Mayer Brown was named to Bloomberg Law’s inaugural “Pro Bono Innovators” special report. The publication highlighted a select group of “legal leaders committed to service across the country and around the globe.”
Mayer Brown was honored for two matters. In September 2021, the firm secured a win in the US District Court for the Southern District of California on behalf of asylum seekers at the United States’ southern border. The court held for the first time that asylum seekers coming to ports of entry have rights under US law and the government cannot deny them those rights by preventing them from physically crossing the border. This decision fundamentally changed the rights of asylum seekers arriving at land ports of entry and will likely affect tens of thousands of asylum seekers’ right to access the US asylum process.
Bloomberg Law also highlighted the firm’s work helping the Asian University for Women (AUW) evacuate almost 150 students from Afghanistan during the US withdrawal in August 2021. Working with the AUW, the firm mobilized a mass effort to ensure the students’ safe passage, and placed the women at universities throughout the US so they could continue their studies. The firm currently leads a coalition of 20 law firms and corporate legal departments that is helping the women apply for asylum.
“In both matters, our teams achieved success for the same reasons that they often do in pro bono matters – creative lawyering, devotion to the case, lots of hard work, cooperative relations with co-counsel and a refusal to give up,” noted Mayer Brown partners Marcia Goodman and Ori Lev.
Read more about matters.
###
