Global Spotlight: Combating Human Trafficking

In recognition of the thousands of men, women and children who fall prey to human trafficking in the U.S. every year, January has been declared Human Trafficking and Slavery Awareness and Prevention Month.  According to the Global Freedom Center:

Modern slavery, or human trafficking, is the reprehensible practice of holding another in compelled service using whatever means necessary, be it physical or psychological. Anywhere between 12 [and] 27 million people are held in slavery around the world today – men, women, and children coerced into bonded labor, forced or sold into prostitution, held in domestic servitude, and enslaved in agricultural fields and factories.

Because anti-trafficking legal resources are severely limited and trafficking victims are rarely in a position to pay for legal assistance, pro bono plays a pivotal role in protecting and empowering trafficking victims and bringing traffickers to justice.  Whether by helping an undocumented victim obtain a T or U nonimmigrant visa, representing survivors in a civil suit against their traffickers, drafting model anti-trafficking laws, or working to expose and redress noncompliance with the federal Trafficking Victim Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA), pro bono lawyers are a force majeure in the U.S. movement to break the chain.

The Human Rights Group at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC* undertakes innovative, complex human trafficking litigation.  In the tragic case of Ramchandra Adhikari v. Daoud & Partners, Cohen Milstein is taking on two corporations – Daoud & Partners (Daoud) and Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) – on behalf of a trafficking survivor and the families of twelve deceased victims.  The complaint alleges that the companies collaborated to increase profits by obtaining cheap labor to work at U.S. military base camps in Iraq.  They trafficked young Nepali men to Iraq under the pretext that the men would be working at a luxury hotel in Jordan or in an American camp in the U.S.  The men were assured that working conditions would be safe and promised $500 per month for their labor.

But, when the men arrived in Jordan, Daoud allegedly confiscated their passports and informed them that they would be transferred to a camp in Iraq.  They traveled by caravan along the dangerous Amman-to-Baghdad highway without any security.  En route, the Ansar al-Sunna Army, Iraqi insurgents, abducted twelve of the men.  Their captors sent a video of the Nepali men to the Foreign Ministry of Nepal.  In the video, the men state:  “We were kept as captives in Jordan at first . . . were not allowed to return home . . . and were forced to go to Iraq.”  The insurgents killed all twelve men.

One man, Buddi Prasad Gurung, made it to the U.S. base in Iraq.  However, when he learned about the deaths of the other twelve, Gurung became frightened and asked to go home.  Daoud and KBR allegedly informed him that he would not be permitted to depart until his work was finished.  They held Gurung against his will for 15 months before they allowed him to leave.

The Nepali plaintiffs are suing Daoud and KBR under the TVPRA, Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, Alien Tort Statute, and negligence theories.  Last month, Cohen Milstein overcame a significant jurisdictional hurtle in this novel case when it presented sufficient evidence to persuade a U.S. court to assume jurisdiction over the foreign defendant, Daoud, in this transnational matter.  The Court held that Daoud has sufficient contacts with the U.S. to warrant general jurisdiction.  Cohen Milstein attorney Molly McOwen told The PBEye:

This is one of the first cases under the TVPRA against a corporation, and certainly the first of its kind involving the trafficking of individuals to a U.S. military base.  Since the Court announced last month that it has personal jurisdiction over Daoud & Partners, we are now preparing to take this case to trial against both defendants.

Amidst a flurry of international media attention generated by the Daoud case, Jordan has adopted an anti-human-trafficking law.

The Daoud case isn’t Cohen Milstein’s first foray into anti-trafficking pro bono.  The firm undertook groundbreaking litigation representing survivors of the system of sexual slavery instituted by the Government of Japan in the territories it conquered during World War II.  Of the estimated 200,000 victims – euphemistically known as “comfort women” though some were as young as 10 years old – only a few thousand survived the repeated rape and beatings.  Many more perished.  Cohen Milstein sued Japan in the U.S. District Court on behalf of the survivors and the case went all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court.  While the judicial efforts did not prove fruitful, Cohen Milstein’s lawsuit heightened the visibility of the plight of “comfort women” and the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution calling for a formal apology from the Japanese Government.

“For the client,” says McOwen, “it’s about the principle and recognition of what happened.  Our obligation is to give them the best legal representation available.  We offer them a chance to stand up to the largest corporate defendants who have the resources to hire top-notch legal counsel.  This work attracts good lawyers to the firm and gives us a sense of purpose and satisfaction.”

Drop us a comment, below, and tell us how your law firm or legal department combats human trafficking through pro bono.

* denotes a Signatory to the Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge^® 

Hat tip to PBI Legal Intern Ashley Binetti for her help with this post.

CPBO Spotlight On: Nationwide

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company** adopted a formal pro bono program in 2007.  Members of the legal department gathered to discuss opportunities, potential obstacles, and how the program should be structured and then presented a proposal to Executive Vice President and Chief Legal and Governance Officer Pat Hatler. 

Pat Hatler, Executive Vice President and Chief Legal and Governance Officer

She embraced the team’s ideas and recommendations, and the legal department kicked off its pro bono program by co-hosting a Clinic in a Box^SM program with CPBO.  The clinic brought together nearly 40 lawyers, paralegals, and administrative staff to provide legal assistance to central Ohio nonprofit organizations.  The success of the clinic provided a sound foundation upon which Nationwide’s pro bono programs are built.

Mediation Programs
In late 2007, Nationwide’s Pro Bono Committee partnered with Franklin County Municipal Court’s Mediation Program to participate in the program’s evening civil mediation service.  The program’s director conducted a two-day onsite mediation training for 20 members of the Nationwide legal department. Since the initial training, 40 additional volunteers have undergone mediation training, and a new class of 20 volunteers will undergo mediation training later this year. Nationwide’s involvement has grown to include not only the evening civil mediation program, but also a daytime landlord-tenant mediation program, and an evening criminal mediation program run through the city prosecutor’s office.

Associates in Nationwide’s Des Moines, Iowa, office also volunteer with mediation programs.  Volunteers serve as mediators for the Iowa Civil Rights Commission, where Nationwide attorneys facilitate resolutions between employees and employers. Des Moines legal staff also volunteers with the Polk County Volunteer Lawyers Association mediation programs, which includes a project to keep truant youth in school.

Clinics
In the fall of 2011, Nationwide’s legal department partnered with the Legal Aid Society of Columbus (LASC) and the Paralegal Association of Central Ohio (PACO) to host a CLE program for volunteer attorneys and paralegals.  Volunteers from Nationwide participated in the PACO/LASC Wills Clinic, held monthly at senior centers and retirement homes in central Ohio.  They met with clients and prepared simple wills, living wills, organ donor documents, and financial and health care powers of attorney.

Nationwide attorneys previously partnered with the LASC to staff a clinic to assist pro se defendants in consumer collection cases prepare and file answers and manage simple discovery.  In the summer of 2011, the scope of assistance expanded from staffing a time-limited clinic to include direct and ongoing representation of clients. 

Nationwide’s legal professionals in northeast Ohio and Harrisburg, Pa. regularly participate in brief advice clinics offered through their local legal aid service providers or bar associations.

National Adoption Day
Nationwide attorneys and legal staff partnered with the National Center for Adoption Law and Policy at the Capital University Law School, Franklin County Children’s Services, and the Franklin County Probate Court to staff local National Adoption Days.  Nationwide associates facilitated the uncontested adoption of 42 foster children to their foster parents.  The success of Nationwide’s volunteer efforts re-vitalized the local adoption bar to take a more active role in the local National Adoption Day.

In addition, in the wake of the 2008 floods and tornadoes in Des Moines, Nationwide attorneys staffed Iowa’s Disaster Assistance Legal Hotline and provided much-needed legal advice regarding insurance coverage, claims processes and policyholder rights.  Nationwide also participates in the Street Law Corporate Diversity Pipeline Program at Columbus International High School.

*denotes a Signatory to the Corporate Pro Bono Challenge^SM

Pro Bono Risk Management–Update

In October, in connection with the Maples v. Thomas oral argument in the U.S. Supreme Court, The PBEye offered guidance on risk management and best practices that pro bono lawyers should consider implementing with regards to supervision of pro bono work and the treatment of pro bono matters when the attorney primarily responsible for the matter leaves the law firm or legal department.   During our 2012 Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., we’ll have the chance to explore in greater depth these particular pro bono quality control and risk management issues and steps you can take to address them.

In case you missed it:  Last week, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing for the majority in a 7-to-2 decision, concluded that “no just system” would allow a missed deadline to be held against the inmate, Corey Maples,  because – through no fault of his own – his lawyers missed a filing deadline in the Alabama state court.  Justice Ginsburg’s opinion included a review of Alabama’s capital justice system.  At the time of the Maples trial, court-appointed lawyers in capital cases were paid $40 an hour for time in court and $20 an hour otherwise, with a $1,000 cap on out-of-court work.  “His inexperienced and underfunded attorneys failed to develop and raise an obvious intoxication defense, did not object to several egregious instances of prosecutorial misconduct, and woefully underprepared for the penalty phase of trial.”   Justice Ginsburg was critical of how Alabama handles challenges to convictions.  Nearly unique among the states, Alabama “does not guarantee representation to indigent capital defendants in post-conviction proceedings.”   As The Birmingham News observed this week:

The hodgepodge system increases the chances of an innocent person being convicted and sentenced to death, as well as the likelihood of having to retry cases overturned by appeals courts. It also illustrates the arbitrary, unfair way in which the state puts people to death. A defendant with a strong, experienced legal team often can escape a death sentence, while one with poor representation can be sent to Death Row.

We recently explored other examples reflecting the crisis in indigent defense.  Please join us at our Annual Conference in March to continue our discussions on how we can transform pro bono, justice, and lives.

The Early Bird Catches the Discount

The PBEye is really excited for the 2012 Pro Bono Institute Annual Conference, and we hope you are too!  And with just days left to take advantage of the Early Bird Rate, you won’t want to miss out. This year’s conference has moved to a Wednesday-Friday schedule and created even more unique opportunities for networking and learning. You can earn CLE credits for attending.

And for early birds like you, we are extending the Early Bird deadline to January 31, so to receive the greatest savings, register now!

Curious about what your peers have said about the conference?  Check out the video below to hear from some past attendees.

Canada Embraces Medical-Legal Partnerships

Good legal help is hard to find.  Particularly for the low-income parents of a sick child who pass countless hours in hospital waiting rooms and at their child’s bedside.  Attorney Lee Ann Chapman told The Star:

Having a sick child can bring about a domino effect.  Families sometimes let important, practical issues slide because they’re so focused on their child’s health.  Often they have no idea of their rights and have never had access to legal information.  Sometimes they are quite desperate.

Enter The Hospital For Sick Children (SickKids) and Pro Bono Law Ontario (PBLO), who’ve teamed up to deliver Canada’s first medical-legal partnership, modeled after a U.S. counterpart.  By collocating pro bono lawyers at the hospital, The Family Legal Health Program brings access to justice directly to the families who need it most.

Doctors, nurses, and social workers at SickKids Hospital are trained to identify low-income patients who may require legal assistance with critical issues ranging from disability benefits, taxes, education, evictions, and employment, to immigration.  “These families are so overwhelmed with a sick or terminally ill child,” explains Pro Bono Law Ontario Executive Director Lynn Burns, “that they just don’t have the wherewithal to attend to these problems.  They don’t even know there is a legal remedy available.” 

“That’s the job of our lawyers,” adds PBLO attorney Chapman, “to take the burden from them.”  After only two years in operation, the SickKids/PBLO partnership has already helped more than 1,000 families to access justice.

Julia Morreale received a heart transplant when she was just 8 months old.  After she experienced organ rejection episodes and a rare post-transplant complication, Julia’s doctors at SickKids recommended that she be treated in the U.S., where CTL (Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes or “killer T-cell”) therapy is available.  According to her doctors at SickKids, CTL is Julia’s only hope of survival.  Unfortunately, Ontario’s public health insurance plan (OHIP) deems CTL treatment “experimental” and has consequently declined to cover Julia’s costs.  Each three-week cycle of CTL therapy costs between $60,000 and $80,000 — a price that Julia’s parents, who have three young children, simply cannot afford.

Fortunately, PBLO onsite “triage lawyer” Lee Ann Chapman connected Julia’s family with pro bono attorney Duncan Embury of Torkin Manes, who will argue Julia’s OHIP appeal before the Review Board.  The fifty hours that Chapman has already logged on Julia’s case would have cost the Morreale family $30,000.  “I can’t think of a cause . . . more worthy of our time as lawyers,” said Embury.  SickKids Director of Social Work and Child Life Dr. Ted McNeill couldn’t agree more: “Being able to offer onsite legal guidance to families who might not otherwise have access to lawyers will play a significant role in improving the health and well-being of these children and their families.”

The PBEye is pleased to report that PBLO aims to establish similar programs at Ontario’s three other children’s hospitals.

Drop us a comment and tell us about your pro bono medical-legal partnership!

Is Your Firm Up For a Challenge?

Since 1993, the Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge^®, an initiative of the Pro Bono Institute’s Law Firm Pro Bono Project, has served as a guidepost to assist major law firms in increasing their commitment to pro bono legal services.  The Challenge principles are designed to offer institutional support and maximize the efficacy of law firm pro bono programs.   Challenge Signatories make a substantial commitment to pro bono service, a commitment that is making a real difference in their communities and around the world.  The Challenge definition of pro bono has become an industry standard, utilized not only by major law firms but by the legal media in reporting the pro bono contributions of large firms.

One pioneering aspect of the Challenge is the inclusion of an accountability mechanism and an outcome measurement tool through its annual reporting requirement.  Each year, Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge® Signatories must provide a confidential report to the Law Firm Project on their progress in meeting the Challenge.  The individual law firm data is kept confidential, but the report provides the basis for critically important aggregate statistics about trends in law firm pro bono.   Reporting season for calendar year 2011 is now open.  The deadline for reporting is March 16th.  Please contact Law Firm Pro Bono Project Assistant Christine Sutherland for a Reporting Form.

Has your firm created a supportive environment that promotes pro bono service?    Interested in joining your peer firms and becoming a Challenge Signatory?   New firms, with 50 or more lawyers, are welcome to join the Challenge at any time of the year.   Please contact Christine Sutherland for assistance in becoming a leader in law firm pro bono.

Calling All Good Global Citizens!

On February 7, at 12:00 p.m. EST, CPBO and PBI’s Global Pro Bono Project are bringing you an exciting webinar, “Exploring In-House Global Pro Bono.”  In-house leaders Bruce Ives, vice president and deputy general counsel at Hewlett-Packard Company**; Esteban Mazzucco, legal director for Latin America South at Syngenta; and Michael Sposato, deputy general counsel at Caterpillar Inc.**, will share their experiences and perspectives on doing global pro bono work.  Topics to be tackled by our trio of experts include:

• identifying quality global pro bono partners and projects;
• structuring and managing a global pro bono component;
• leveraging in-house resources by partnering with law firms and NGOs;
• understanding multijurisdictional practice issues;
• identifying and overcoming obstacles in jurisdictions with no history or tradition of pro bono;
• teambuilding and engaging remote offices through collaborative global pro bono projects;
• involving non-lawyer staff in global pro bono;
• enhancing employee recruitment, retention and advancement through global pro bono;
• boosting business and building reputation in emerging markets by advancing democracy and the rule of law through pro bono;
• and, much more!

Whether you’re interested in engaging your offices abroad in pro bono, acquiring unique new legal skills and experiences, traveling to improve the lives of people in a place you’ve only read about, or bringing your legal talent to bear on the world’s most pressing problems without ever leaving your desk, our expert panelists agree that global pro bono opportunities exist for any lawyer, anywhere, with any skill set.

Please join us to discover the power of global pro bono in stimulating and engaging in-house legal professionals while enhancing your company’s existing CSR scheme!  CLE credit is available for this program in many states.  Registration is required to access this program, either live or on-demand as a recording.  To register or to submit questions in advance of the program, please contact CPBO Project Assistant Sarah Neuman.

**denotes a Signatory to the Corporate Pro Bono Challenge^SM

CPBO Spotlight On: Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services, and outsourcing company that makes corporate citizenship a priority. From its Skills to Succeed initiative that aims to equip 250,000 people worldwide with the skills to get a job or build a business, to environmental stewardship to pro bono work and corporate giving, Accenture and its people are working to making a sustainable difference in communities around the world.  With such a serious company commitment to doing social good, it is no wonder that Accenture’s legal department boasts an exceptional pro bono program.  Under the helm of Accenture General Counsel, Secretary & Chief Compliance Officer Julie Sweet, the legal department has undertaken a wide range of pro bono efforts, including innovative global pro bono work.

Teaming with Baker & McKenzie in the U.S.
Teaming with Baker & McKenzie*†, Accenture has helped countless elderly, poor clients at educational clinics run by the Center for Disability and Elder Law in Chicago. The pair has also assisted low-income naturalization applicants referred by the National Immigrant Justice Center with their applications and other related processes.  Finally, Accenture and Baker & McKenzie have provided a comprehensive legal assessment of a Chicago-area nonprofit that works to increase and preserve the supply of decent and affordable housing in Illinois for low- and moderate-income households.

Julie Sweet, General Counsel, Secretary & Chief Compliance Officer, Accenture

Global Pro Bono Efforts

Taking advantage of the company’s global reach, Accenture lawyers find opportunities to do pro bono work across borders.  One of the company’s most impressive pro bono efforts is the project it began several years ago in Nepal with the human rights group PILnet.  The team set out to inform international law and normative practices with regard to discrimination of minority populations and to encourage education and literacy.  

To this end, Accenture hosted a webinar to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas surrounding education and literacy in developing countries.  From this webinar came an initiative to empower women in the workplace in Nepal, deter sexual harassment, advocate equal pay and rights, and protect health and safety.  Accenture and PILnet expanded the team to include Caterpillar Inc.**, Merck & Co., Inc.**, and Baker & McKenzie—a virtually unprecedented and innovative inter-company, cross-border approach to meaningfully impact humanitarian issues.  The resulting program—which united nearly 70 lawyers in 11 countries —was designed to empower women in the workplace in Nepal, where women and girls as young as 10 years old work in “cabin and dance” restaurants in which they are compelled to smoke, drink, and engage in sexual relations with patrons.  Ultimately, the Supreme Court of Nepal issued a decision decrying the practices and directing the enactment of legislation to address the issue.

* denotes a Signatory to the Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge^®
** denotes a Signatory to the Corporate Pro Bono Challenge^SM
† denotes a member of the Law Firm Pro Bono Project

Pro Bono and the Crisis in Indigent Defense

As The PBEye previously reported, many firms devote a great amount of pro bono time and resources to the defense of low-income individuals charged with crimes, often wrongfully.  Inspiring recent examples by our Member firms and Challenge Signatories include:

•  Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP* obtained a new trial for former death row inmate Erksine Johnson when a Tennessee appeals court vacated his 1985 felony murder conviction.  The decision was a result of new evidence discovered by a Cleary team, made up of more than 25 firm lawyers, that over the past 15 years has spent at least 15,000 hours on the case.

• The Virginia Court of Appeals exonerated Hogan Lovells*†  client Thomas Haynesworth of a series of sexual assaults that occurred in 1984, based on newly-discovered DNA and other evidence that proved the crimes were committed by someone else.  Haynesworth served nearly 27 years in prison. This decision marks only the second time that a Virginia court has exonerated someone through a writ of actual innocence based on non-biological evidence.

• Jenner & Block LLP*† client Juan Rivera was released from prison last week after a unanimous, three-judge panel of the Illinois Court for the Second District reversed his first-degree murder conviction.  The appellate court concluded: “After viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, we hold that no rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.”  Jenner & Block devoted more than 12,000 pro bono hours to Mr. Rivera’s trial and appeal.

• On January 10, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Smith v. Cain that New Orleans prosecutors had suppressed favorable evidence in contravention of the defendant’s constitutional rights.  Juan Smith was convicted of killing five people based solely on the eyewitness testimony of a survivor; prosecutors failed to disclose reports of interviews with the eyewitness, who had claimed that he could not describe the intruders and had not even seen their faces.  Williams & Connolly LLP*† represented Mr. Smith before the Supreme Court.

Sharp reductions in state indigent budgets have frayed and betrayed the promise of Gideon.  In addition to individual representation of indigent defendants, how can pro bono lawyers address systemic violations of the right to effective counsel in criminal cases?  Leave us a comment and share your ideas.

* denotes a Signatory to the Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge®
† denotes a Member of the Law Firm Pro Bono Project

Hot Off the Press

PBI is delighted to have again worked with The National Law Journal in its yearly effort to showcase significant and noteworthy pro bono efforts.  Our staff members regularly coordinate with media outlets as part of our commitment to spotlight successful pro bono initiatives.

The January 2 issue of The NLJ recognized a number of Signatories to the Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge^® and Members of the Law Firm Pro Bono Project for their inspiring and impactful pro bono initiatives: Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP*† (reparations for Holocaust survivors); Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP*† (protection against police profiling);  Hogan Lovells*†(justice for a Syrian human rights activist); Jenner & Block LLP*† (redemption for a falsely accused inmate); Kirkland & Ellis LLP*† (aid for charter schools fighting to open their doors);  Morrison & Foerster LLP*† (litigating on behalf of gay soldiers effected by Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell); Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP*† (defending the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, including at the U.S. Supreme Court);  Ropes & Gray LLP† (exoneration for the “West Memphis Three”); and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP*† (litigating violations of the First Amendment’s establishment clause and  the boundaries of the limits of prayer at public school events).

These particular pro bono efforts are deserving of attention and praise for making an impact, being strategic, and tackling underlying legal issues to mitigate systemic problems and effectuate meaningful change.  Indeed, at a time of economic uncertainty, it is especially heartening and notable to see these firms (and many of their peers) making significant commitments of resources to undertake major pro bono matters.  Keep on the lookout for many of these and similar pro bono efforts which will be highlighted in our programs at the 2012 Annual Conference in Washington, D.C.  Please join us at the Conference in March to continue the celebration and dialogue about these and other worthy pro bono endeavors.

* denotes a Signatory to the Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge®
† denotes a Member of the Law Firm Pro Bono Project