Pro Bono

Ropes & Gray lawyers have fashioned careers at the firm that have enabled them to do top-notch work for top-tier clients while at the same time participating meaningfully in a wide array of pro bono activities. This public service tradition at Ropes & Gray is rooted in the example set by the founders of the firm nearly a century and a half ago. In 1865, John Codman Ropes and John Chipman Gray joined together to form the law practice that is today Ropes & Gray. Each brought to the newly-formed firm both legal skills of the highest order and a commitment to use his skills to address not only the needs of the firm’s clients, but also matters of public concern. The public service commitment of the firm’s founders has remained a hallmark of Ropes & Gray and its lawyers ever since. As can be seen from the current pro bono matters highlighted below, client service and public service continue to go hand in hand at Ropes & Gray, just as they have since 1865.

Ropes & Gray’s commitment to pro bono work is facilitated by an active Pro Bono Committee, chaired by litigation partner, Ana Francisco, which identifies and considers prospective initiatives, and by a Pro Bono Manager and her staff who administer and foster the firm’s pro bono program. In 2006 and 2007, the attorneys, summer associates and paralegals of Ropes & Gray dedicated over 70,000 hours to pro bono clients, ranging from transactional work for nonprofits to cases for individuals referred to us by not-for-profit legal service providers.

Ropes & Gray encourages our lawyers and staff to engage in pro bono work. We do not distinguish between pro bono clients and paying clients in terms of the quality of legal services provided or for purposes of associate reviews and compensation. By giving our associates as much credit for time spent on pro bono matters as for time spent representing the firm’s paying clients, we ensure our pro bono clients receive the same high level of service that is Ropes & Gray’s hallmark.

Ropes & Gray’s pro bono activities are too extensive to address comprehensively on this Web site. Below are some examples of our pro bono work to provide a flavor of the depth and breadth of the firm’s pro bono program. To learn more about the firm’s pro bono work, please check out the Pro Bono Annual Report 2006.

Political Asylum/Immigration Representation (“PAIR”) Project
Since 1994, Ropes & Gray attorneys, each under the supervision of a partner, have represented indigent PAIR clients seeking political asylum in the United States. The firm and its lawyers have received several awards from PAIR in recognition of the significant contribution to its goals of providing legal representation to those fleeing persecution. Most recently, the firm received the 2007 PAIR Outstanding Service Award, and one of our associates was selected for the 2006 PAIR Pro Bono Mentor Award for her exceptional work as a mentor to all Ropes & Gray attorneys representing PAIR clients. This past year, the firm committed over 5,000 hours to 67 indigent asylees.

Massachusetts Legal Clinic for the Homeless (MLCH)
Under the auspices of the Lawyers Clearinghouse on Affordable Housing and Homelessness, a team of Ropes & Gray lawyers and paralegals conducts half-day legal clinics for the disadvantaged twice a year at area homeless shelters. At these clinics, our lawyers meet with indigent individuals to select those matters in which we can be of assistance. We have represented many homeless individuals on a variety of matters, including obtaining Social Security benefits, obtaining public housing assistance, appealing evictions, negotiating criminal surrenders, and settling disputes with creditors, taxing authorities, employers and landlords.

Suffolk Probate Court — Lawyer for the Day Program
Our lawyers serve as the “Lawyer for the Day” at the Suffolk County Probate and Family Court and provide indigent individuals with legal advice concerning any matter they have pending (or wish to initiate) in that court. The matters range from child custody, to paternity testing and divorce, to guardianships, probating wills and more traditional probate matters.

Boston Housing Court — Attorney for a Day Program and the Trial Attorney Project
Each Thursday (summary process day), for four months of the year, attorneys from various practice groups within the firm serve as the "Attorney for a Day" in Boston Housing Court providing legal advice to pro se indigent parties with matters pending before the court. Lawyers have advised on eviction proceedings and claims for compensation for uninhabitable dwellings.

Through this advice-only clinic, the Volunteer Lawyers Project, working with the housing court judiciary, created the Trial Attorney Project to allow these pro se parties to benefit from the counsel of volunteer attorneys inside the courtroom as well. Through the Trial Attorney Project, volunteer attorneys provide representation at jury-waived or jury summary process trials. Ropes & Gray participated in the program as the pilot firm in January 2007.

New York City Bankruptcy Assistance Project
In 2005, with support from the Bankruptcy and Business Restructuring (Bankruptcy) Department, the firm agreed to be a sponsor of the New York City Bankruptcy Assistance Project (NYC BAP). NYC BAP was created at the initiative of the Public Service Committee of the Federal Bar Council to assist indigent pro se debtors, primarily in filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy petitions in the bankruptcy courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York. These debtors are low income — 200% of the poverty level — and genuinely benefit from a bankruptcy. As NYC BAP participants, our attorneys are given the opportunity to save New York’s most vulnerable residents from wage garnishments, property seizures, and foreclosures. Attorneys in both our Boston and New York offices work on these matters.

The Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia
The Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia was formed in 1932 to provide civil legal aid to individuals, families and communities in the District who could not otherwise afford to hire a lawyer. Through this organization, Ropes & Gray attorneys have been able to assist indigent individuals with housing issues, social security claims, and pro se divorces.

The Legal Aid Society of San Mateo and The Law Foundation of Silicon Valley
Both the Legal Aid Society and the Law Foundation focus their efforts on helping disadvantaged people improve their lives through equal access to justice. Working with these agencies, the firm has assisted in guardianship matters and with restraining orders in domestic violence situations.

Human Rights First (HRF)
HRF is an international human rights organization based in both New York and Washington, D.C. Lawyers in both our New York and DC offices have represented asylum seekers represented by the agency. Attorneys in the New York office successfully represented a young woman from Guinea who fled her home. She was persecuted for refusing to submit to a forced marriage and was also a victim of female genital mutilation.

In 2008, lawyers in our DC office began work on a new matter for a transgender client from Peru. In his home country, he faced routine harassment from police and was attacked by gangs.

Death Penalty Cases
Ropes & Gray has two pending death penalty cases. By helping these clients utilize the various avenues of relief available to them to appeal and, if successful, undo their death sentences, Ropes & Gray joins other firms that seek to ensure that those on death row have received adequate representation.

Pinochet Matters
Ropes & Gray’s representation of victims of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s regime began with our participation in efforts to obtain an indictment against General Pinochet for the murders of Orlando Letelier and Ronnie Kapen Moffitt in the 1976 Embassy Row bombing in Washington, D.C. Since then, attorneys have worked closely with Fundación Presidente Allende, a Spanish foundation established to aid victims of the Pinochet regime.

Recently, acting on a U.S. Senate report suggesting that Riggs Bank had assisted Pinochet to conceal millions of dollars in violation of a 1998 asset-freeze order issued by a Spanish court, we filed a lawsuit against the bank to ensure that the victims could recover civil damages. We reached a historic settlement with Riggs Bank to resolve the case, recovering $9 million, an amount equal to General Pinochet’s funds on deposit at the time of the Spanish court’s freeze order, for victims of murder, torture, and kidnapping.

The firm is currently assisting Fundación Presidente Allende and Victor Pey Casado with an arbitration matter related to the Pinochet government’s seizure of Sr. Pey’s newspaper.

The Carter Center
In April 2007, the Ministry of Mines (the "Ministry") of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (the "DRC") created an Interministerial Commission for the Revisitation of Mining Contracts (the "Commission") to review contracts governing investments in the DRC's mining sector.

The Ministry requested that the Carter Center, a human rights organization founded by former President Carter and his wife Rosalynn, follow the contract review process. The Carter Center, in turn, requested the assistance of the International Senior Lawyers Project ("ISLP) and the ISLP contacted John Reboul. With the assistance of a team of attorneys, John analyzed five of the most important contracts and prepared a memorandum to the Minister of Mines (in English and French translations) commenting in detail on the contracts and concluding that the contracts were some of the most one-sided agreements he had seen in 30 years of practice. The issues of concern included unreasonable internal rates of return, undervaluation of the contribution of assets by DRC governmental agencies, constraints on government regulation, unreasonable transfer pricing determinations, curtailment of reasonable corporate governance, and weak investor performance obligations.

The Commission presented its report and recommendations to the DRC government in November 2007. Based on the Commission's report, previous analyses of the agreements, as well as analyses prepared by the Ropes & Gray team and Columbia University, the DRC government has determined that certain terms of many of these agreements should be renegotiated, and that there may be grounds for termination of a number of the agreements. The DRC government has formed a ministerial-level task force to guide "Phase II" of the contract review process (the "Task Force"). Columbia University volunteers and Ropes & Gray have been working with the Ministry, including, face-to-face meetings in Kinshasa, to articulate possible strategies for implementing DRC government policy in relation to the mining contracts, and executing Phase II of the contact review process. This work has culminated in the Ministry's presentation of a proposed "options paper" to the Task Force.

United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
Ropes & Gray has represented a number of criminal defendants in their appeals before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. We are proud of our ongoing commitment to clients with so much at stake, and are dedicated to ensuring the protections guaranteed under our justice system. The following cases are typical of many such representations.

United States v. Kevin Jefferson
In a case that is expected to guide procedures for dismissing jurors during deliberations in federal criminal cases, Ropes & Gray attorneys won reversal of Kevin Jefferson’s conviction for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.

The appeal focused on the critical issue of whether, during jury deliberations, the district court had dismissed a lone holdout juror improperly after the juror indicated that he did not believe the government’s evidence. Ultimately, the juror requested and received a dismissal, citing work-related scheduling problems which the court did not examine fully. On appeal, we argued that the juror’s dismissal violated Mr. Jefferson’s Sixth Amendment right to a conviction by a unanimous jury, and that the district court abused its discretion in dismissing the juror for “good cause.”

The Court of Appeals agreed with our arguments, vacating the conviction and remanding the case for a new trial. To safeguard defendants’ Sixth Amendment right to unanimous verdicts in future cases, the Court of Appeals also provided guidelines that should be considered when a juror requests dismissal for reasons unrelated to their views of the evidence.

United States v. LaTanya Andrews
We represent LaTanya Andrews in the appeal of her conviction on conspiracy and bribery charges. Ms. Andrews was indicted for allegedly accepting a bribe to place a forged beneficiary form in the personnel file of a colleague at the VA Hospital so as to allow one of Andrews’ friends to collect on a life insurance policy. On appeal, several issues were raised, including whether Andrews’ sentence violated the ex post facto clause. Ryan Malone argued the case before the D.C. Circuit, and we await a decision.

Open Society Justice Institute (OSJI)
Attorneys in our DC and New York offices have been assisting the Open Society Justice Initiative on an important project involving assessment of different approaches to access to judicial information applied within the US and abroad, and developing a set of recommendations for “best practices.” OSJI is a program of the Open Society Institute that promotes law reform initiatives around the world relating to human rights and transparency. In 2006, OSJI published an influential study on Transparency & Silence, assessing how fourteen countries fared in providing information to the public. The goal of the current project is to produce a similar report with recommendations on how countries should better provide the public with information on and from the judiciary. In addition to this ongoing project, teams of attorneys from various Ropes & Gray offices prepared two amici briefs in 2007, relating to the public's access to information in Chile and Peru.

Artists for Humanity
Artists for Humanity (AFH) provides Boston public high school students with an after-school and summer art, design and entrepreneurial program that allows them to discover and develop their own expressive ideas and to apply them in a work-like environment that encourages responsibility, teamwork and resourcefulness. The AFH kids produce art and design projects ranging from t-shirts and holiday cards to expansive murals at Fenway Park. They have the opportunity to exhibit their own work, and share in the proceeds of sales, as well as earn an hourly wage for their individual and group efforts.

We have represented AFH since shortly after its inception in the early 1990s. We have assisted AFH with a variety of issues ranging from art law to labor and employment to charitable organization tax law to construction contracting, financing and litigation.

Ropes & Gray also helped AFH to acquire, permit, construct and finance the EpiCenter, AFH’s new $6 million home in the South Boston artists district. The EpiCenter is a studio, exhibition and performance space housed in a technologically advanced “green design” building, featuring environmentally sensitive design, photovoltaic roof arrays and recycled materials. The performance space has become a favorite of event planners, providing AFH with an important additional revenue stream.

Nonprofit Assistance
Ropes & Gray regularly represents not-for-profit organizations in a variety of pro bono matters, including gaining tax-exempt status, acquiring property, and defending against lawsuits. The following are some highlights of what we have accomplished for these worthwhile organizations.

Psychoanalytic Couple and Family Institute
We represent Psychoanalytic Couple and Family Institute of New England (PCFINE) on health care regulatory matters, risk management, corporate governance, charitable fundraising laws, and other matters. PCFINE was established in 1993 to train licensed clinicians in psychoanalytic couples and family therapy, to offer professional consultation to community-based agencies, and to sponsor public outreach and education programs. Our recent work has focused on a project to provide free counseling services to the families of deployed troops in the Army Reserve and National Guard, called SOFAR — Strategic Outreach to Families of All Reservists. This project has received wide positive press coverage, including from The Boston Globe, O, The Oprah Magazine, and NPR, and is beginning to expand across the country.

Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)
ACORN is a non-profit organization empowering low-income communities through involvement in local government. Ropes & Gray helped clear the organization of charges of campaign finance improprieties in Maryland.

In addition, the firm has been active in voting rights matters through the organization. One recent case involved preparing an amicus brief to the US Supreme Court on behalf of ACORN concerning the constitutionality of photo ID requirements for all voters. Our attorneys prepared a “Brandeis brief” recounting ACORN’s experiences both with official harassment intended to suppress voter registration, and with the challenges of registering low-income voters and bringing them into the political system.

Another recent voting matter involved arguing that two Georgia rules restraining third-party voter registration by private groups violated the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 and the First Amendment. In a precedent setting ruling, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia agreed that the rules violated the First Amendment.

Homeless Empowerment Project, Inc. (HEP)
We continued, as we have for over fifteen years, our representation of HEP, which publishes Spare Change News, a newspaper aimed at increasing awareness of the homeless and related social issues. In 2007, we represented the organization in its combination with What’s Up Magazine, another Boston-based street publication.

Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project (NEDAP)
We advise NEDAP in protecting its copyrights as they relate to an educational program that provides lower-income individuals with basic money-management and other economic skills. In 2006, attorneys on the client team were honored by NEDAP at the organization’s 10th anniversary celebration.

Not-for-Profit Incorporation and Tax Matters
The firm’s corporate and tax attorneys have helped numerous not-for-profit groups form legal entities and address associated tax matters. These include:

The Potentia Foundation, Inc.
In the fight against poverty, Ropes & Gray attorneys helped to incorporate and gain tax-exempt status for The Potentia Foundation, Inc. (Potentia). Potentia works with American high school students to raise money to educate girls in the poor nations. By keeping girls in school in the developing world, Potentia hopes to improve their lives, their communities and the well-being of their nations. Potentia supplies students with the ideas and tools to leverage their emerging entrepreneurial talents into philanthropy by working with individuals, schools and other organizations. It encourages teenagers to learn about global issues and fiscal responsibility. By becoming a tax-exempt corporation, Potentia will be able to increase charitable contributions from supporters and reach more girls in need.

Fine By Me, Inc.
This group was started in 2003 by Duke University students to combat the school’s homophobic reputation and to encourage tolerance towards the gay and lesbian community through a disarmingly simple strategy: printing and distributing t-shirts that read “gay? fine by me.” As the group sought to transition to a national organization, Ropes & Gray attorneys assisted with its incorporation in New York and attainment of tax-exempt status.

East Greenbush Miracle League, Inc.
The East Greenbush Miracle League, Inc., provides opportunities for mentally and physically challenged individuals to play basketball, baseball, soccer, bowling — even football. Ropes & Gray assisted the group with its incorporation as a nonprofit, reviews grant proposals, and provides advice regarding ongoing corporate matters.

MitoAction (Mitochondrial Disease Action Committee)
MitoAction is dedicated to providing support to, and advocating for, individuals afflicted with mitochondrial disease, a chronic, progressive disorder that affects the neuromuscular system and can lead to organ failure. Ropes & Gray assisted MitoAction with its formation in 2005, and has continued to help the organization develop and implement its projects, including but not limited to a joint venture to operate a support hotline for patients and their families, publication of targeted children’s books for patients and a medical reference for clinicians, and various fundraising initiatives. Recent projects have included lawyers in Ropes & Gray’s Corporate, Health Care, Intellectual Property and Tax departments.

Fund for Public Health in New York, Inc.
The Fund for Public Health in New York, Inc. (FPHNY) facilitates the provision of health and mental hygiene services to the residents of the City of New York. For many years, FPHNY operated under the auspices of the New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. We advised FPHNY in its transition to a wholly independent entity. Our lawyers incorporated FPHNY as a New York not-for-profit corporation and subsequently obtained tax-exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service. We continue to advise FPHNY on tax filings, contract and other corporate matters, regulatory requirements, insurance needs, and employment and employee benefit matters.

The District Attorney’s Office Assistant DA Program
Ropes & Gray sends a litigation associate to Middlesex County and to Kings County every six months, for a six-month term, to work as a full-time assistant district attorney.

Walk to the Hill
In 2008, the Boston Bar Association and the Massachusetts Bar Association again sponsored the “Walk to the Hill for Legal Aid.” The goal of the Walk is to bring hundreds of private attorneys to Beacon Hill to talk to their legislators about the importance of increasing funding for civil legal aid programs. Legal aid is a last resort for low-income people with critical legal needs, and domestic violence victims fighting for custody of their children, families facing homelessness, elder victims of second mortgage scams and individuals unfairly denied health care benefits all rely on legal aid for advice and assistance.

The shortage of funding for legal aid also plays a part in the increasing pro se problem in the courts. As private practitioners, we are witnesses to the effect that this shortage has on the court system as well as on low-income individuals. In 2008, more than 600 attorneys, including 28 Ropes & Gray attorneys, participated in the Walk. It was critically important that the private bar make a strong showing to ask Massachusetts legislators to expand funding to better meet the critical, long documented need for civil legal services.

Honors and Awards
In March 2003, the firm announced the creation of the Deborah Levi Award for Outstanding Pro Bono Service to honor Ropes & Gray attorney Deb Levi, who lost her long and hard-fought battle with cancer in August 2002. Among her many contributions to Ropes & Gray, Deb worked tirelessly and devotedly on pro bono and public service projects large and small. Each year the memorial award is given to one or more lawyers for their outstanding pro bono or public service efforts on behalf of the firm.

Ropes & Gray’s dedication to pro bono work has also been recognized by organizations with which we partner on pro bono matters. Below you will find additional information on that recognition.

Most recently, the firm received the 2007 PAIR Outstanding Service Award for our work with asylum seekers and the 2007 Pro Bono Award from the Women’s Bar Foundation Family Law Project for Battered Women for our work on those family law cases. Also in 2007, the New York City Bankruptcy Assistance Project recognized the contributions of three lawyers, including the co-head of the firm’s Bankruptcy Department; inMotion presented three attorneys with its Commitment to Justice Award for Outstanding Legal Team; and two associates in New York were honored by the Louisiana Supreme Court and Louisiana State Bar Association for their work in New Orleans after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

In 2006, three of our attorneys were honored by NEDAP at the organization’s 10th anniversary celebration for their contributions, and one of our associates was selected for the 2006 PAIR Pro Bono Mentor Award for her exceptional work as a mentor to all Ropes & Gray attorneys representing PAIR clients. Also in 2006, pro bono client, Psychoanalytic Couple and Family Institute of New England was featured with pro bono counsel in the July/August 2006 issue of Corporate Board Member magazine.