The American Lawyer Ranks Dechert #1 for International Pro Bono Work

Dechert LLP has been ranked by The American Lawyer in its 2020 rankings for pro bono work in the U.S. and internationally. Internationally, Dechert is ranked #1 and has been ranked in the top two spots for five consecutive years. In the U.S. Dechert is ranked #11.

Dechert’s commitment to pro bono is widely seen as setting the standard for international law firms. Globally, the firm’s lawyers performed more than 90,000 pro bono hours last year, equivalent to 5.5 percent of billable hours. Headline initiatives focused on protecting the rights to vote, to freedom of speech, and to live free from discrimination, violence and persecution.

Dechert’s representation and successes include: 

• Winning a SDNY ruling overturning a New York state law that illegally moved voters to “inactive” status if they failed to return a single piece of election mail, the latest success in a 14-year, nationwide effort to challenge restrictive and discriminatory voting laws that have disenfranchised millions of Americans.
• Supporting the Human Dignity Trust’s efforts to abolish anti-LGBTQ laws by producing a series of “how to” guides that spell out the route to reforming colonial-era penal codes criminalizing homosexuality. Dechert lawyers conducted extensive on-the-ground research in jurisdictions ranging from Belize to the Seychelles, committing 10,000 hours to the four-year project.
  
• Securing the release of Willie Veasy, who served 27 years after a wrongful conviction. Veasy walked free after senior staff attorney James Figorski, a Philadelphia police veteran, unearthed evidence indicating a pattern of coerced false confessions and witness statements linked to two detectives. Two months later, Figorski secured a record, US$4.15 million settlement from the City of Philadelphia for Shaurn Thomas, who also spent more than two decades in prison after being wrongfully convicted.
  
• Helping secure the release of Mohammed Mkhaitir, a Mauritanian accountant sentenced to death by firing squad for writing a Facebook post. Dechert convinced the Mauritanian Court of Appeals to commute Mkhaitir’s sentence from death to two years’ imprisonment and a small fine, then continued to advocate until Mkhaitir was finally released.
  
• Litigating against the criminalization of homeless people in Texas and to prevent President Trump from deporting thousands of Liberians living in the United States. 

Earlier this year, Dechert was named by the National Law Journal to the publication’s Pro Bono Hot List for 2020, a listing of law firms judged by the magazine to have led the way on access to justice. Firms were selected for pro bono work with a broad policy, social or financial impact.  Later this month, Dechert partner Neil Steiner will receive the Pro Bono Publico Award from the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service. The ABA describes the Pro Bono Publico Awards as its “top honor” for extraordinary and sustained commitment to pro bono service. Steiner, a partner in Dechert’s Trial, Investigations & Securities group and a trustee of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, has become a national trailblazer for protecting the rights of marginalized individuals to exercise one of their most basic freedoms—the right to vote.

About Dechert

Dechert is a leading global law firm with 26 offices around the world. We advise on matters and transactions of the greatest complexity, bringing energy, creativity and efficient management of legal issues to deliver commercial and practical advice for clients.