MoProBono - Spring 2018 Update

21 MoProBono Spring 2018 PRO BONO HONORS, AWARDS, AND RECOGNITION • The National Law Journal named Morrison & Foerster to its 2018 Pro Bono Hot List, recognizing the firm’s success after a years-long struggle to win information and medical treatment for veterans who were subjected to secret tests of toxins and psychological agents during their service. The award also mentioned the debtors’ prison case covered on p. 4. • Morrison & Foerster received the 2018 Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation Award for excellent service. The Foundation is a clearinghouse for pro bono legal projects that strengthen the global social entrepreneurship movement and improve the lives of the world’s poor and disenfranchised. • The American Lawyer named Morrison & Foerster the winner of its 2017 Global Legal Awards Grand Prize in Citizenship for our work addressing the European refugee crisis. Lawyers in the firm’s Berlin office devoted more than 1,200 hours to refugee assistance in 2016. • The Financial Times named San Francisco partner Derek Foran to its 2017 North America Innovative Lawyers list in the Rule of Law and Access to Justice category, citing his success in holding the Center for Medical Progress, an anti-abortion organization, accountable for harassing and interfering with the constitutional rights of doctors and women. • Justice in Aging gave San Francisco litigator Will Stern and his colleagues an award for their successful class action on behalf of 7,000 people whose disability benefits were denied or cut off after the government fired the doctor who had conducted their medical evaluations. The affected individuals now have the opportunity to prove their continued need for benefits through new medical exams. • San Francisco Energy + Environment lawyer Corinne Quigley received an award for her pro bono legal services to nonprofit affordable housing developer NeighborWorks Home Ownership Center. • Housing Works California presented Morrison & Foerster with its Tom McGuiness Community Leadership Award for our work in Housing Works v. County of Los Angeles , a matter in which the firm, together with several legal services groups, represented people with mental disabilities to secure better access to public benefits for them in Los Angeles County. • Adam Hunt received the New York State Bar Association President’s Pro Bono Service Award for his outstanding pro bono contributions to vulnerable New Yorkers. The award recognizes Adam’s role in several pro bono matters, including impact litigation to reform solitary confinement; rein in unwarranted surveillance of religious and political groups; and increase payments to meet the needs of children in foster care. • Legal Services of the Hudson Valley gave Morrison & Foerster its Access to Justice Award for our litigation advocacy on behalf of special education students in the Mount Vernon, New York school system. • The San Francisco La Raza Lawyers Association honored pro bono counsel Dorothy Fernandez for her years of pro bono contributions to the community.