Pro Bono & the Community

Pro Bono Brochure

Each person chooses his or her own pro bono path.  What cause do you want to support?  What new skills do you want to gain?  What injustice do you want to prevent?  At Sheppard Mullin, we encourage and support our attorneys in committing their skills to help pro bono clients to improve our nation and the communities in which we live and work.  Sheppard Mullin attorneys have compiled an admirable record in provision of community service and delivery of legal services to those in need.

Sheppard Mullin attorneys contribute to the community in many different ways.  Here is a sampling of the pro bono work our attorneys have done:

• In March 2007, Phil Atkins-Pattenson, a partner in our San Francisco office and member of the Business Trials Practice Group, was one of 43 lawyers honored with a California Lawyer Magazine Attorney of the Year Award (CLAY) for achievements in 2006.  His CLAY award was in recognition of his 16 years of pro bono work for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) as lead counsel in the federal case NRDC v. Rodgers, which challenged the Bureau of Reclamation's operation of Friant Dam on the San Joaquin River to divert virtually the entire flow for irrigation.  In 2004, the Federal Court granted plaintiffs summary judgment on their claim that drying up 60 miles of California's second longest river, and destroying its historic salmon runs, violated both federal and state law.  That ruling prompted the defendants to engage in settlement discussions (where he was one of the lead negotiators for plaintiffs) which, after 12 months, resulted in a comprehensive plan to make the San Joaquin River once again a living river and to restore Chinook salmon.  The Secretary of the Interior described the settlement, approved by the Federal Court on October 23, 2006, as "historic" and one of the largest river restoration projects in the West.
• In 2005, Phil Atkins-Pattenson, representing NRDC again as an intervener in litigation over water supply contracts, won a unanimous decision from the U.S. Supreme Court (holding that the United States had not waived sovereign immunity as to the plaintiffs) (Orff, et al. v. United States; No. 03-1566). 
• Lisa Lewis of the New York Office was honored by the Legal Aid Society as one of the recipients of the Society's 2005 Pro Bono Awards for outstanding service to its low income clients.
• San Diego attorney Karin Dougan Vogel received the 2006 Lawyer's Club Community Service award for her pro bono work on the Women's Resource Fair.
• Greg Long was awarded the Pro Bono Civil Liberties Award by the American Civil Liberties Union in April 1999 for representing of a death row inmate.
• Sheppard Mullin is one of several firms partnering with the Washington, D.C. based non-profit, Appleseed, on its recently launched Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Response Collaborative Project.  Through interviews with community, government, and legal service agencies serving evacuees, Appleseed and its partners are documenting the status of Katrina evacuees in New Orleans and key destination cities to create a report of best practices and barriers and then drawing on this information, to recommend policy reform. 
• A team of Sheppard Mullin attorneys represented pro bono client The Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) concerning a funding agreement with the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, a lease with the building owner, a construction contract, and various organizational and employment matters.
• A former Orange County partner, Andy Guilford, recently appointed to the Federal bench by President Bush, and a number of associates in the Orange County office expended thousands of hours representing an indigent domestic violence victim in Perry v. Cantarella.  In 2005, Andy was also President of the Public Law Center, the leading pro bono service agency in Orange County, California and President of the California State Bar.   
• Los Angeles associate Olivier Theard helped a Nigerian client obtain asylum in the United States based on domestic violence, which is not a traditionally recognized basis for asylum, in a case that required 18 months for resolution.
• New York Partner Ed Tillinghast and associates Eric O’Connor and Karen Bhatia are part of a team representing a Florida death-row inmate in his death-penalty appeal.  The case has spawned four opinions from the Florida Supreme Court and one from the Supreme Court of the United States, the latter of which was argued by Ed Tillinghast.
• Jim McGuire and a number of associates are representing Ambassador Muhamed Sacirbey, former Ambassador to the United Nations and former Foreign Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in an extradition proceeding initiated by the Bosnian Government.  Sheppard Mullin joined his defense to file on his behalf a petition for habeas corpus, raising novel legal issues.  If ultimately successful, this case could set new legal precedent as extradition law is applied to U.S. citizens. 
• Sheppard Mullin attorneys in New York have had the opportunity to represent low-income artists in a variety of cases referred through Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts.  With VLA, attorneys, after participating in a short training program, can also advise artists at VLA’s weekly legal clinic.
• Sheppard Mullin New York attorneys are active in Inwood House's teen pregnancy prevention and educational programs as well as Inwood House's Corporate Advisory Board. 
• Sheppard Mullin attorneys in Los Angeles have the opportunity to work with Public Counsel's Adoption Project.  Attorneys advocate for adoption benefits for families, complete and file legal papers and, most importantly, attend Adoption Day and represent the adopting parents in court on a life-changing day!

Each year, Sheppard Mullin recognizes a Pro Bono Attorney of the Year for his or her dedication to the community.  At a reception held in his or her honor, the Firm will donate $5,000 to a service agency in the local community in the recipient's name.

Our Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego offices have been recognized as the "pro bono firm of the year" in their respective areas.  The San Diego office has been awarded the Pro Bono Law Firm of the Year award from the San Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program five times in the last fifteen years!

Sheppard Mullin summer associates also have opportunities to help in pro bono projects with our attorneys.  These opportunities include advocating on behalf of the homeless, preparing legal documents for adoptions, and conducting research for the Anti-Defamation League.