Ropes & Gray’s Commitment to Pro Bono Work Featured in MA Lawyers Weekly

In The News
December 18, 2023

MA Lawyers Weekly’s Pro Bono Spotlight, profiled the pro bono work of litigation & enforcement partner Kathryn Caldwell and employment partner Greg Demers, two of the many Ropes & Gray attorneys who helped secure a favorable class action settlement on behalf of homeless families in Massachusetts who rely on the state’s Emergency Assistance (EA) Shelter Program.

Since the fall of 2017, the Ropes & Gray pro bono team worked in tandem with Greater Boston Legal Services on this class action litigation, including on case strategy, discovery, and settlement negotiations on behalf of the plaintiffs.  With several motions for discovery filed by the plaintiffs, the Court ordered Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development to produce substantial documents and data responsive to the requests.  After a stay of proceedings due to the COVID-19 emergency, Ropes & Gray, along with the plaintiffs, moved for a stay of discovery in January 2021 to focus their efforts on settlement negotiations.

In January 2023, after several years of motion practice, an appeal to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, document and data discovery, and extensive settlement negotiations, the parties reached a settlement on behalf of the plaintiff class, which was approved by the Superior Court on April 10, 2023. 

The settlement included sweeping reforms of the EA system, bringing tremendous benefits to families residing in or applying to EA shelter, and achieves numerous improvements to the EA Shelter Program, both for applicants and current participants of the program. 

Since 2017, the Ropes & Gray team devoted over 9,700 pro bono hours – making it one of the largest pro bono matters for the firm in the past decade.