Ropes & Gray Lawyers Honored with PAIR Project’s Pro Bono Asylum Attorney Award

Rankings & Awards
June 7, 2019

The Political Asylum/Immigration Representation Project (PAIR) has named a Ropes & Gray pro bono team including retired partner Tom Hannigan, benefits partner and co-chair of the firm’s pro bono committee Jenny Rikoski, and litigation & enforcement associate Alex Intile as the distinguished awardee of the organization’s “Pro Bono Asylum Award” for 2019. Formed in 1989, the PAIR Project provides free legal services to asylum seekers and promotes the rights of detained immigrants.

The award recognizes the team’s work representing the five members of the Guevara-Reyes family in their September 2016 application for asylum, their August 2018 asylum hearing, their successful defense in Summer 2019 against a DHS appeal before the Board of Immigration Appeals, and their final grant of asylum in November 2019. 

“Representing the Guevara-Reyes family through a grant of asylum has been one of the greatest honors of our legal careers,” the Ropes & Gray pro bono team stated. “The knowledge that they are safe, together, and thriving in the United States—working and studying—brings light to us each and every day.”

The award was presented at the annual Pair Gala celebration held in Boston on June 3, which brought together more than 300 leaders in Greater Boston’s legal, nonprofit and business communities, including law firm partners, corporate counsel, philanthropists, immigrants, and community activists. Ropes & Gray was a proud sponsor of the 2019 Gala.