS & RECOGNITION
Vault
Pro Bono Scorecard
The American Lawyer
Financial Times
Law Society of Hong Kong
Public Law Center
Bloomberg Law
The Lawyer
OneJustice
The National Law Journal
Partnering with the Legal Services Community
Our alliances with pro bono legal services organizations forge lasting relationships that allow us to extend the reach and benefit of our resources to tackle our clients’ most pressing issues.
From defending voting rights, to securing the rightful benefits of veterans, to supporting children and assisting the elderly, we join forces with legal services organizations to address the most urgent challenges facing our communities.
We are honored to join in common cause with legal services organizations to advocate for pro bono clients and their communities. Here are just a few examples of our pro bono alliances.
Equal Justice Works Fellowships
We sponsor law school graduates for fellowships at Equal Justice Works, a nonprofit bringing together an expansive network of law students, lawyers, legal services organizations, and supporters to instill a lifelong dedication to public service and equal justice. For example, one of our fellows is helping to expand immigration services for older teens in an underserved region of Washington State through direct representation, community outreach, and pro bono partnerships.
Secondment Program
Our firm catalyzes associate secondment opportunities to nonprofit organizations within our network of established partners. During a seven-month secondment at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, for example, one of our associates supported litigation defending the results of the 2020 election in several states and helped safeguard access to voter registration while another contributed to the creation of an assistance program for nonprofits needing help navigating commercial leasing issues.
Joining in Common Cause with Corporate Clients
We partner with our corporate clients around the world—from startups to multinationals—on pro bono matters involving voting rights, criminal justice, minority-owned small businesses, immigration, housing preservation, and other important issues. We also share our experience in helping launch, develop, and nurture successful pro bono programs at our clients’ companies, offer training for in-house pro bono teams, and connect clients with outstanding legal services organizations from our extensive network.
RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS REPORT: An Interconnected Future
Our responsibility toward society, and the opportunity to be of service, is one we take very seriously—and have since our firm’s founding 150 years ago.
NOTEWORTHY
Financial Times Recognizes Morgan Lewis for Justice and Civil Rights Innovations
The Innovative Lawyers in Access to Justice & Civil Rights Award recognizes Morgan Lewis’s representation of enlistees in the US Department of Defense program Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI) and the firm’s role in establishing a two-year fellowship to help guide noncitizen soldiers and veterans through the naturalization process.
Morgan Lewis Earns Top Pro Bono Ranking From The American Lawyer For Breadth Of Commitment
Morgan Lewis’s commitment to providing pro bono legal services has again earned the firm high rankings in The American Lawyer’s 2023 Pro Bono Scorecard, an annual survey of pro bono efforts at major US law firms.
Morgan Lewis, Jewish Organizations, and Other Law Firms Launch Legal Protection Helpline for Campus Antisemitism
Committed to doing work for the public good, Morgan Lewis is donating pro bono resources to the Campus Antisemitism Legal Line (CALL), a free legal protection helpline for students who have experienced antisemitism on college campuses.
Law.com International Recognizes Morgan Lewis for UK Pro Bono Work
Morgan Lewis has been included among the top 25 law firms for pro bono work in the United Kingdom by Law.com International. In compiling its annual UK Pro Bono Rankings, the publication measures the total number of pro bono hours worked and percentage of lawyers who took part in pro bono matters.
Primary Contacts
Our pro bono work takes us around the world, granting us the privilege to help people from all walks of life and in countless adverse situations. Below are just a few of these extraordinary stories—with more chapters being written every day.
Shining a Light on the Past to Secure a Man’s Freedom, Future
A Morgan Lewis team helped Ricky Warner walk out of Louisiana’s infamous Angola State Penitentiary a free man after spending 35 years in prison due to a wrongful first-degree murder conviction in 1987.
Crucial Immigration Advice for Ukraine Fundraising Event
The Ukrainian 2016 Eurovision song contest winner, Jamala, fled Kiev and has been singing to raise money for her home country. Our London team provided urgent immigration counsel to enable the singer to perform at Concert for Ukraine.
Securing Citizenship for Children of Same-Sex Parents
A Morgan Lewis team won a pair of critical court rulings validating the US citizenship of children born abroad to married same-sex couples. The rulings have helped the couples and their children enjoy the same rights as other citizens.
$700 Million Obtained for Pennsylvanians on Food Stamps
More than 650,000 Pennsylvanian households that struggled to make ends meet during COVID-19 benefited from a significant settlement that Morgan Lewis and a nonprofit reached with the US government.
Federal Litigation Removes Barriers to Naturalization for Thousands Of US Army Soldiers
Our litigation team secured another victory in a string of federal court cases against the US government, including three class actions, on behalf of thousands of non-citizen US Army soldiers and veterans seeking to secure their lawful right to US citizenship based on their military service.
Helping Prospective Belgians Find Shelter and Services
Lawyers in our Brussels office are partnering with Bureaux d’aide Juridique, the Brussels Bar, and Vluchtelingenwerk Vlaanderen, a nongovernmental organization supporting people who are fleeing war, violence, and persecution, to provide pro bono assistance to displaced individuals in Belgium.
Restoring Justice and Setting the Record Straight
More than 80 years in the making, a team of Morgan Lewis lawyers secured a favorable ruling from the Army Board for Corrections of Military Records regarding the “line of duty” determination in the 1941 death of Private Albert King.
MFE Team & Quattrone Center Probe Madison Police Practices
A significant early success of our Mobilizing for Equality (MFE) initiative was our collaboration with the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School to review police practices in Madison, Wisconsin—the scene of protests and violence in the wake of the 2020 murder of George Floyd by a Minnesota police officer.
Battle Tested: One Band’s Efforts to Protect Domestic Violence Survivors and Children
Morgan Lewis & ROCKius, our firm band, helped raise more than $95,000, beating out six other law firm bands at the Banding Together to End Domestic Violence concert and securing the coveted Judge’s Choice Award in support of the Family Violence Appellate Project (FVAP).
Winning Release for A Man Wrongfully Convicted of Murder
Working with the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, a Morgan Lewis team secured the release of Pennsylvanian Andrew Swainson, who spent more than 30 years in prison for a murder he did not commit.
Protecting Kids from Widespread Use of Psychotropic Drugs
A Morgan Lewis team working with three nonprofits secured a landmark settlement that overhauled Missouri’s administration of psychotropic medications to as many as 13,000 foster children.
London Office Assists Domestic Abuse Victims During Pandemic
Lawyers from our London office heeded the call for help from the UK’s National Centre for Domestic Violence following an alarming rise in domestic violence as COVID-19 triggered lockdowns in many countries.
Just as pro bono work is universally embraced by our lawyers, the range of disciplines, subject matter mastery, and practice depth they bring to helping our pro bono clients is equally comprehensive. Beyond aiding individuals in need across a broad spectrum of legal and business issues, we devote Morgan Lewis’s expansive resources to tackling widespread and deeply entrenched societal concerns.
Protecting Immigrants & Refugees
We serve people fleeing persecution overseas, undocumented and unaccompanied minors, women whose immigration status is dependent on an abusive spouse, and victims of human trafficking and other crimes. Assisting immigrant children is a hallmark of our practice.
Advocating for Social Justice & Racial Equality
Following the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer, Morgan Lewis launched Mobilizing for Equality (MFE) to enable us to more directly, effectively, and aggressively mobilize against racial injustice. Our 14 MFE working groups tackle many facets of this societal problem, including policing, criminal legal system reform, voting rights, education, and more.
Fighting for Children
We strengthen the rights of vulnerable children by representing them and their caregivers on a wide range of issues. Our clients include unaccompanied minors fleeing persecution, parents seeking educational plans for their children, children in high-conflict custody cases, and nonprofits in class actions seeking to ensure access to education. We also represent nonprofits that advocate on behalf of children.
Defending Voting Rights & Election Integrity
Protecting voting rights and ballot access have long been priorities for Morgan Lewis. We ally with legal service providers and other nonprofits to carry out projects that help safeguard democracy, including informing voters of early voting and vote-by-mail, manning call centers to advise on elections questions, and working post-election to ensure all legal ballots are counted.
Safeguarding Shelter
We represent low-income tenants at risk of eviction through direct representation and through our work at the DC Superior Court Landlord-Tenant Resource Center. Having a lawyer in an eviction proceeding exponentially increases the chances that a tenant will be able to remain in their home and enhances their stability in ways that impact all other aspects of their lives, including job retention, educational consistency, and mental health.
Supporting Sustainability
We provide pro bono assistance to nonprofits and small businesses working on sustainability and environmental issues. Our clients include organizations promoting technology recycling and removing regulatory barriers to the development of microgrids. We are a committed member of Lawyers for a Sustainable Economy, through which we will provide $500,000 in free legal services on sustainability matters over a two-year period.
Guarding Civil Liberties & Civil Rights
Our work on civil liberties matters is diverse and substantial. It includes appellate-level First Amendment advocacy, a significant prisoners’ rights practice, an international human rights practice, marriage equality impact litigation, and a nationally recognized death penalty practice.
Securing Equality for the LGBTQ+ Community
We strengthen our resolve to protect and enhance the rights of those in the LGBTQ+ community through individual representation and impact litigation. Our work includes LGBTQ+ advocacy involving immigration, marriage equality, healthcare, military service, name change, and prisoners’ rights, among others.
Assisting Nonprofits in Our Communities
Not-for-profit and nongovernmental organizations turn to us for assistance in maintaining their day-to-day operations to help unleash their capacity to do good works. We provide a full range of business law services including corporate governance work, intellectual property counseling, transactional assistance, and labor and employment advice.
Sustaining Small Businesses & Entrepreneurs
We counsel small business and low-income entrepreneurs operating in disadvantaged areas on a range of business law issues, including entity selection, contract review, and employment matters.
Promoting Access to Education
Promoting access to education has long been a mainstay of our pro bono work, and it has often been at center stage of our Community Impact Week activities. We also partner with and provide legal support to nonprofit organizations engaged in educational funding and access and have successfully litigated education-related cases to ensure students’ access to legally required programs.
Standing Up for Veterans
Our lawyers regularly handle individual veterans’ benefits matters before the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and we play a substantial role in driving how the VA benefits landscape is shaped across the United States via class action litigation. We also provide significant administrative assistance to veterans’ organizations.
NOTEWORTHY
Financial Times Recognizes Morgan Lewis for Justice and Civil Rights Innovations
The Innovative Lawyers in Access to Justice & Civil Rights Award recognizes Morgan Lewis’s representation of enlistees in the US Department of Defense program Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI) and the firm’s role in establishing a two-year fellowship to help guide noncitizen soldiers and veterans through the naturalization process.
Morgan Lewis Recognized by Human Rights First for Pro Bono Asylum Work
Human Rights First honors Morgan Lewis with its 2023 Marvin E. Frankel Award for the firm’s pro bono efforts to support Afghan asylum seekers.
Morgan Lewis Receives Excellence in Pro Bono Service Award from Legal Services for Children
Morgan Lewis has been honored by Legal Services for Children with the organization’s Excellence in Pro Bono Service award in recognition of the significant pro bono contributions of the firm’s California lawyers in 2021.
Of Counsel Laura Lerner Named YAF’s First Pro Bono Attorney of the Year
Of counsel Laura Lerner was recognized by the Youth Advocacy Foundation as its inaugural Pro Bono Attorney of the Year. The organization works to defend the education rights of Massachusetts’ most vulnerable youth.