to view our 2011 Pro Bono - Sidley Austin LLP

In the Service of Families 

2011 Pro Bono and 

Community ServiCe rePort

InsIde ThIs Issue 

■ Foreword 1 

Sidley’s Firmwide Initiatives 

■ Capital Litigation Project 2 

■ Political Asylum and Immigrants’ Rights Project 4 

■ Veterans Benefits Project 10 

■ Other Pro Bono in Sidley's U.S. Offices 12 

■ Ensuring Justice for Criminal Defendants 12 

■ Protecting Civil and Human Rights 13 

■ Helping Families 13 

■ Protecting Housing Rights 14 

■ Helping People With Disabilities 15 

■ Supporting the Community and Nonprofit Organizations 16 

■ Pro Bono From a Global Perspective 21 

■ Pro Bono Honors and Events 24 

■ Sponsorship of Pro Bono Graduate Fellows 29 

■ Pro Bono and Public Interest Law Committee Members 32

Foreword 

In reviewing our nearly 100,000 hours of pro bono service over the last year, we are 

struck by the impact our work has had on families, and the number of families we 

have helped stay together or reunite after circumstances tore them apart. In our 

immigrants' rights cases, we have helped scores of family members reunite, including 

families from Cameroon, Eritrea, Togo, the Republic of Congo and Uganda. The father 

of the family from Uganda (shown on page 9) was tortured for opposing the president's 

efforts to end term limits. We obtained cancellation of removal for a man from Poland 

who had been in the United States since he was a child and who had been acting as a 

father to his fiancée’s young children. In our family law pro bono cases, we have helped 

parents obtain custody, child support and restraining orders against abusive partners. 

Our New York office has worked for many years with inMotion, an organization providing 

legal services to low income and indigent women and children in domestic crisis. In 

our landlord tenant work, we have helped clients avoid evictions that would have forced 

families to break apart to find a place to live. Our work on a habeas petition in a criminal 

case allowed our innocent client to reunite with his family after 15 years in prison. Finally, 

Sidley's pro bono services serve families by providing corporate, real estate and other 

advice to a wide range of organizations, such as New York Cares, Hope in Loss, and Small 

Steps, School for Parents, that are on the front lines of serving and preserving families. 

We are extremely proud of all of Sidley's pro bono efforts, but this year, we call special 

attention to all that Sidley lawyers have done to protect and preserve our clients' families. 

Thomas A. Cole 

Chair, Executive Committee 

Charles W. Douglas 

Chair, Management Committee

CapITal lITIgaTIon projeCT 

Sidley’s Capital Litigation Project 

is a long-term, resource-intensive 

undertaking that in the last seven years 

has provided needed legal assistance to 

21 prisoners incarcerated on Alabama’s 

death row. A team of lawyers and legal 

assistants, often from two or more of 

Sidley’s domestic offices, represents 

each client, traveling to Alabama to visit 

their clients, interview witnesses and 

participate in hearings. Some of Sidley’s 

Capital Litigation teams include in-house 

lawyers from two of the firm’s largest 

clients, Aon Corporation and Exelon 

Corporation, who participate fully in all 

aspects of the representation. 

More than 100 Sidley partners, counsel 

and associates, along with legal assistants 

and project assistants, have volunteered 

more than 100,000 hours to these cases 

since the inception of the project. In 2011, 

lawyers donated more than 8700 hours to 

the representation of these men on death 

row. 

Sidley’s ability to represent Alabama’s 

death row inmates effectively has 

been greatly aided by the firm’s seven- 

2 • Sidley Austin LLP • 2011 Pro Bono and Community Service Report 

year partnerships with the ABA Death 

Penalty Representation Project and 

the Equal Justice Initiative of Alabama 

(EJI). EJI, a nonprofit organization based 

in Montgomery, Alabama, has achieved 

national prominence for 

its advocacy on death 

penalty issues. EJI has 

provided ongoing expert 

guidance to Sidley’s 

lawyers on Alabama postconviction 

practice and procedure. 

The Project had two significant achievements 

in 2011: 

In February 2011, the Alabama Court 

of Criminal Appeals reversed the circuit 

court’s decision summarily dismissing 

Alabama death row inmate Jerry Bryant’s 

state habeas petition without discovery 

or an evidentiary hearing. The Court of 

Criminal Appeals concluded that Mr. 

Bryant’s petition contained facially meritorious 

ineffective assistance of counsel 

claims, and remanded the case for an evidentiary 

hearing. Sidley lawyers John Gallo 

and Serena Lee* worked on the appeal 

with the assistance of Glenn Newman and 

Tami Domeyer, attorneys from our client, 

Exelon. Glenn Newman argued on Mr. 

Bryant's behalf in the Court of Criminal 

Appeals. 

In March 2011, the Alabama 

Supreme Court reversed the Alabama 

Court of Criminal Appeals and concluded 

that the circuit court had erred by adopting 

verbatim the State’s answer as its order 

dismissing Willie Scott’s habeas petition. 

The case has now been remanded to the 

circuit court for further proceedings. Tom 

Hanrahan, Nitin Reddy, Meehan Rasch and 

Christopher Gaul worked on Mr. Scott’s 

appeal in the Alabama Supreme Court. 

* Indicates former Sidley lawyer or staff member

Project History 

In December 2004, judges from the Seventh Circuit and Northern District of Illinois invited Sidley and other large Chicago firms to 

an ABA-sponsored meeting. Robin Maher, Director of the ABA Death Penalty Representation Project, spoke of the desperate need for 

legal assistance for defendants on death row, citing Alabama as one state where the need was especially acute. In response, Sidley 

established its Capital Litigation Project, through which the firm represents indigent inmates on Alabama’s death row in their postconviction 

proceedings. At the end of 2011, Alabama had 198 prisoners on death row. Approximately a quarter of the death sentences 

in Alabama are the result of judicial override of jury recommendations of life in prison by elected judges. In 2011, Alabama executed 

more people than any state other than Texas. John Gallo spearheads the Project, and Kelly Huggins manages the work from our Chicago 

office. 

Sidley Austin LLP • 2011 Pro Bono and Community Service Report • 3

polITICal asylum and ImmIgranTs’ rIghTs projeCT 


Reuniting Families: 

Adjustment of Status Clinic 

Since 2007 and with the assistance 

of the National Immigrant Justice 

Center (NIJC), Sidley’s Chicago office hosts 

quarterly clinics with our client Exelon to 

help asylees and refugees obtain lawful 

permanent resident status and bring 

family members to the United States. 

Each clinic begins with a training session 

that NIJC conducts on how to complete 

the applications, and NIJC staff members 

are available during the clinic to answer 

questions. Together, Sidley and Exelon 

have served over 150 clients; 41 clients 

attended the clinics in 2011. In 2011 alone, 

Sidley and Exelon obtained permanent 

legal status for 38 clinic clients, and 17 

people received approval to come to the 

United States to be reunited with family 

members who had been granted asylum. 

Among the clients who obtained relief 

through the clinic this year are: 

We obtained permanent lawful 

resident status for an asylee from Malawi 

who had been granted asylum because of 

persecution in his native country based 

on his sexual orientation. Andrea Reed 

and Kelly Huggins handled the matter 

and Mel Washburn supervised. An Exelon 

Corporation intern, Bridget Trainor, helped 

with the representation. 

We obtained permanent lawful 

resident status for an asylee from the 

Republic of Congo and her three daughters. 

Exelon attorney Traci Braun, Exelon 

volunteer David Pabian, and Sidley’s Emily 

Caveness handled the matter. 

Through the clinic, an asylee from 

Colombia and her son obtained lawful 

permanent resident status. Exelon 

volunteer David Pabian, Sidley Staff 

Attorney Juris Benitez and Sidley legal 

assistant Lauren O'Keefe handled the 

matter. 

Two sisters from the Democratic 

Republic of Congo obtained lawful permanent 

resident status with the assistance 

of Exelon attorneys Julie Stevenson and 

Nicole Nocera and Sidley’s Mike Gustafson 

and Candice Kline. The sisters arrived in the 

U.S. through petitions filed by their asylee 

mother. Exelon and Sidley had helped their 

mother obtain lawful permanent resident 

status in a 2009 clinic. 

We helped an asylee from Eritrea 

petition successfully for his wife to join

him in the United States. Brendan Bowes 

handled the matter with Exelon attorney 

Nicole Nocera. 

We helped an asylee from Cameroon, 

who feared for the safety of his family who 

was left behind, petition to allow his wife 

and four children to join him in the United 

States. Tony Neuhoff* and Exelon attorneys 

Scott Peters and Mike Pabian succeeded in 

expediting the petition. After the petitions 

were approved in 2010, the family was 

finally reunited in the United States in 

2011. 

Other Pro Bono Immigration Victories 

After a two-year legal fight, we 

successfully obtained lawful permanent 

resident status for a man from Morocco 

after immigration authorities granted a 

petition we filed under VAWA. Our client 

was a victim of domestic abuse in the 

U.S. while married to his ex-wife. He was 

divorced before he could complete the 

process to become a lawful permanent 

resident. The Sidley team included Andrea 

Reed and Kelly Huggins under Steve 

Carlson’s supervision, working with Debra 

Cheng, an in-house lawyer from firm client 

Caterpillar, Inc. 


The team of Jason Adler, Laura 

Bayard* and Allison Reimann obtained 

asylum for a woman from Guinea in a 

complex case where we successfully argued 

for an exception to the one-year asylum 

filing deadline. The immigration judge 

found that extraordinary circumstances, 

including a seven-month period during 

which the client experienced severe anxiety, 

depression and flashbacks arising from her 

female genital mutilation, warranted an 

exception to the filing deadline. Dan Neppl 

supervised and Allison Triggs* assisted. 

Tony neuhoff proudly poses with the family from 

Cameroon he helped reunite. 

In 2006, Sidley established a second significant firmwide pro bono initiative to help indigent asylum seekers and other indigent 

immigrants seeking legal status in the United States. Mel Washburn of our Chicago office and Martin Gold of our New York office 

spearhead the initiative, and Kelly Huggins manages the Project out of our Chicago office. Through the Project, Sidley handles a wide 

variety of immigration matters, including asylum cases, Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) cases, U visa cases, adjustments to lawful 

permanent residence and representation of immigrant minors. 

Federal law provides that individuals who have suffered or fear persecution in their home country based on their race, religion, 

nationality, political opinion or social group may apply for asylum in the United States. The VAWA self-petition is a remedy for immigrant 

victims married to abusive U.S. citizens and green card holders. Successful VAWA self-petitioners are granted employment authorization 

and lawful status in the United States on an annual basis until they receive legal permanent residency. The U visa is a remedy 

for immigrant victims of certain crimes who have helped with the investigation or prosecution of those crimes. Successful U visa 

petitioners receive employment authorization and lawful status in the U.S. for four years when they become eligible to apply for lawful 

permanent residency. 



continued 


Sidley obtained a U visa for a woman 

from Mexico and her two teenage daughters, 

allowing them to remain in the U.S. 

and apply for permanent residency. The 

client suffered repeated physical abuse 

by her then-partner and cooperated with 

Chicago authorities in their investigation, 

despite her partner’s threats to harm her if 

she persisted. Sidley also obtained authorization 

for the client and her daughters to 

work legally in the United States. Meena 

Datta and legal assistant Arturo Rodríguez 

handled the assignment. 

Sidley successfully obtained a remand 

to the trial court for a client from Mexico. 

After several years of struggle, including an 

appeal to the Seventh Circuit, the client was 

granted a hearing before an immigration 

judge on the question whether he was 

properly notified of the government’s intent 

to rescind his legal permanent resident 

status, as federal regulations require. The 

Sidley team, led by Mel Washburn, included 

Christina Coleman, Laura Jakubowski*, 

Michelle Ramirez and legal assistant Zach 

Haller. 

Jen Peltz* obtained U visas for a 

woman from Mexico and her three children. 

The mother’s U visa was granted in March 

2010 and U visas for her children were 

granted in December 2010 and March 2011. 

Mel Washburn supervised the matter. 

In a case the New York Legal 

Assistance Group referred to the firm, 

Sidley obtained asylum for a woman 

from the Democratic Republic of Congo 

(DRC) who fled to the U.S. after the DRC 

National Intelligence Agency imprisoned 

and brutally tortured her for alerting a 

political dissident to a threat against his 

life. Sidley is currently helping the client 

reunite with the children she adopted after 

her sister was murdered in the DRC civil 

war. The team included Stephen Rutenberg, 

Elisabetta Assi and Tara Conroy. 

Kate Falahee and Laura Bayard*, under 

Susan Stone's supervision, obtained lawful 

permanent residence and a Cancellation of 

Removal order for a man from Poland. Our 

client has been a permanent resident since 

1989 (when, as a child, he immigrated from 

Poland), but because of his criminal record, 

he was placed in removal proceedings after 

a 2009 vacation in Costa Rica. Because he 

was statutorily eligible for cancellation 

of removal, the immigration judge had 

discretion to allow him to stay in the United 

States. After we showed that our client had 

been rehabilitated, that he had been sober 

for more than six years following a drug 

addiction, and that he had been acting as 

a father to his fiancée’s two young children, 

the immigration court granted cancellation 

of removal. The government waived appeal, 

allowing our client to maintain his status 

as a lawful permanent resident and clearing 

the way for him to apply for U.S. citizenship. 

Praju Tuladhar and Jamie Benjamin 

obtained protection under VAWA and 

lawful permanent residence for a woman 

from Mexico who was the victim of 

domestic violence in the United States. 

She received her Permanent Resident card 

in May and now no longer worries about 

being separated from her young children, 

who are U.S. citizens.

We obtained relief for a client who 

came to the U.S. in 2007 after escaping a 

polygamous tribal marriage in Cameroon. 

She filed for asylum immediately after 

entering the country. After marrying in 

2010, our client amended her court filings 

to apply for adjustment of status. An 

immigration judge found that our client 

qualified for adjustment of status and 

waiver of inadmissibility because she is 

the spouse of a U.S. citizen and could 

successfully demonstrate extreme hardship 

to her husband in the event of her removal. 

Laura Bayard*, Kate Falahee and Simone 

Bonnet handled the matter. 

Lauren Grau and Feras Alkasab*, with 

guidance from Charles Cotropia, obtained 

asylum for an Orthodox Coptic Christian 

family from Egypt. The family came to the 

U.S. seeking asylum on the grounds of past 

persecution and fears of future persecution 

in Egypt on account of their Christian 

faith. The immigration judge found (1) that 

the client and his family were credible, 

(2) that he established past persecution 

on account of his religion and (3) that he 

established past persecution on account 

of membership in a particular social group. 

The court also found that our client has a 

well-founded fear of future persecution. 

Sidley obtained U.S. asylum for an 

aid worker from the Democratic Republic 

of Congo who was persecuted because of 

political beliefs that the ruling party had 

imputed to him. Megan Walsh and Kristin 

Seeger handled the matter, with assistance 

from summer associate Jessica Rothenberg. 

We obtained asylum for a Nepalese 

woman who was persecuted from abroad 

by her abusive ex-husband because she 

divorced him in the U.S. rather than 

return to Nepal after he was deported 

from the U.S. for soliciting sex with a 

minor. Our client obtained asylum on the 

basis of her membership in a particular 

social group—Nepalese women who had 

divorced their husbands. The immigration 

judge concluded that Nepalese society 

views divorced women as a group of 

social outcasts deserving stigmatization 

and harm, and that her ex-husband’s 

persecution of her was based on this 

cultural and religious code. John Skakun 

and Bryan Mulder handled the matter 

under the supervision of Holly Harrison, 

with assistance from Sheila Armbrust. 

In a case referred by Sanctuary for 

Families, we successfully concluded a 

U visa case for a client who experienced 

continuous abuse at the hands of her 

husband. In 1997, the couple moved to 

the U.S. from Mexico, hoping for a better 

future. Since the beginning of their 

relationship, the husband had threatened 

and beaten his wife and hit their child. One 

night, the husband came home drunk and 



continued 


terrorized her and their three-year old son. 

She applied for a U visa for her son and 

herself. We helped the client throughout 

the entire process and her U visa was 

granted. She is now able to look for a job 

and start a new life as a legal alien, free 

from fear. Elisabetta Assi and Ryan Cloud 

handled the case. 

Sidley represented two Pentecostal 

Christian sisters in their asylum 

proceedings. Based on the past religious 

persecution they suffered in Eritrea, one 

sister was granted asylum in August, and 

the other sister was granted asylum in 

November. Both matters were handled 

by Sarah Newman, Maria Post and 

Laura Bayard* under Mel Washburn's 

supervision. 

Sidley obtained permanent lawful 

resident status for an asylee from Togo. 

In 2009, we had represented the client in 

his successful asylum application, which 

was based on the persecution he suffered 

because of his opposition to the dominant 

political party and his refusal to make 

illegal contributions to the government. In 

2011, Sidley helped the client reunite with 

his family and obtain permanent residency. 

Stephen Rutenberg and Elisabetta Assi 

handled the matter. 

Sidley recently obtained permanent 

U.S. residency for a woman from El 

Salvador, successfully concluding a 

two-year effort. Although our client was 

granted U.S. asylum on humanitarian 

grounds, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration 

Services (USCIS) had initially delayed 

consideration of her permanent residency 

application without explanation. We filed 

a petition with the Ombudsman’s Office 

of the Department of Homeland Security, 

and USCIS subsequently granted the 

application after a short interview with our 

client. Jill Caiazzo handled the matter under 

Lisa Crosby's supervision with support 

from legal assistant Eva Brandon Mozena 

and litigation support specialist Daniel 

Rioja. 

Our pro bono immigration work is not 

limited to individual representations. In 

2011, attorneys Carlos Rodriguez, Jesselyn 

Pe, Tara Conroy and Raynard Jones helped 

the New York Immigration Coalition by 

advising on employment termination 

matters, resolving a contract dispute with 

its telephone/internet provider, advising 

on what information may be obtained from 

employees, advising on whether a fiscal 

responsibility agreement is sufficient proof 

of non-profit status and whether 501(c)(3) 

status can be conferred on a sponsored 

organization, and advising on taxes on 

“political expenditures.”

our client's family, together again, on a recent outing in san Francisco. 

In 2006, Sidley took the case of a 

high school principal from Uganda who 

had been kidnapped and tortured by 

government operatives for ten months 

after organizing peaceful protests against 

the president’s efforts to eliminate 

presidential term limits. We helped the 

client gain asylum and then applied for 

lawful permanent resident status on 

his behalf. Despite complications, his 

application was approved and Sidley then 

helped him apply for derivative status for 

his wife and children, which was granted 

in January 2009. Sidley petitioned the 

U.S. Consulate in Kampala, and with help 

from U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer’s office, 

finally compelled the consulate to issue 

travel documents to the family after two 

years. With financial assistance for travel 

costs from the Sidley Austin Foundation, 

and after five long years, our client was 

reunited with his wife and three children 

in San Francisco on November 23, 2011. 

Ellen Trachman took the case under Peter 

Kang’s supervision. Carrie Cotter*, Naomi 

Igra, Michael Rugen, Kelly Huggins and 

legal assistant Carly Brower also worked 

on the case. Cliff Gerber advised on a tax 

issue. 


VeTerans BeneFITs projeCT 

For those servicemen and 

servicewomen who have given so 

much to our country, we want to ensure 

that they get the benefits they so richly 

deserve to provide for themselves and 

their families. 

This initiative focuses on three types of 

clients: (1) veterans seeking disability 

benefits from the Department of Veterans 

Affairs (VA), (2) current or recently-discharged 

service members seeking disability 

benefits from the Armed Forces and (3) 

veterans seeking Combat-Related Special 

Compensation from the Armed Forces. 

In the first category, Sidley provides pro 

bono representation to veterans seeking 

compensation from the VA for “serviceconnected” 

disabilities. These clients need 

assistance locating records and explaining 

why they have a compensable disability. In 

the second category, Sidley represents current 

or recently-discharged military service 

members whose disabilities render them 

“unfit” to serve and thus are eligible for 

a military medical retirement. We guide 

them through the Physical Disability 

System and ensure that their assigned 

level of disability, which dictates pension 

and healthcare eligibility, is accurate and 

fair. In the third category, new to Sidley in 


2011, we represent veterans who have been 

medically retired by the Armed Forces and 

awarded service-connected disability from 

the VA, yet due to the traditional ban on 

“concurrent receipt” of both benefits, are 

having the benefits offset by one another. A 

service member whose disabling condition 

is “combat-related,” however, is eligible for 

additional compensation. Sidley prepares 

these applications on behalf of the veterans 

and in 2011, took 24 new cases. 

Sidley obtained full disability 

benefits and a large retroactive award for 

a Vietnam-era U.S. Army veteran based 

on a finding that his bipolar disorder was 

service connected. Sidley became involved 

in the case in 2007 through the National 

Veterans Legal Services Program (NVLSP) 

after the VA rejected our client's application 

for benefits. Sidley successfully appealed 

the denial to the Court of Appeals for 

Veterans Claims, which remanded the case 

for further review. The veteran was then 

re-examined and ultimately prevailed, 

obtaining a prospective award of full 

benefits (approximately $32,000 per year) 

and a retroactive award worth more than 

$200,000. Brian Rubens* and Linton Childs 


In a case of national 

significance, Sidley prevailed in 

an appeal of a U.S. Army decision 

denying veterans benefits to our 

client, the widow of a Bronze Star 

recipient, and their four young 

children. After serving two tours in 

Iraq, Captain Samson Luke joined 

the Arkansas National Guard, which 

allowed him to sleep at home while 

on a two-day training exercise. 

Capt. Luke died in his sleep on 

January 10, 2010. Although initially 

assuring his widow that it would 

provide benefits, the Army reversed 

its position. Working with NVLSP, 

Sidley represented Captain Luke’s 

widow in her appeal to the Board for 

the Correction of Military Records 

(BCMR). After an 18-month legal 

fight, the BCMR granted her appeal 

and the Army has agreed to provide 

substantial benefits, including a 

$100,000 death gratuity, funeral 

expense reimbursement and 

various healthcare and education 

benefits. On December 1, 2011, 

the U.S. Senate passed the “Luke 

Amendment,” which, if it becomes 

law, will help ensure that other 

survivors in our client's situation 

receive veteran’s benefits. Craig 

Knot and Peter Booth handled the 

appeal.

In Padgett v. Shinseki, the Federal Circuit 

reversed the Veterans Court and awarded 

fees to Sidley’s client, a surviving spouse, 

under the Equal Access to Justice Act 

(EAJA) for attorney time expended after her 

husband’s death. This decision is the latest 

round in a 12-year legal fight in which our 

client’s spouse was wrongly and repeatedly 

denied benefits by the VA. Agreeing with 

our principal argument, the Federal Circuit 

concluded that there is “nothing in the 

text of the EAJA or its legislative history to 

support a per se rule denying recovery for 

fees incurred after a claimant’s death.” Eric 

Shumsky argued the case. With him on the 

briefs were Anand Das, Tara Mikkilineni* 

and NVLSP. This is Sidley’s second Federal 

Circuit victory in the case. 

Sidley successfully represented the 

surviving spouse of a decorated Korean 

War veteran in the U.S. Court of Veterans 

Appeals. The veteran had suffered cold 

injuries and earned a Purple Heart during 

his service in Korea, but was denied 

benefits for his wartime injuries. Working 

with NVLSP, Richard Klingler, Donald Smith 

and Katy Hitchins* established that his 

widow was eligible to seek accrued benefits 

after her husband’s death, and showed 

that the VA had erred in failing to address 


the medical nexus between the veteran’s 

injuries and his wartime service. Sidley and 

NVLSP successfully negotiated a remand 

requiring the government to assist in the 

development of the veteran’s claim. 

On behalf of a Vietnam-era Marine 

Corps veteran, a team from Chicago 

secured a claim for disability payments for 

service-connected post-traumatic stress 

disorder. The VA recently assigned our 

client a 100% disability rating and awarded 

him a monthly payment of nearly $2500 

going forward and a lump sum payment of 

approximately $95,000 based on the VA’s 

determination that our client’s entitlement 

began in December 2008. These awards 

were the result of a nearly three-year 

process in which Sidley enlisted the 

assistance of a medical professional and 

made numerous submissions to the VA 

on our client’s behalf. Steve Carlson, Greg 

Durkin and Louani Bascara handled the 

matter. The Legal Assistance Foundation of 

Chicago referred the case. 

Ed Petrosky, Patrick Troy and Janet 

Zagorin, in partnership with our client Bank 

of America, are helping establish the bank’s 

new pro bono effort, Volunteer Lawyers 

for Veterans (VLV). VLV is supported by 

the Yellow Ribbon Fund, a nonprofit dedicated 

to helping injured service members 

and their families. VLV is bringing together 

attorneys from all areas of specialization 

to help veterans with their legal needs, 

including bankruptcy, business start-ups, 

real estate, tax and family law. 

In 2007, Sidley Washington, D.C. partner and national Pro Bono Chair Ronald Flagg led the effort to establish the Veterans Benefits 

Project as Sidley’s third firmwide pro bono initiative. Flagg also chairs the Board of the National Veterans Legal Services Program 

(NVLSP). The bulk of the cases handled in the Veterans Benefits Project are cases NVLSP referred to Sidley as part of a nationwide 

referral network, known as “Lawyers Serving Warriors,” designed to provide legal assistance to unrepresented veterans. Sidley has 

since expanded the Project to accept cases from the Veterans’ Rights Project of the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan 

Chicago and the Veterans Legal Support Center & Clinic at The John Marshall Law School. Emily Wexler manages the Project out of the 

Chicago office. 


oTher pro Bono In sIdley's u.s. oFFICes 

Ensuring Justice for Criminal 

Defendants 

For over 17 years, Sidley has 

participated in hundreds of criminal 

cases in trial courts, the courts of appeals 

and the U.S. Supreme Court on a pro 

bono basis, including many that resulted 

in landmark decisions. During that time, 

Sidley has gained national recognition for 

its efforts to level the playing field and seek 

justice for indigent criminal defendants 

whose families lack the power and 

resources of the government on the other 

side. In addition to representing criminal 

defendants at the Court, Sidley has 

played a significant role in scores of other 

Supreme Court criminal cases through 

its briefing and moot court program for 

public defenders and its participation 

in the amicus committee of the National 

Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers 

(NACDL). 

Sidley filed suit in U.S. District Court 

on behalf of six death-row prisoners from 

California, Arizona and Tennessee against 

the U.S. Food and Drug Administration 

seeking to prohibit the FDA from allowing 

the importation or use of unapproved 

sodium thiopental. During the past year, 

the agency has knowingly permitted 

unapproved sodium thiopental to be 

imported by state corrections agencies 

for use in executions by lethal injection. 

Oral argument on the cross motions for 

summary judgment are scheduled for 

February 2012. Brad Berenson, Coleen 

Klasmeier, Eric Shumsky, Sean Griffin and 

Sara Beardsley are handling the case. 

A client, who had been convicted of 

second-degree murder for his alleged role 

in an urban gunfight in which a bystander 

was killed, prevailed in the DC Court of 

Appeals. We argued that our client was 


entitled to a new trial because, after the 

jury had deliberated for four days and 

requested additional instruction on the 

meaning of reasonable doubt, the trial 

court's reinstruction lowered the burden 

of proof and signaled to the jury that the 

judge believed the government had carried 

its burden. The Court of Appeals agreed 

and ordered a new trial, with two judges 

holding that the reinstruction violated 

due process by diluting the reasonabledoubt 

standard, and a third concurring in 

the judgment. Jeff Green, Eric McArthur 

(argued), Matt Fogelberg, and Rob Porter* 

handled the appeal. 

Sidley filed an amicus brief on behalf of 

NACDL in support of the petitioner in J.D.B. 

v. North Carolina. In this case, a uniformed 

juvenile police officer took a 13-year-old 

seventh-grader from his classroom to a 

closed-door conference room, where police 

and school administrators questioned the 

boy for 30 minutes without advising him of 

his constitutional rights. Justice Sotomayor 

wrote the 5-4 decision and, consistent with 

the arguments in our brief, held that a trial 

court may consider a juvenile’s age in a 

Fifth Amendment Miranda custody analysis. 

The Sidley team included Mark Hopson, 

Stephanie Hales, Jamie Rehman, Jeff Green 

and legal assistants D'Esprit Smith and 

Kevin Garvey (now a law clerk). 

Freddy Chacon, a 34-year old 

Mexican national, has been incarcerated 

in California prisons since he was 14 

years old. For the past 12 years, he has 

Sidley's Supreme Court Clinic at Northwestern University Law School 

Since 2006, Sidley has sponsored 

the U.S. Supreme Court Clinic at 

Northwestern University Law School, 

which primarily represents indigent 

criminal defendants. Clinic students 

draft briefs and identify court of 

appeals’ decisions as candidates 

for petitions for a writ of certiorari, 

all in partnership with the firm’s pro 

bono program. Carter Phillips, D.C. 

Managing Partner, and Jeff Green, 

D.C. Pro Bono Chair, are the Clinic’s 

directors. Members of Sidley’s 

Appellate Group who taught in 2011 

include Joseph Guerra, Robert 

Hochman, Constantine Trela and Paul 

Zidlicky. Washington, D.C.’s Pro Bono 

Counsel Becky Troth, law clerk Kevin 

Garvey, and legal assistants D’Esprit 

Smith and Heath Ingram support the 

program’s activities. 

In 2011, the Clinic filed 19 petitions 

for a writ of certiorari and nine reply 

briefs. In addition, Clinic students 

drafted two briefs on the merits for 

parties and several briefs as amicus 

curiae. 

Guest speakers provided unique 

insight into practice in the nation's 

highest court. In the spring term, 

Roy McLeese, Acting Deputy Solicitor 

General, and the Honorable Gary 

Feinerman of the U.S. District Court 

spoke with students about Supreme 

Court advocacy. In the fall, CBS 

correspondent Jan Crawford and Tony 

Mauro of The National Law Journal 

debated the role of the press in 

covering the Supreme Court. 

sidley’s jeff green instructs students on 

effective supreme Court advocacy in a 

moot court at the northwestern university 

law school.

een held in solitary confinement in the 

Secured Housing Unit at Pelican Bay State 

Prison. At the age of 16, while serving a 

sentence in a California Youth Authority 

facility, Mr. Chacon and a friend hatched 

a misguided plan to escape, kidnapping 

the librarian. They never made it outside 

the gates, crashing a commandeered truck 

about 150 feet from where they started, 

and the librarian sustained only minor 

injuries. For this offense, Mr. Chacon 

was sentenced to life without parole and 

transferred at age 17 to Pelican Bay State 

Prison, one of the State's harshest adult 

facilities. Last year, the U.S. Supreme 

Court held in Graham v. Florida that lifewithout-parole 

sentences for juveniles 

violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on 

cruel and unusual punishment. Sidley filed 

a petition for habeas relief on Mr. Chacon's 

behalf and, in June, the court recognized 

Graham’s applicability to his sentence, 

ordered it vacated, and directed that he be 

re-sentenced “consistent with Graham.” The 

trial court resentenced Mr. Chacon to life 

with the possibility of parole. Douglas Axel, 

Christopher Munsey and Jamie Bartlett 

handled the matter. Legal assistant Thom 

Berninzoni and staff members Rebecca 

Allemand, Darlene Giusti and Dan Martinez 

also worked on the case. 

The team of Paul Hemmersbaugh, 

James Owens, Jason Vendel, Mick Flanagan 

and Bryson Bachman* filed a successful 

petition for a writ of habeas corpus on behalf 

of David Housler, a young man who had 

served 15 years in prison for murders he did 

not commit. Released in October 2010, the 

State of Tennessee appealed, and in late 

2011, the Sidley team filed a 112-page brief 

in the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals 

defending the trial court's historic grant of 

habeas relief. The team finished briefing the 

appeal in early 2012, and expects argument 

in the spring of 2012. Meanwhile, Mr. 

Housler is back home working and enjoying 

life with his family. 

Protecting Civil and Human Rights 

Sidley’s clients, the Sikh American 

Legal Defense Fund, the Sikh Coalition 

and the Liberty Institute, prevailed in 

Elijah Group v. City of Leon Valley, in which 

the Fifth Circuit reversed a district court 

ruling and held that the zoning ordinance 

at issue violated the Equal Terms provision 

of the 2000 Religious Land Use and 

Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA)— 

an Act that Sidley helped develop and pass. 

The Fifth Circuit decision is consistent with 

Sidley’s amicus brief in which we argued 

that the district court ruling should be 

overturned for erroneously applying the 

narrow statutory test. Ed McNicholas and 

09/01/2011 

We, my granddaughter and I, thank you! 

Jon Santamauro*, along with Richard 

Menard* and Jeremy Mallory*, drafted the 

brief. 

Helping Families 

We helped a client obtain custody of 

her granddaughter and permission to move 

with the child to the U.S. Virgin Islands. Our 

representation spanned seven years and 

included multiple meetings with the client, 

discovery requests, several negotiations 

with the client’s daughter (the child's 

mother), hearings in multiple jurisdictions, 

a trial and post-trial briefs. Aaron Johansen 

and Meghan Berroya handled the case 

under Mark Guerrera's supervision. Anand 

Das, Peter Pfaffenroth, Marianne Caulfield* 

and Kristen Knapp* assisted in this case. 

The grandmother sent the email reprinted 

below. 

The phrase, “thank you” seems pale compared to my extreme gratitude to your 

Firm for its unwavering dedication. You graciously accepted my custody case, as 

pro-bono, in summer 2004 and maintain the status-quo, through its conclusion, 

July 2011. Your generosity to me, in my quest to save my grandchild, [in my opinion] 

went way beyond the call of duty. The attorneys assigned to my case were always 

confident professionals, good characters, family-like and at times were my calming 

agents. 

There were times when I felt like things were not going my way. Naturally, I became 

frustrated and impatient. The level of care administered, by Aaron Johansen, to the 

success of my case was exemplary. Never once did he or anyone at your Firm make 

my granddaughter or me feel like a charity case. 

Thanks to you, we accomplished our goal. My granddaughter is secure with me… 

She is truly happy! She knows that she will never have to fight for her childhood 

survival; all she has to do is her best in school and be a kid. 

Thanks again to: Aaron Johansen, Megan Delaney Berroya, Mark Guerrera, Jackie, 

those who answer the phones the secretaries and all the other wonderful persons 

who helped to make this possible, past and present. I pray that your Firm continues 

to grow and prosper. 

From a sincerely grateful grandmother 



continued 

note from the clients 

represented in the insurance 

dispute over fire damage. 


Sidley lawyers partner with the 

Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice, 

which is located in East Los Angeles and 

has provided direct representation and 

education to low-income families for 

almost 40 years. In 2011, Sidley lawyers 

helped three clients obtain restraining 

orders against their abusive partners— 

clients who had endured years of physical 

and mental abuse and lived in constant 

fear for their safety and the safety of 

their children. The firm also obtained 

orders granting our clients custody of 

their children pending further divorce 

proceedings. The team included Amy Lally, 

Frank Broccolo, Andrew Dunbar, Cameron 

Johnson, Christine Diaz-Herrera, Chris 

Munsey and Lillian Park. Staff members 

Rebecca Allemand, Claudia Espinoza, 

Mirna Thompson and Lillian Ruiz played 

important roles in the representations. 

Representing the mother of two 

daughters, a Sidley team obtained an order 

from the Superior Court of the District of 

Columbia mandating child support 

payments to our client. The case 

included conference calls with the 

Office of the Attorney General 

of the District of Columbia to 

encourage service of process 

upon the father, issuing a 

subpoena to the father’s 

employer to obtain salary 

information, negotiating an 

agreement with the father, 

drafting the agreement and 

presenting the agreement 

to the court. In an earlier 

proceeding, the team 

secured custody to the mother. 

Paul Perkins, Eric McArthur and Danielle 

Carter as well as Susan Lagana* handled 

the case under Sam Gutter’s supervision. 

Protecting Housing Rights 

We represented an elderly couple who 

have been tenants of a rent-controlled 

apartment unit for over 35 years. After an 

accidental fire in their unit, their landlord’s 

insurance company paid for the property 

damage. The insurance company then sued 

the couple for indemnification. The lawsuit 

was stressful for the couple, who also faced 

mounting medical bills because of the 

husband’s deteriorating health. After a few 

months of litigation, we were able to secure 

the dismissal of the company’s subrogation 

action against the clients. Mike Kelley, Jodi 

Lopez, Jennifer Lam and Yolanda Ochoa 

worked on the matter. 

Sidley helps staff the Landlord 

Tenant Resource Center (LTRC) of the D.C. 

Superior Court. Each year, landlords file 

over 40,000 cases in the Landlord Tenant 

Branch of the D.C. Superior Court, seeking 

summary evictions of tenants. Over 99% 

of tenants and nearly 14% of landlords 

proceed pro se through the court. The Bar 

launched the LTRC in 2004 to improve due 

process and access to justice in Landlord 

Tenant Court. Sidley has been staffing 

the LTRC every fourth Thursday. Georgia 

Albert, Jill Caiazzo, Marinn Carlson, Hanna 

Chouest, Kyle Fiet, Ronald Flagg, Ben 

Friedlander, Mark Guerrera, Jim Hughes*, 

Kurt Jacobs, Erica Jackson, Paul Perkins, 

Lauren Roth, Amber Tofilon, Becky Troth, 

Lawrence Walders and Nick Wimbush and 

legal assistants D’Esprit Smith, Adam 

Hartmann and Heath Ingram all staffed the 

LTRC in 2011.

"Thank you" letter from the legal Counsel for the 

elderly for representing the j.w. King Tenants' 

association. hanna Chouest and adam rusnak 

handled the matter, supervised by sam Boxerman. 

Helping People with Disabilities 

Through the D.C. Bar Advocacy and Justice 

Clinic, Sidley has represented scores of 

clients in appealing denials of disability 

benefits. In 2011, Sidley's clients were 

successful in the following disability 

benefits cases that the Clinic referred to 

the firm: 

We successfully represented a client 

before a Social Security Administration 

(SSA) administrative law judge (ALJ). In 

her fully favorable decision, the ALJ cited 

our client's “host of impairments with a 

psychological bent” and held that “it would 

be impossible for the claimant to sustain 

competitive employment.” The team 

handling the case included Mark Langdon, 

Patrick O’Keefe, Sara Beardsley, Staff 

Attorney Heather Irwin and legal assistant 

Beryl Dennis. 

Sidley resolved a disabled veteran's 

lengthy dispute with the SSA over the 

agency’s demands for repayment of an 

alleged overpayment. In a series of errorridden 

decisions, the agency contended 

that it had overpaid benefits to our 

client and sought repayment of close to 

$10,000. Sidley submitted multiple letters, 

reconsideration requests, and waiver 

requests, met with the agency staff a 

number of times, and called the agency 

repeatedly. Eventually, we were able to 

elevate the issue and negotiate a complete 

waiver of the amount allegedly owed. In 

addition, Sidley convinced the agency to 

refund to our client money that the agency 

had withheld from his benefits as part of 

its effort to collect. The team included Juge 

Gregg, Peter Keisler, Stephen Blank and 

Rochelle Fink.* 

Sam and Becky: 

I wanted to take a moment to thank you both for lending the wonderful resources of 

Hanna and Adam to the JW King case. The 74-unit building had serious defects when 

I first met with the tenants. The roof was leaking into individual units, the stairwells not 

fireproofed, the carpeting lifted and became a tripping hazard, and tenants could only 

access the side entrance of the building. 

Thanks to the assistance of your firm, the tenants filed a HUD complaint and Housing 

Conditions Court complaint, which are resolving the building issues significantly. This 

case involves a lot of court time, which Hanna and Adam devoted zealously. Their 

work reflects well on Sidley and has made a tremendous difference in the lives of many 

seniors. Thank you again. 

Sincerely, 

Jennifer L. Berger 

Supervisory Legal Aid Attorney 

AARP/Legal Counsel for the Elderly 

Sidley successfully appealed an SSA 

decision denying disability benefits. The 

woman had a history of mental illness and 

longstanding back problems stemming 

from scoliosis, but had nonetheless worked 

until suffering a permanently damaging 

ankle fracture. The team gathered the 

client's medical records and submitted 

a detailed letter brief explaining her 

condition. After a hearing, the ALJ issued 

a favorable opinion providing back benefits 

of approximately $7,000 and disability 

benefits going forward. Ron Flagg, J High 

(argued) and Brian Fox handled the appeal, 

supported by legal assistant Amy Johnson. 

Sidley obtained a fully favorable 

resolution for a man in his lengthy legal 

fight with the SSA over disability benefits. 

The man suffered from a number of chronic 

and degenerative diseases but the agency 

denied benefits because he had not 

provided sufficient medical documentation 

to show that he was unable to work. After 

we submitted a detailed letter brief and 

thorough medical documentation and 

participated in an administrative hearing, 

the ALJ's decision provided nearly two 

years of back benefits and disability 

benefits going forward. Paul Kalb and Joel 

Visser handled the appeal, supported by 

legal assistant Adam Hartmann. 

We obtained full benefits for a man 

seeking reconsideration of the SSA’s 

denial of disability benefits. The client is 

HIV positive and was recently diagnosed 

with full blown AIDS. He has experienced 

painful side effects from his medication, 

and has numerous AIDS-related health 

problems preventing him from sitting for 

more than 15 minutes or even leaving his 

home. After submitting a detailed letter 

brief and medical documentation, the 

SSA awarded our client full benefits. Ron 

Flagg, Kimberly Myers and Susan Lagana* 


In addition to a back injury incurred 

in a work accident in 2009, Sidley's client 

suffered from HIV/AIDS, severe depression 

and hepatitis C. The SSA, however, had 

found that he was not disabled. After 

requesting an ALJ hearing and submitting 

extensive medical documentation, the SSA 

issued a fully favorable “on the record” 

determination, finding our client disabled 

since August 2010 and providing disability 

benefits going forward. David Hill, Katie 

Durick and Rina Mady handled the appeal, 

supported by legal assistant D’Esprit 

Smith. 



continued 

Supporting the Community and 

Nonprofit Organizations 

Alan Jakimo, Martin Gold, Ran Goel 

and Benson Cohen have been negotiating 

state-of-the-art agreements on behalf of 

Seedco, a not for profit that helps people 

find jobs and other economic opportunities 

in connection with a pilot project to launch 

“social impact bonds” in the United States. 

The pilot project would allow philanthropic 

and other investors to fund innovative 

social service programs designed to 

generate costs savings for municipalities 

or other public agencies. The project 

would finance programs to address 

criminal justice recidivism, post-foster 

care case management, public assistance 

recidivism, de-institutionalization and/or 

homelessness prevention. Costs savings 

generated by the social service programs 

will be shared by the municipal agencies 

and investors. 

Sidley represented the Frank Lloyd 

Wright Preservation Trust throughout 

2011 on a number of pro bono matters, 

including real estate leasing transactions 

and contract negotiations for the Trust’s 

properties and operations relating to their 

headquarters in the Rookery Building in 

Chicago, their warehouse/distribution 

center in suburban Chicago, the Frank 

Lloyd Wright Home and Studio in Oak Park, 

and the Robie House in Hyde Park. John 

Rafkin and Anna Mommsen represent the 

Trust. 


Sidley filed a lawsuit on behalf of 

Park Slope United Methodist Church, a 

congregation in Brooklyn, for breach of an 

agreement to purchase commercial kitchen 

equipment to renovate the kitchen of the 

Church’s community center. The kitchen 

facility was used to support the Church’s 

after-service social hours, Sunday school, 

youth group programs and other meetings. 

When the defendant contractor failed to 

deliver the equipment but kept the 50% 

deposit, despite numerous requests for 

a refund over several years, the Church 

hired another contractor to complete the 

renovation. Sidley lawyers John Lavelle, 

David Bacon, Kristen Caccavo*, Gabriel 

Bedoya, and summer associates Lucas 

Test and Oliver Liao obtained a favorable 

settlement of the matter soon after filing 

suit against the original contractor. 

As its first item of business at its first 

meeting, the Board of Directors of Digital 

Promise thanked Sidley—and Mike Clark 

in particular— for our pro bono work in 

forming the nonprofit and obtaining taxexempt 

status for the organization in record 

time. An independent 501(c)(3), Digital 

Promise is a national research center that 

focuses on developing new technologies for 

teaching and learning in the public schools. 

The establishment of the center, created 

with bipartisan Congressional support, 

is the culmination of a ten-year effort by 

public television pioneers Newt Minow 

and Lawrence Grossman. The meeting on 

September 16 was in the White House, 

where Digital Promise was launched. 

Sidley represented the Evanston 

Community Media Center in lease negotiations 

for its new broadcast and office space 

with the City of Evanston. David Siegel 

handled this matter for the Center. 

Michael Greenblatt and Mary Kate 

Johnson, supervised by Sam Gandhi, 

represented the nonprofit Association for 

Hispanic Arts, Inc. (AHA) in a simplified 

non-judicial dissolution. Working closely 

with the Secretary of AHA and the Charities 

Bureau of the New York Attorney General, 

they drafted the required dissolution 

documents and filed the executed versions 

of those documents with the New York 

State Attorney General, the Tax Department 

and the Department of State. AHA was 

incorporated in 1975 to encourage the 

study of Hispanic arts. 

Sidley helped with the formation 

of Hope In Loss, Inc. as a not-for-profit 

organization. Founded to provide 

support and assistance to parents who 

have suffered the loss of a child late in 

pregnancy or soon after birth by a couple 

in Brooklyn who had experienced such 

losses themselves, the mission of Hope 

In Loss is to create a safe, website-based 

community where such parents, family 

and friends can share comfort, emotional 

support, and information about the 

process of grieving, recovering and coping 

with their loss. Sidley lawyers and staff, 

including Marianne Bellucci, Anne Falvey, 

Patti Wu, Alan Jakimo, Stephanie McLeod, 

Shira Selengut and John Lavelle prepared, 

filed, and amended the charter, drafted 

bylaws and provided advice on general 

organizational matters, online user 

agreements and not-for-profit tax filings 

and applications.

Sidley regularly provides licensing, 

trademark, domain name and copyright 

advice to multiple nonprofit organizations. 

Julia Chester represents the Global Fund, 

Plan!t Now, Shape Up America!, Small 

Press Expo, World Health Imaging, Citizens 

United in Research for Epilepsy and Jewish 

Family Services of Los Angeles. Charles 

Cotropia handles trademark registrations, 

clearance and advice for the Resolution 

Project, the Spina Bifida Foundation of 

America, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential 

Library Foundation, PROMIS Health 

Organization and the International Anti- 

Corruption Resource Center. Dusan Clark 

provides licensing, trademark, domain 

name, and copyright advice to Girl Scouts 

of Greater Chicago and NW Indiana, the 

National Center for Missing and Exploited 

Children, Abraham Low Self Help Systems, 

Pathways Center, Exploratorium, Civic 

Committee, Hoop Stars, Inc. and Soaring 

Eagle Academy. 

nancy Kevin (sidley financial controller), 

mike romano (a regular volunteer at the food 

pantry), and alicia griffeth (sidley accounting 

department) and a Kpmg volunteer serving a 

holiday meal at a Chicago soup kitchen. 

A group of 16 Sidley lawyers and staff 

joined with professionals from KPMG’s 

Chicago Audit and Forensic practices to 

serve a holiday meal at a soup kitchen in a 

church basement in Chicago’s Humboldt 

Park neighborhood. The Sidley and KPMG 

volunteers served more than 150 men 

and women, many of whom are homeless. 

The event was organized by Chicago 

partner John Levi and KPMG partner 

Amanda Rigby. Other Sidley participants 

included Steve Catlett, Linton Childs, Jason 

Englund, Ericka Foster, Alicia Griffeth, Erik 

Ives, Melissa Kearney, Colleen Kenney, 

Nancy Kevin, Rachel Margolis, John Skakun, 

Hille Sheppard, David Siegel, Megan Walsh 

and Mary Weber. 

Sidley continues to run the free legal 

clinic established in 2010 through Chicago 

Volunteer Legal Services (CVLS), Chicago's 

oldest free legal services provider. The clinic 

operates once a month and volunteers 

typically spend about one to two hours 

meeting with clinic visitors about a wide 

variety of legal issues. Sidley takes on some 

of the clinic visitors as pro bono clients 

and refers others back to CVLS’s “panel” 

volunteer network. Sidley clinic volunteers 

include Kevin Fee (who is on the CVLS 

board and chairs the clinic), Christine 

Kailus, Jed Rosenkrantz, Lindsey Smith, 

Julie Klaff, Julie Weber, Jennifer Foster, 

Whitney Cox, Annie Wallis, Reena Jashnani, 

Raina Patel, Praju Tuladhar, Patrick Croke, 

Gerald Angst, Frank Favia and Priscilla 

Ryan. 

Sidley has a growing relationship 

with the Justice Resource Center (JRC), 

a nonprofit group focused on the 

administration of law-related and civic 

education programs for school-age 

youth. Since 2002, Sidley has participated 

in JRC's MENTOR program, its premier 

collaboration between the legal profession 

and the school-age population. We are 

paired with the High School for Leadership 

and Public Service in Manhattan, 

exposing the students to the practice and 

study of law. Working with the school’s 

teachers and administrators, Sidley 

has provided mentors and coaches to 

students participating in annual New 

York Moot Court and Mock Trial statewide 

competitions. We also arrange for the 

students to visit a federal court visit twice 

a year to observe a court proceeding, 

participate in a Q&A with the judge and 

tour the courtroom and judge’s chambers. 

We also arranged summer internships in 

our library and records department. Several 

of the students we mentor have moved on 

to college and hope to go to law school. 

María Meléndez, James O’Connor, Karim 

Aoun, Gabriel Bedoya, Joseph Doyle, 

Luke Frankson, Matthew Hughey, Brogiin 

Keeton, Trevor Rozier-Byrd, DeNae Thomas 

and Patrick Troy served as coaches in 2011. 



continued 

Sidley recognized Pro Bono Week 

by participating with more than 90 other 

Washington, D.C.-based firms, nonprofits, 

law schools and corporations in "Going 

Casual for Justice." The event, organized 

by the DC Bar Foundation, benefitted the 

Foundation's Loan Repayment Assistance 

Program (LRAP). LRAP helps D.C. poverty 

lawyers pay their educational debts while 

earning a public interest salary, essentially 

increasing the compensation of the 

attorneys serving our most vulnerable 

residents. Individuals who contributed $5 

could wear jeans on a Friday and for an 

extra $5, could wear sneakers as well. To 

inspire participation, six senior partners 

(a.k.a. "The Spectacular Six") agreed to wear 

jeans if the office raised at least $7000. The 

office actually raised more than $8000, and 

the Spectacular Six (minus Ron Flagg, who 

was out of town) donned denim for the 

occasion. In a story on Go Casual for Justice, 

the on-line publication Bisnow featured a 

picture of the Sidley partners in jeans. 

The New York Committee on Retention 

and Promotion of Women hosted its first 

women alumnae reception and partnered 

with Dress for Success, a nonprofit 

organization that provides professional 

clothing, career counseling and skills 

training to disadvantaged women. Dress 

for Success representatives provided 

information on a wide range of volunteer 

opportunities available throughout New 

York. The reception also launched the New 

York office’s weeklong Dress for Success 

clothing drive where more than 250 articles 

of clothing were donated. 


The washington, d.C. office’s “spectacular six (minus one)”: mark hopson, paul moates, george 

jones, alan raul and Carter phillips; ron Flagg was unavailable for the photo. 

Sidley’s New York office hosted its 

first Sidley Service Day with New York 

Cares, a premier nonprofit organization 

that each year mobilizes more than 53,000 

volunteers to support more than 1200 

nonprofit agencies, public schools and 

other organizations that provide services to 

nearly 400,000 disadvantaged individuals 

in the New York metropolitan area. More 

than 50 Sidley lawyers and summer 

associates volunteered to help revitalize 

a New York City public school during this 

day-long event. The day’s projects included 

painting a mural in one of the school’s 

main hallways as well as strengthening 

the school’s library by cataloging and then 

filling it with over 450 donated volumes 

obtained from a book drive that the office 

conducted before the event. 

new york office's first sidley service day with 

new york Cares. sidley summer associates 

sara reichstein, rebecca levenson, sidley 

associate mary Kate johnson and partner 

miki navazio paint a school mural. 

In July, the Washington, D.C. office 

held its Fifth Annual Service Week. 

A number of Sidley lawyers, summer 

associates and staff participated in a variety 

of volunteer activities during the week, 

including serving dinner to 200 homeless 

men, women and children at a local soup 

kitchen, donating 17 pints of blood to the 

sick and injured, creating birthday cards 

for more than 100 children on behalf of 

the Children’s Law Center, making more 

than 150 sandwiches for distribution by

The partnership with Thomson has helped 

children see lawyers up front in a good and fun 

way. One of the children told me she thought 

‘lawyers only knew court stuff, not geography.’ 

So, for expanding just one young mind to know 

that, was funny and priceless. Thank you again 

for preparing the kids and giving time to make 

a difference at Thomson Elementary. 

excerpt from a letter from a parent of one 

of the geoplunge students. 

the Salvation Army, and donating more 

than $8000 and essential toiletries to a 

local homeless outreach center. The week 

also featured a luncheon at which Rob 

Falk, General Counsel of the Human Rights 

Campaign, described HRC's work, its need 

for pro bono help and available pro bono 

opportunities. 

In conjunction with New York Cares, 

Sidley’s New York Committee on Retention 

and Promotion of Women held its 2011 

Women & Leadership event to benefit 

the Partnership for Inner-City Education. 

Volunteers made 500 creativity kits to help 

students prepare for school and provide 

them with tools to express their creativity. 

Corporate Responsibility Manager Stacy 

Rotner organized the event, working with 

Laurie Kleiman, the firmwide Co-Chair 

of the Committee on Retention and 

Promotion of Women, and Laura Barzilai, 

the New York Co-Chair of the Committee. 

The 2011 geoplunge Team sponsored by sidley, 

with legal assistants heath Ingram 

and d'esprit smith. 

For over 15 years, Sidley has partnered 

with Thomson Elementary School through 

the D.C. Public School Partnership Project. 

The partnership project is directed by 

the Washington Lawyers’ Committee 

for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs. In 

November, Sidley coached two teams of 

fifth graders from Thomson in the annual 

GeoPlunge Tournament. GeoPlunge is a 

multi-award winning geography game for 

children. Seventy-eight schools and over 

230 students participated in this year’s 

tournament, held at the National Portrait 

Gallery. Both of Sidley’s teams competed 

in the championship round, with one team 

finishing in the top 25. 

Sidley donated over 200 gifts for 

underserved children as part of New York 

Cares' annual Winter Wishes “Dear Santa” 

program. Sidley personnel in New York 

also donated more than 60 coats to New 

York Cares’ 23rd Annual Coat Drive, which 

provides thousands of warm winter coats to 

those in need. Stacy Rotner organized both 

initiatives. 



continued 

Sidley personnel serve as reading 

partners and mentors to public school 

students at Ross Elementary through the 

Power Lunch program run by Everybody 

Wins! DC. The Power Lunch program pairs 

one adult with one student for the school 

year. Our participants visit the school one 

day a week during lunch to share books 

and the love of reading with the students. 

Currently Andy Shoyer, John Hughes, Larry 

Walders, Kathryn Roberts, Lindsay Solie, 

Rachel Givens, Sherrice Flowers and Dick 

Belanger read in the Power Lunch program. 

Dick Belanger also has been on the Board 

of Everybody Wins! DC for a number of 

years, serving at different times as its 

Chairperson and General Counsel. 

For the second year in a row, we 

participated in the Salvation Army’s Angel 

Tree Program, which provides gifts of new 

clothing, shoes and toys for children 12 and 

under from needy families. At the Angel 

Tree Adoption Party, Sidley employees 

selected angel tags with the child’s name, 

age, gender, clothing and shoe size, along 

with a three-item wish list. Volunteers 

ensured that all the gifts were packed and 

organized. As a result of Sidley employees’ 

generosity and volunteer efforts, all 236 

"Angels" received gifts during the holiday 

season. All of the gifts were displayed in 

one of our large conference rooms before 

the Salvation Army picked them up for 

distribution on December 16th. 


The washington, d.C. office happily sponsored families through the salvation army angel Tree program 

during the holiday season. 

Sidley’s Chicago office celebrated Chicago’s Seventh Annual Pro Bono Week 

in October, recognizing the pro bono efforts of lawyers and educating the public 

and the legal community about how lawyers are improving people’s lives through 

their efforts. During the week, Sidley’s Constantine Trela, who has been active 

in pro bono legal service throughout his career and who serves on the Advisory 

Board of the Chicago Volunteer Legal Services Foundation, was recognized by the 

Foundation for his work with one of his first pro bono clients, of whom he said: 

“ I met Irene more than 20 years ago, when she needed help with a neighborhood 

dispute. Since then, we’ve dealt with everything from pension issues, to health 

insurance, to simply explaining that official-looking letters are really only junk 

mail. Much of what I do for her isn’t legal work, but rather the sort of thing a 

family member would normally do for an elderly relative. I’m glad that I can fill, 

even if only partially, that role for someone.”

pro Bono From a gloBal perspeCTIVe 

In recent years, Sidley’s domestic 

and foreign offices have become 

increasingly involved in pro bono efforts 

on an international level. 

2011 Highlights 

• A major six-year pro bono effort 

involving Sidley came to a successful 

conclusion in March with the release of 

human rights activist and Nobel Peace 

Prize nominee Óscar Elías Biscet from 

a Cuban prison, where he was serving a 

25-year sentence on trumped-up charges 

stemming from his non-violent promotion 

of democracy. Andy Strenio and Lauren 

Buckley* led the firm's efforts which, in 

collaboration with the efforts of lawyers 

at another international firm, were 

instrumental in obtaining Dr. Biscet’s 

release. The matter generated significant 

global media coverage, including an article 

in the March 23 issue of The National Law 

Journal. 

• After President Mubarak relinquished 

power, the Egyptian American Rule of 

Law Association (EARLA) asked Sidley 

to help it incorporate in D.C. and register 

as a 501(c)(3) organization. EARLA was 

formed to provide technical legal support, 

research and analysis, training and 

strategic advice to its Egyptian partners as 

they form a new government. John Hughes, 

Kris Kirkwood and Kerry Lee, all in our 

Washington, D.C. office, worked on the 

matter. 

• Sidley lawyers in New York have 

done several projects with ACCION 

International, a nonprofit organization 

that helps impoverished individuals by 

providing microenterprise loans, business 

training and other financial services. 

Working with microfinance institutions 

throughout the world, ACCION and its 

partners provide individuals the ability 

to become self sufficient through various 

forms of microenterprise ventures, such 

as selling vegetables, sewing clothes 

or making papads. In early 2011, Alyssa 

Grikscheit and Gladys Chang advised 

ACCION and the Michael and Susan Dell 

Foundation on various agreements in 

connection with an investment in Vindhya 

e-Infomedia Private Ltd., a company in 

Bangalore, India, that employs people 

with disabilities and provides data 

management and processing services to 

information technology and microfinance 

clients. Alyssa Grikscheit and Michael 

Greenblatt also represented ACCION 

International in connection with the 

company’s investment in shares of 

Swadhaar Finserve Private Limited, a 

nonbanking financial corporation in 

Mumbai, India. Swadhaar is a unique 

institution that provides microfinance 

services in urban areas, while most other 

Indian microfinance institutions target 

poverty-stricken rural areas. Francesca 

Mead provided additional support to 

ACCION projects in India. 

• Alyssa Grikscheit moderated a panel 

at the Responsible Investment Forum 

2011, an event presented by Private Equity 

International and the United Nations 

Principles for Responsible Investment 

(UN PRI). Alyssa’s panel addressed private 

equity investment in emerging markets, 

including environmental, social and 

corporate governance issues and political, 

regulatory and reputational risks related to 

such investments. The Forum took place in 

connection with the launch of the second 

edition of Responsible Investment in Private 

Equity: A Guide for Limited Partners, a UN PRI 

publication on which Alyssa, Ran Goel and 

Francesca Mead, all in our New York office, 

also worked on a pro bono basis. 

• The firm represents Stitching to 

Promote Women’s World Banking (WWB), 

a global non-profit based in New York that 

supports women-focused microfinance 

institutions around the world in a number 

of corporate transactional matters, 

including its recent investment in one of 

its network members, Fundación WWB, 

at the time of its transformation from a 

nonprofit organization to a licensed bank 

in Colombia. Alyssa Grikscheit leads this 

representation, with help from Jaime 

Senior, Eileen Plaza, Jonathan Brose, 

Sara D’Agostini, Chiu-Huey Hsia, Aamir 

Wyne, Stephanie Busse* and Ina M. Drago 

Ludowieg*. 


pro Bono From a gloBal perspeCTIVe 

continued 

London office 

• Michael Constantine and Jade Williams- 

Adedeji of our London office advised the 

Federation of City Farms and Community 

Gardens (FCFCG) on the charity’s lease of 

premises. FCFCG is a charity that supports, 

represents and promotes communitymanaged 

farms, gardens, allotments 

and other green spaces. After months of 

negotiation, a deed of variation to the 

existing lease was entered into between 

the parties in October, thereby securing 

the charity’s long-term future at its current 

premises. 

• The Community Youth Provisions 

Association (CYPA) provides a variety of 

educational services to the community 

and currently focuses on providing 

tuition to young people excluded from 

mainstream education in Math, English, 

I.T. and Science. The CYPA targets 

its services at black minority ethnic 

individuals. Mark Menhennet and Michael 

Constantine have been advising the CYPA 

in its ongoing dispute with its landlord, 

Southwark Council, for the past two years. 

During such time, and with the assistance 

of counsel whom Sidley assisted in 

instructing, also on a pro bono basis, 

the CYPA has successfully defended the 

Council’s initial claim for possession of 

the premises. We are currently advising 

the charity in its defense of the Council's 

second claim for possession, following the 

issuance of proceedings earlier this year. 

• Sidley's Howard Waterman, Bethany 

Burrow and Christopher Allen advised 

Kids 4 Change Limited in connection 

with its application for registration as a 

charity with the Charity Commission for 

England and Wales. Kids 4 Change seeks 

to prevent or relieve poverty by providing 


grants or donations to charities in the 

United Kingdom working to prevent or 

relieve poverty, and to help young people 

by providing support and activities 

that develop their skills, capacities and 

capabilities to enable them to participate 

in society as responsible individuals. Kids 

4 Change currently is involved in a soccer 

initiative designed for young people in 

West London to use soccer as a way to 

avoid gang membership and crime. The 

Commission granted Kids for Change's 

application in August. 

• Bethany Burrow and Christopher Allen 

advised Hawkesbury After School Club, a 

not-for-profit unincorporated association, 

in connection with the incorporation of 

a company limited by guarantee, on the 

transfer of its assets and liabilities to the 

newly incorporated company and on the 

registration of the newly-incorporated 

company as a charity with the Charity 

Commission for England and Wales. 

Hawkesbury After School Club provides 

facilities for the daily care, recreation and 

education of children during non-school 

hours and school holidays. Hawkesbury 

After School Club was registered as a 

charity in September 2011. 

• Small Steps, School for Parents (a 

registered charity) is an unincorporated 

association looking to incorporate as a 

company limited by guarantee. Elizabeth 

Uwaifo, Bethany Burrow and Christopher 

Allen are advising on the incorporation, 

the transfer of Small Steps, School for 

Parents' assets and liabilities to a newly 

incorporated company and the registration 

of that newly incorporated company as 

a charity with the Charity Commission 

for England and Wales. Small Steps, 

School for Parents serves children who 

have cerebral palsy or other motor and 

sensory impairments and their families 

through classes, activities and advice in a 

supportive environment. 

• Mark Menhennet continues to advise 

the Cheshunt Unit of the Sea Cadets, a 

charitable organization focusing on 13-to- 

18 year boys and girls, in connection with 

new premises for their activities. The local 

authority has agreed to grant a lease of 

land on which it proposes to construct a 

new building and parking area. 

• Programme for Arts, Therapy and 

Health (PATH) is a London-based charity 

working with disadvantaged individuals 

and excluded groups in mental and 

emotional distress. PATH found itself in 

financial difficulties and unable to pay a 

commercial creditor. The creditor initiated 

proceedings using the UK courts "money 

claims" process. Steven Pitt, Christian 

Lau and Max Dannheisser advised on 

defending the claim and on attempts to 

reach a commercial settlement in April 

2011. 

• XSE Academy Limited is a charity 

that provides various opportunities to 

youth groups in Tower Hamlets, mainly 

in the 11-to-19 year old age group. The

organization focuses on media training 

projects but also provides recording studio 

time, technical training, mentoring and an 

online radio station. Jade Williams-Adedeji 

is advising the group on the occupation of 

their current premises and their associated 

rights, together with assisting the dialogue 

between the client and the Local Authority 

(their landlord). Jade has been carrying out 

this work since April 2011 and advises the 

client on an ongoing basis. 

• Peaceful Solutions Limited runs the 

Centre for Peaceful Solutions, which 

provides mediation services to various 

clients, including families affected 

by divorce and separation, community 

organizations and organizations in the 

public sector. Throughout September and 

October, Jade Williams-Adedeji provided 

advice to the Centre on new leasehold 

premises, negotiating the form of lease, 

completion thereof and post-completion 

requirements. 

• Clarity provides services for people 

suffering from mental health problems. By 

providing social and meaningful activities, 

Clarity aims to reduce social isolation and 

enable people to improve their confidence 

and self esteem, as well as learn new skills. 

Mark Menhennet, Gurminder Sanghera 

and Frances Macduff reviewed and 

negotiated a new lease for Clarity between 

November 2010 and July 2011. 

• 39 Youth Club provides various 

constructive, social and educational 

activities for young people in an area of 

high social deprivation. The club works 

extensively with the police to create 

targeted projects that focus on less 

affluent sections of the surrounding area. 

As a result of the project, youth-related 

crime and antisocial behavior within the 

Running for Families 

On May 29, Sidley joined 30 other international law firms in Brussels for the 7th 

Legal Run. Setting a new record, the 2011 Legal Run raised €20,000 for Nasci, a 

Brussels-based charity dedicated to helping pregnant women, single mothers and 

families facing particularly difficult living conditions, who do not have the means to 

satisfy the basic day-to-day needs of their family. Nasci offers professional support 

to its clients and ensures that its aid is of high quality and easily accessible. The 

Sidley participants in the race included Marc Appels, Carolina Däcko*, Maarten 

Meulenbelt, Kristina Nordlander, Hazel Pearson*, Emmanuel Saurat and Jessica 

Walch. 

area has significantly decreased over 

the past few years. The charity holds its 

premises under a license from West Sussex 

County Council (WSCC). The charity 

understood that their license agreement 

gave them the right to let out any part of 

the premises to other groups, with rent 

payable to them, and that WSCC could 

only do this in consultation with them. 

WSCC then let out part of the premises to 

another organization and has not passed 

on any rent payments to 39 Youth Club. 

Mark Menhennet, Gurminder Sanghera 

and Frances Macduff undertook a 

document review and drafted a letter of 

advice for 39 Youth Club. 

Brussels and Geneva Offices 

• Building on the project with the 

TransFarm Africa initiative, Brussels 

associate Jung-ui Sul and Geneva partner 

Scott Andersen have continued to 

advise on trade and regulatory issues for 

supplying seed to smallholder farmers 

in Tanzania. This work will result in highyielding 

seed potato varieties being 

available to farmers in Tanzania in the early 

part of 2012. Based on this experience, 

Sidley is developing a firmwide program 

for trade, investment and finance-related 

legal assistance in Africa. 

• Since June, Stephen Kinsella, Yohan 

Benizri and Jessica Walch have advised 

the cross-party Brussels-Strasbourg Seat 

Study Group in relation to the defense of 

Cases C-237 and 238/11 France v. Parliament. 

When the seat of the European Parliament 

was fixed in Brussels, Luxembourg and 

Strasbourg (France), it was also agreed 

that the Parliament would hold at least 

twelve plenary sessions in Strasbourg. Last 

March, the Parliament voted a resolution 

to hold two of its plenary sessions within 

the same week in October in order to 

limit the time spent in Strasbourg. France 

challenged this resolution before the 

European Courts against the Parliament. 

The Brussels-Strasbourg Seat Study 

Group, which consists of Members of the 

European Parliament, has sought our 

legal and practical advice to support the 

Parliament’s resolution on the basis of 

efficiency and sustainability arguments. 

• Sidley is establishing a firm project to 

assist the International Commission on 

Jurists, a prominent Geneva-based rule of 

law/human rights NGO, and other human 

rights organizations on a pro bono basis. 

Sidley plans to provide assistance on 

projects (e.g., authoring amicus briefs in 

human rights cases), assisted by students 

in the Masters in International Dispute 

Settlement programme at the University of 

Geneva. Brooks Allen is spearheading the 

initiative and David Roney is supervising. 


pro Bono honors and eVenTs 

New York lawyers Algeria Aljure, 

Marissa Alter-Nelson and Jon Muenz 

received inMotion’s 2011 Commitment 

to Justice Award for their exceptional 

advocacy on behalf of a mother of four 

from Chad who was the victim of severe 

physical abuse, rape and beating during 

pregnancy at the hands of her husband. 

The challenges faced by this team in the 

divorce action were many: a client who 

was illiterate and spoke only a rare African 

dialect, a trial to establish the validity of 

their client’s marriage in Chad that the 

husband disputed, and discovering the 

husband’s true income for purposes of 

child support. The Sidley team prevailed 

on all counts, in addition to persuading 

the court to find egregious fault based 

on the domestic violence suffered by the 

client, resulting in the award of 100% of the 

marital assets to the client. She and her 

children can now live in safety and begin a 

new life with greater financial security. 


The chief judges of the District of 

Columbia federal courts honored Sidley’s 

Washington, D.C. office at the “40 at 50” 

Judicial Pro Bono Recognition Breakfast. 

Established by the DC Circuit Judicial 

Conference Standing Committee on 

Pro Bono Legal Services, the “40 at 50” 

breakfast recognizes law firms reporting 

that at least 40% of their lawyers devoted 

50 or more hours to pro bono work in the 

previous year. Ron Flagg, Jeff Green and 

Becky Troth represented Sidley at the 

event, which was hosted by Judges Merrick 

B. Garland of the U.S. Court of Appeals 

and Royce C. Lamberth of the U.S. District 

Court. 

John Levi was honored as the first 

recipient of the Abner and Zoe Mikva 

Corporate Citizenship award at the Mikva 

Challenge Spring Benefit in April. Mikva 

Challenge, an organization that promotes 

the development of civic leadership in 

underserved Chicago high school youth, is 

inaugurating the Civic Leadership awards 

to honor civic and political leaders who 

exemplify the kind of commitment to public 

service to which Abner and Zoe Mikva 

sidley’s michael davis with john wilhelm, executive director and Kate Boege, president 

of the Board of directors, of Infant welfare society at the angel award ceremony. 

dedicated their lives. The organization was 

founded as a tribute to former White House 

Counsel, Judge and U.S. Congressman 

Abner Mikva and his wife Zoe, a lifelong 

education activist. In 2010, Mr. Levi was 

named Board Chairman of the Legal 

Services Corporation, which makes annual 

grants of approximately $400 million and 

is the single largest funder of civil legal 

assistance to low-income Americans. John 

has been instrumental in many of Sidley’s 

pro bono programs, including its corporate 

partnership with Gerald Delgado Kanoon 

Magnet Elementary School, the longest 

corporate partnership for any Chicago 

public school. 

At its Centennial Anniversary 

celebration, the Infant Welfare Society of 

Chicago awarded Sidley the organization’s 

Angel Award for Sidley’s continuing 

commitment to healthcare for women 

and children. Sidley received the award 

together with Abbott Laboratories. Mike 

Davis serves on the Board of Directors of 

the Infant Welfare Society. 

Shelter House, the largest homeless 

shelter in Northern Virginia, selected 

Sidley to receive its 30th Anniversary 

Champion Award in May in appreciation 

of Sidley's "high level of service and 

commitment to preventing and ending 

homelessness and to those fleeing 

domestic violence." Sidley has represented 

Shelter House for about ten years. Julie 

Allen, Rachel 

Margolis and 

Griff Green 

were the primary 

lawyers 

representing 

Shelter House.

Robert Pietrzak received a Pro 

Bono Publico Award for his service to 

the board of the Legal Aid Society at its 

annual pro bono awards ceremony. 

sidley’s richard o’malley at pIlI’s 2011 annual 

pro Bono reception. 

pictured above are, left to right, Fin Fogg, 

president of the legal aid society; robert 

pietrzak; Chief judge jonathan lippman of 

the ny Court of appeals; and richard j. davis, 

Chairman of the society. 

At its annual event, the Family Defense 

Center (FDC) recognized Sidley for our 

pro bono efforts on behalf of FDC clients. 

The award cites Sidley for “Excellence and 

Abiding Commitment to Justice.” Erin Kelly 

and Julie Weber accepted a plaque from 

FDC on behalf of the firm. FDC's mission is 

to advocate justice for families in the child 

welfare system. 

sidley’s team awarded “excellence and 

abiding Commitment to justice” by the 

Family defense Center. 

Front (l-r): susan Brehm, joseph dosch, 

maria post, john levi, julie weber, Ben Frey 

Back (l-r): Kees Vandenberg, 

richard o’malley, erin Kelly, gerald angst, 

Brett myrick 

The Board of Directors and staff of 

Chicago's Public Interest Law Initiative 

(PILI) named Sidley to its inaugural PILI 

Pro Bono Recognition Roster. The June 

event highlighted law firms' achievements 

at PILI’s Annual Pro Bono Reception: 

Celebrating Pro Bono. Sidley received a 

certificate commemorating its efforts and 

PILI thanked Sidley "for the fantastic work 

you are doing." 

Sidley received a Defender of Freedom 

Award from the Foundation for Criminal 

Justice in recognition of the firm’s pro bono 

work representing the criminal defense 

bar before the U.S. Supreme Court. The 

Foundation seeks to preserve and promote 

the core values of the National 

Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers 

and the American criminal justice system. 

Jeff Green accepted the award on behalf of 

the firm. 

In his capacity as Board Chairman 

of the U.S. Legal Services Corporation 

(LSC), John Levi launched the LSC Pro 

Bono Task Force at Harvard Law School, 

which will recommend to the Board 

innovative ways to promote and enhance 

pro bono initiatives throughout the U.S. 

to address the growing unmet civil legal 

needs of low-income Americans. John, Ron 

Flagg, Chris Campbell* and many other 

distinguished lawyers, including state and 

federal judges and law school deans, are 

members of the Task Force. 


Ron Flagg spoke about corporate pro 

bono as part of a panel at the Fall Meeting 

of the Association of General Counsel in 

Washington, D.C. Ron described Sidley’s 

work on immigration matters with Exelon’s 

law department and on Alabama capital 

punishment cases with the Exelon and 

Aon law departments. Ron also described 

pro bono opportunities for corporate law 

departments with the National Veterans 

Legal Services Program, whose board 

he chairs. The panel included Michael 

J. Holston, General Counsel, Hewlett- 

Packard, and Esther Lardent, CEO, the 

Pro Bono Institute. Attending the meeting 

were the chief legal officers of over 50 

companies, including General Electric, 

Goldman Sachs, Johnson & Johnson, 

JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, 

Raytheon and Wal-Mart. 

Gina DelChiaro*, is the new Leon Levy 

Fellow at Human Rights First. In this role, 

Gina will be working with Human Rights 

First to increase pro bono representation of 

asylum-seekers in New York. She successfully 

represented several asylum seekers 

during her time at Sidley and the firm looks 

forward to working with her in 2012. 

The Legal Assistance Foundation of 

Chicago awarded Richard O'Malley, Chair 

of the Chicago Pro Bono Committee, the 

“Champion of Justice” award at its annual 

benefit for his career-long commitment 

to pro bono, including his recent success 

in the Cabrini Green Fair Housing Act 

litigation against the Chicago Housing 

Authority. 


Sidley’s work on behalf of the 

Chesapeake Legal Alliance was featured 

prominently in an article published by 

The Capital newspaper in December. The 

Alliance is a nonprofit organization 

that seeks to improve the health of 

the Chesapeake Bay by connecting 

environmental groups with pro bono 

legal practices in the area. As a result of 

an Alliance connection, a Sidley team is 

representing the Potomac Riverkeeper and 

West Virginia citizens concerned about the 

opening of a quarry near Gerrardstown. 

The article noted that Sidley has already 

appeared before two administrative 

boards and persuaded the quarry owners 

to make concessions. David Buente, Sam 

Boxerman, Tom Echikson, Juge Gregg, 

Monica Groat, Joel Visser, Jason James, Jim 

Wedeking and legal assistant Duan Pryor 

all worked on the matter. 

sidley’s richard o’malley and newton 

minow at the legal assistance Foundation of 

metropolitan Chicago annual luncheon.

sIdley honors ITs own 

THOMAS H. MORSCH AWARDS 

Each year Sidley’s Chicago Pro Bono Committee hosts its Pro Bono 

Reception to recognize Sidley lawyers who have worked on pro 

bono matters during the past year. The ceremony includes local 

pro bono legal service agencies and organizations with whom the 

firm has enjoyed a strong relationship over the years, allowing 

us to introduce lawyers who are interested in pro bono work to 

opportunities that are available from the organizations. Sidley's 

Thomas H. Morsch Award is presented to the Chicago associates 

who exemplify the spirit and principles of pro bono service that 

Tom Morsch had demonstrated by his own work and leadership 

for many years. The Thomas H. Morsch award includes a $1,000 

firm contribution that the recipients can designate to a Chicago 

pro bono agency of their choice. The Honorable James R. Epstein, 

Appellate Judge, Illinois First District Court, 5th Division, graciously 

accepted our invitation to serve as the guest speaker for this year's 

ceremony. 

The recipients of the 2010 Thomas H. Morsch Award were Ben 

Keith and Thomas Heisler. Partner Mel Washburn presented the 

award to Ben and Tom for their remarkable victory for Enka, a 

Mongolian client seeking asylum on the ground that she feared 

that her husband, who remains in Mongolia, would physically 

and sexually abuse her if she were forced to return and that the 

government would not protect her from such abuse. Ben and Tom 

faced logistical challenges, including trying to find a Mongolian 

translator, as well as many substantive hurdles. Enka needed to 

claim that she would be persecuted on the basis of her membership 

in a “particular social group,” a term not defined in any statute 

or regulation. Women applying for asylum based on their fear of 

domestic violence almost never succeed in proving that the abuse 

is motivated by their membership in a legally cognizable “social 

group.” Ben and Tom persevered and Enka received asylum in 

September 2010. 

mel washburn with Thomas h. morsch award recipients Ben Keith and 

Thomas heisler. 

Kelly huggins (center), sidley’s project manager for the Capital litigation 

and political asylum and Immigrants’ rights projects, with latonia Keith* 

(left) and partner jaime jones (right) at the Chicago pro Bono awards 

reception. 


washington, d.C. lawyers, litigation staff and legal assistants who received the Vincent F. prada pro Bono award for devoting more than 60 hours to pro bono 

work over the course of the year. 

VINCENT F. PRADA PRO BONO AWARDS 

The Washington, D.C. office held its fifth annual Vincent F. Prada Pro 

Bono Awards Ceremony in July, commemorating Sidley’s late partner 

Vincent Prada, who devoted 14 years of his life to representing 

an inmate on death row. The firm presented the award to more than 

100 lawyers and 15 legal assistants and litigation staff in the office 

who devoted 60 or more hours to pro bono work in 2010. Recipients 

are allowed to designate a legal services organization to which the 

firm contributes $100 in the recipient’s name. 

The keynote speaker at this year’s event was Bruce Kuhlik, Executive 

Vice President and General Counsel of Merck & Co., Inc. Under 

Bruce’s leadership, Merck’s pro bono program has served as a 

model for other corporate pro bono programs throughout the 

country and has been formally recognized with the U.S. President’s 

Volunteer Service Award, the New Jersey State Governor’s Jefferson 

Award, the Pro Bono Award from the Union County Bar Association/ 

Carter phillips, washington, d.C. office managing partner; Bruce Kuhlik, 

executive Vice president and general Counsel of merck & Co., Inc.; and 

rebecca Troth, washington, d.C. pro Bono Counsel. 


Central Jersey Legal Services and the CPBO Pro Bono Partner 

Award. Bruce's remarks, explaining the importance of pro bono 

work to in-house legal departments, were reprinted in the Pro Bono 

Institute's on-line newsletter. 

Attendees at the event included Vince Prada’s widow, Jana Singer, 

their sons, Michael and Josh, and representatives of the legal 

services organizations with which Sidley works in the Washington, 

D.C. area. 

Los Angeles Pro Bono Awards 

Los Angeles lawyers and staff gathered to recognize 27 partners, 

counsel and associates for their outstanding commitment to pro 

bono matters throughout the year. Among the lawyers recognized 

were Debra Pole, Michelle Goodman, Jodi Lopez and Cameron 

Johnson for their receipt of the President’s Award from Public 

Counsel. The office also recognized Sidley Pro Bono Fellows Leah 

Abeles and Cody Jacobs for their contributions to the ACLU. Also 

honored this year were two USC and four UCLA law students as 

Sidley Austin Public Interest Law Fellows.

sponsorshIp oF pro Bono graduaTe Fellows 

Sidley’s commitment to pro bono work is reflected in its Fellowship/Externship program, which allows associates to work at nonprofit 

organizations in the community either before they begin working at the firm or, in the case of the New York office, after they have 

been with the firm for some time. Through the program, Sidley provides a fellowship stipend or pays the salary of the Fellows or Externs to 

allow them to work for a nonprofit organization for about 10 weeks. In Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and Chicago, they can choose among 

a variety of nonprofit organizations, including those that provide direct services to indigent people, as well as those that engage in impact 

litigation and policy work. In New York, associates work for three to four months at inMotion, Inc., an organization that provides free legal 

services to indigent and low-income women and children in domestic crisis. 

Fellowships with the nonprofit organizations allow associates to learn about the organizations, their staffs and their work. The Fellows 

develop relationships that they can continue and expand when they come to Sidley. These relationships often are an important source 

of pro bono matters for the firm and the Fellows throughout their careers. We benefit because the Fellows acquire experience in a short 

period of time and develop skills dealing with clients, negotiating with other lawyers and advocating in court or in other settings in which 

they need to persuade a decision-maker. 

New York Office Sponsored Two inMotion Externs 

Sidley has a long-standing relationship with inMotion, Inc., a leading provider of free legal services to indigent and low-income women 

and children who need assistance in obtaining divorces, orders of protection, and/or assistance with other family law matters. In 2003, 

we established the Sidley Externship Program pursuant to which associates in the New York office work at inMotion, Inc. on three or four 

month rotations and who many times handle the most difficult cases. 

Over the years, the firm has worked on hundreds of inMotion matters as part of its pro bono commitment and also has provided generous 

financial support through its role as one of inMotion’s corporate partners. inMotion provides extensive training for its attorneys and 

volunteers, as well as for its Externs, who can expect to have significant court appearances before New York’s Supreme and Family Courts. 

Marc Hedrich spent five months as an Extern at inMotion where he represented new clients (women who were 

indigent and/or victims of domestic violence) and continued work on matters initiated by prior Sidley Externs. 

Marc worked on a variety of matrimonial and family court cases in all five of New York City’s boroughs. Notably, he 

participated in a divorce trial in New York County, petitioned for a finding of willful violation of a child support order 

in Queens County, sought dismissal of a petition for downward modification of a support order in Kings County, 

argued petitions for child custody and support in Richmond County, and obtained dismissal of an unsupervised 

visitation petition in Bronx County. 

Shane Tattan served as the inMotion Extern where he successfully handled a broad range of cases for over 20 clients 

residing in all five New York City boroughs, including contested divorces, child and spousal support actions, child 

custody cases, paternity actions and family offense matters. In particular, Shane conducted a three-day trial in a 

child support case initiated by a woman who was owed over $90,000 in child support arrears for her severely disabled 

son. He also negotiated a divorce settlement awarding a woman sole custody of her two young daughters after her 

husband’s repeated infidelity and emotional abuse. And in two cases, Shane conducted successful mediations 

between highly acrimonious parties. 


sponsorshIp oF pro Bono graduaTe Fellows 

continued 

Chicago Office Sponsored Four PILI Fellows 

Sidley’s Chicago office sponsors graduate fellows in partnership with the Public Interest Law Initiative (PILI). Since its inception, PILI 

has created educational and meaningful public interest law experiences for law students and lawyers at nonprofit organizations that 

provide legal services to low-income people. The PILI Fellowship Program offers opportunities to those new associates who have accepted 

employment with a Chicago firm that participates in PILI’s Fellowship program. 

Barbara Barreno was a PILI Fellow at the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC), where she worked with NIJC’s 

Immigrant Legal Defense and Asylum Projects. Barbara prepared U visa applications and drafted letters requesting 

prosecutorial discretion to the Department of Homeland Security. In addition, she conducted client intakes and 

met with Spanish-speaking clients to discuss their cases. Barbara also prepared applications for employment 

authorization, drafted affidavits for applications for immigration relief, and prepared a client for an interview with 

an asylum officer at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. She currently serves on PILI’s Board of Directors as a 

Class of 2011 Fellows Representative. 

Donovan Borvan served as a PILI Fellow at the International Human Rights Law Institute at DePaul University Law 

School. During his fellowship, Donovan researched human rights violations in Egypt and Jordan and the historical 

development of human rights protections in American constitutional law, and participated in the early development 

of an educational program for attorneys in Vietnam. He also drafted articles on women’s rights in Jordan and 

bankruptcy protection as a human right. 

Catherine Starks served as a PILI Fellow with Health & Disability Advocates, a nonprofit organization that promotes 

healthcare access and services for children, people with disabilities and low-income adults. During her Fellowship, 

Catherine concentrated her efforts with the Chicago Medical Legal Partnership for Children, which partners attorneys 

with local hospitals and pediatric medical clinics to provide legal services to low-income families. She researched 

special education policies, drafted various position papers and worked with local school districts to improve access 

to education for children with special needs. 

Raj Sultanian was a PILI Fellow at Illinois Legal Aid Online (ILAO). ILAO’s mission is to use technology to 

improve access to legal resources. Raj spent the summer creating and editing a wide range of legal content on 

illinoislegalaid.org, a website designed to help pro se litigants who otherwise would not have access to free legal 

aid, and illinoislegaladvocate.org, a website designed to help pro bono attorneys find clients in need and the 

legal information required to represent them. He also helped develop an organizational framework for authorship, 

versioning, access and control of third party content hosted through ILAO. He ended his summer helping with the 

creation and launch of ILAO Mobile, a first-of-its-kind suite of mobile applications that allows users to quickly 

access ILAO’s content through any smartphone or tablet device. Raj currently serves as a founding member and 

Outreach Chair of ILAO’s Young Professionals Board. 

Los Angeles Sponsored One Pro Bono Graduate Fellow 

Francis Lam completed his six-week Pro Bono Fellowship at Lambda Legal’s Los Angeles office. Lambda Legal 

is the nation’s oldest and largest legal organization dedicated to safeguarding and advancing the civil rights of 

lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgendered people, and those with HIV through impact litigation, education and 

policy work. While at Lambda Legal, Francis worked on issues involving marriage equality, anti-discrimination 

laws, and domestic partnership benefits. Francis assisted with drafting appellate briefs to the Ninth Circuit Court 

of Appeals, counseled clients on their constitutional rights and helped assess the viability of conducting impact 

litigation. 

30 • Sidley Austin LLP • 2011 Pro Bono and Community Service Report

Washington, D.C. Office Sponsored Six DC Bar Pro Bono Graduate Fellows 

Sidley’s Washington office helped found the D.C. Bar Pro Bono Graduate Fellowship Program, which offers recent law school graduates an 

opportunity to spend the summer immediately following law school graduation or the period immediately following judicial clerkships 

doing legal work for local public interest agencies. Since 2002, 46 incoming Sidley associates have served as Graduate Fellows at 25 

different nonprofit organizations in the D.C. area. 

Rishi Chhatwal was a Fellow at the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights (CAIR) Coalition. CAIR assists detained 

immigrants charged with deportation in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia by providing orientation on 

their legal rights. Rishi interviewed detainees at several Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities, 

screened cases for potential pro bono placement and appeared as detainee counsel in Immigration Court. As part of 

CAIR’s legal team, he also helped draft motions and briefs in support of asylum, withholding and deferral of removal 

under the United Nations Convention Against Torture. 

Seema Kakad worked in the Trial Division of the Public Defender Service of the District of Columbia where she 

helped represent indigent criminal defendants. Seema worked on a variety of matters, including a felony carjacking 

and attempted murder case involving multiple complainants and multiple incidents, a Fourth Amendment motion 

to suppress and a misdemeanor trial in which the client was found not guilty. She helped interview the clients in all 

of these matters, as well as drafted numerous motions and discovery requests. 

Marc Korman was a Fellow at the National Veterans Legal Services Program, working with the Lawyers Serving 

Warriors Program on a class action suit to ensure that veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan diagnosed with 

post-traumatic stress disorder receive appropriate compensation. Marc also helped set up a program for veterans to 

file for Combat-Related Special Compensation, a program providing monthly compensation to military retirees with 

combat-related disabilities. 

Clay Northouse was a Fellow at the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia. Clay worked with Jack Keeney, 

Director of the Barbara McDowell Appellate Advocacy Project, in writing briefs and motions in the D.C. Court of 

Appeals. The goal of the appellate project is to pursue poverty law reform to protect the rights of low-income 

residents. In particular, he assisted Legal Aid in seeking reimbursement for emergency healthcare services for a 

client who was denied coverage by the District and her insurer under the D.C. Healthcare Alliance program. Clay also 

worked on eviction and foreclosure cases and participated in moot courts in preparation for oral argument before 

the D.C. Court of Appeals. 

Lisa Taylor worked for the AARP Legal Counsel for the Elderly (LCE), providing legal and advocacy services to lowincome 

seniors. Lisa helped LCE create a medical-legal partnership. She interviewed directors of medical-legal 

partnerships around the country and created a report detailing medical-legal partnership best practices for LCE. 

She also contacted and arranged meetings with local hospitals that serve LCE clients to facilitate the formation of a 

partnership with the right local hospital. In addition to her work for the medical-legal partnership, Lisa also worked 

with the home visit program where she helped home-bound seniors with a variety of legal issues. 

Tami Weerasingha-Cote worked as a Fellow at the Domestic Violence Legal Empowerment and Appeals Project, 

an organization dedicated to empowering victims of domestic violence by providing expert representation for 

appeals and offering training and education for lawyers and judges on cutting-edge issues. During her Fellowship, 

Tami researched the feasibility of bringing federal court claims alleging constitutional violations during state court 

custody proceedings involving allegations of child abuse, and developed litigation strategies for overcoming the 

significant procedural obstacles to bringing such cases into federal court. 


2011 pro Bono and puBlIC InTeresT law CommITTee memBers 

CHiCaGo 

richard o’malley, Chicago Chair 312.853.7112 

Frederic artwick 312.853.7529 

susan Bart 312.853.2075 

russell Cass 312.853.2202 

linton Childs 312.853.2211 

michael Clark 312.853.2173 

maja eaton 312.853.7123 

Kevin Fee 312.853.7919 

john gallo 312.853.7494 

david gordon 312.853.7159 

eric grush 312.853.7855 

scott lassar 312.853.7668 

Courtney rosen 312.853.7669 

david siegel 312.853.7246 

melville washburn 312.853.2070 

neil wyland 312.853.7869 

david Zampa 312.853.4573 

Kelly huggins, 312.853.3206 

Capital litigation project and 

political asylum and Immigrants’ rights 

project manager 

emily wexler, 312.853.7074 

Veterans Benefits project manager 

angelyn Chester, 312.853.7871 

pro Bono Coordinator 

daLLaS 

li Chen, dallas Chair 214.981.3385 

HonG KonG 

Charles allen, China Chair 852.2509.7818 


LoS anGeLeS 

Frank Broccolo, los angeles Chair 213.896.6087 

Bradley ellis 213.896.6632 

neW yorK 

james arden, new york Chair 212.839.5889 

maureen Crough 212.839.7323 

martin gold 212.839.5481 

dennis hensley 212.839.5731 

john lavelle 212.839.5396 

henry minnerop 212.839.5555 

Benjamin nagin 212.839.5911 

james o’Connor 212.839.8613 

stephen rutenberg 212.839.5608 

michael sackheim 212.839.5503 

edna Basquill, pro Bono Coordinator 212.839.5529 

San FranCiSCo and PaLo aLto 

michael rugen, san Francisco Chair 415.772.1290 

WaSHinGton, d.C. 

ronald Flagg, national Chair 202.736.8171 

jeffrey green, washington, d.C. Chair 202.736.8291 

lisa Crosby 202.736.8754 

paul hemmersbaugh 202.736.8538 

nathan sheers 202.736.8085 

rebecca Troth, pro Bono Counsel 202.736.8339

world oFFICes 

BeIjIng 

Suite 608, Tower C2 

Oriental Plaza 

No. 1 East Chang An Avenue 

Dong Cheng District 

Beijing 100738 

China 

T: 86.10.5905.5588 

F: 86.10.6505.5360 

Brussels 

NEO Building 

Rue Montoyer 51 Montoyerstraat 

B-1000 Brussels 

Belgium 

T: 32.2.504.6400 

F: 32.2.504.6401 

ChICago 

One South Dearborn 

Chicago, Illinois 60603 

T: 312.853.7000 

F: 312.853.7036 

dallas 

717 North Harwood 

Suite 3400 

Dallas, Texas 75201 

T: 214.981.3300 

F: 214.981.3400 

FranKFurT 

Taunusanlage 1 

60329 

Frankfurt am Main 

Germany 

T: 49.69.22.221.4000 

F: 49.69.22.221.4001 

geneVa 

Rue de Lausanne 139 

Sixth Floor 

1202 Geneva 

Switzerland 

T: 41.22.308.00.00 

F: 41.22.308.00.01 

hong Kong 

Level 39 

Two Int’l Finance Centre 

8 Finance Street 

Central 

Hong Kong 

T: 852.2509.7888 

F: 852.2509.3110 

housTon 

JPMorgan Chase Tower 

600 Travis Street 

Suite 3100 

Houston, Texas 77002 

T: 713.315.9000 

F: 713.315.9199 

london 

Woolgate Exchange 

25 Basinghall Street 

London, EC2V 5HA 

United Kingdom 

T: 44.20.7360.3600 

F: 44.20.7626.7937 

los angeles 

555 West Fifth Street 

Los Angeles, California 90013 

T: 213.896.6000 

F: 213.896.6600 

new yorK 

787 Seventh Avenue 

New York, New York 10019 

T: 212.839.5300 

F: 212.839.5599 

palo alTo 

1001 Page Mill Road 

Building 1 

Palo Alto, California 94304 

T: 650.565.7000 

F: 650.565.7100 

san FranCIsCo 

555 California Street 

San Francisco, California 94104 

T: 415.772.1200 

F: 415.772.7400 

shanghaI 

Suite 1901 

Shui On Plaza 

333 Middle Huai Hai Road 

Shanghai 200021 

China 

T: 86.21.2322.9322 

F: 86.21.5306.8966 

sIngapore 

6 Battery Road 

Suite 40-01 

Singapore 049909 

T: 65.6230.3900 

F: 65.6230.3939 

sydney 

Level 10, 

7 Macquarie Place 

Sydney NSW 2000 

Australia 

T: 61.2.8214.2200 

F: 61.2.8214.2211 

ToKyo 

Sidley Austin Nishikawa 

Foreign Law Joint Enterprise 

Marunouchi Building 23F 

4-1, Marunouchi 2-chome 

Chiyoda-Ku, Tokyo 100-6323 

Japan 

T: 81.3.3218.5900 

F: 81.3.3218.5922 

washIngTon, d.C. 

1501 K Street N.W. 

Washington, D.C. 20005 

T: 202.736.8000 

F: 202.736.8711 

www.sidley.com 03/2012 

Sidley Austin LLP, a Delaware limited liability partnership which operates at the firm’s offices other than Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Palo Alto, Dallas, London, Hong Kong, 

Houston, Singapore and Sydney, is affiliated with other partnerships, including Sidley Austin LLP, an Illinois limited liability partnership (Chicago); Sidley Austin (NY) LLP, a Delaware limited liability 

partnership (New York); Sidley Austin (CA) LLP, a Delaware limited liability partnership (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Palo Alto); Sidley Austin (TX) LLP, a Delaware limited liability partnership (Dallas, 

Houston); Sidley Austin LLP, a separate Delaware limited liability partnership (London); Sidley Austin LLP, a separate Delaware limited liability partnership (Singapore); Sidley Austin, a New York 

general partnership (Hong Kong); Sidley Austin, a Delaware general partnership of registered foreign lawyers restricted to practicing foreign law (Sydney); and Sidley Austin Nishikawa Foreign Law 

Joint Enterprise (Tokyo). The affiliated partnerships are referred to herein collectively as Sidley Austin, Sidley, or the firm. 

Attorney Advertising. For purposes of compliance with New York State Bar rules, Sidley Austin LLP’s headquarters are 787 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10019, 212.839.5300 and One South 

Dearborn, Chicago, IL 60603, 312.853.7000. 

Prior results described herein do not guarantee a similar outcome.

www.sidley.com 

www.sidley.com

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