Innovative Health Care Work Garners Ropes & Gray the Children’s Law Center’s Pro Bono Champion Award

The Children’s Law Center (CLC) named Ropes & Gray its 2019 Pro Bono Champion in recognition of the firm’s longstanding support for the organization’s mission of helping Washington, D.C.’s most vulnerable children and families.

The award specifically honors the work of a pro bono team that led to an innovative first-in-the-nation contract for Medicaid funding of CLC’s legal advocacy around its clients’ health care issues. Under the outcomes-based contract, CLC will receive reimbursement for the legal remediation of underlying housing conditions that have an impact on the health of children exposed to mold. The Ropes & Gray team advising CLC is being led by health care partner Tom Bulleit (Washington, D.C.) and associate Sarah Blumenthal (New York).

Colleen Conry, managing partner of Ropes & Gray’s Washington, D.C. office, accepted the Pro Bono Champion award at CLC’s 2019 Helping Children Soar Annual Benefit on September 23 at the Kennedy Center. Firm managing partner-elect David Djaha (New York) was also in attendance, along with several associates from the Washington, D.C. office.

Since 1996, CLC has fought so that every Washington, D.C. child can grow up with a loving family, good health and a quality education. Judges, pediatricians and families turn to the nonprofit legal services organization to advocate for children who are abused or neglected, are not learning in school, or have health problems that cannot be resolved with medicine alone. With nearly 100 staff and hundreds of pro bono lawyers, CLC reaches one out of every nine children in Washington, D.C.’s poorest neighborhoods—more than 5,000 children and families each year, and 37,000 since its founding.

This recognition is the most recent in a series of pro bono accolades the firm has received over the past year. Among those accolades, Chambers & Partners recognized the firm with its prestigious “Pro Bono Program of the Year” award.

Learn more about Ropes & Gray’s global pro bono program.