Pro Bono

Afghanistan: One Year Later and Counting

• 60 percent of Afghan citizens are under 25 years old.
• 14 million Afghan women and girls lost their right to go to high school/university, to work and to move freely, including the ability to leave their home without a male escort or to get a driver’s license.
• More than half of the 23 million people in Afghanistan suffering acute food insecurity are women and girls.
• Duane Morris has donated over 4,500 pro bono hours to Afghan relief efforts since August 2021.

Following the fall of Kabul and the resulting Afghan humanitarian crisis in summer 2021, more than 100 Duane Morris attorneys and staff across the U.S.—almost all of whom were not immigration attorneys—assisted nearly 350 individuals in humanitarian parole applications. According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, humanitarian parole was supposed to afford Afghans facing imminent danger and threat of death temporary admission to the U.S. to pursue more permanent immigration statuses. Afghans who arrived in the U.S. as part of the evacuation effort were paroled in, and Afghans already in the U.S. could request parole for family members left behind in Afghanistan.

Nevertheless, since July 2021, USCIS has collected nearly $20 million in filing fees from 66,000 humanitarian parole applications, but only approved 123, or less than 2 percent, of the 8,000 applications have been processed.

General Austin Scott Miller, the last American commander in Afghanistan, said, “Our job is now just not to forget.” Yet, over one year later and with the humanitarian crisis still unfolding, Afghanistan rarely makes the news.

Duane Morris attorneys have stayed the course, appealing denials of humanitarian parole applications as violations of the Administrative Procedures Act, in addition to representing Afghans admitted to the United States in stabilizing their immigration statuses via asylum, Special Immigrant Visa, family reunification and work visas.

In spring 2022, the firm teamed up with attorneys from PNC Bank—as part of Financial Institutions Pro Bono Day—as well as Comcast and TD Bank, amplifying the firm’s pro bono efforts.

Duane Morris also joined Bard College in New York to provide screening, advice and representation to dozens of students from the American University of Afghanistan, Herat University and Kabul University who were evacuated from Afghanistan and accepted to Bard College to continue their studies. Bard College admitted and received over 100 students with full tuition and room and board scholarships. Duane Morris summer associates prepared applications for eight student-asylum seekers, providing law and college students with unique and transformative experiences. At year end, several dozen teams of Duane Morris attorneys, staff and volunteers continued to advocate for Afghan clients awaiting USCIS interviews and decisions on their asylum, SIV, reunification and parole applications.

Domestic Violence Survivors Find Peace and Stability with Legal Immigration Statuses

For nearly 15 years, the firm has represented vulnerable, immigrant survivors of intimate personal violence in Violence Against Women Act self-petitions for lawful permanent residency, U and T nonimmigrant visas for victims of violent crimes and trafficking (respectively) and special immigrant juvenile status cases. In 2016, when HIAS Pennsylvania lost its funding to aid survivors of intimate partner violence who were not also survivors of sexual assault, creating a gap in legal services, Duane Morris teamed up with Congreso de Latinos Unidos and HIAS PA to hold monthly legal clinics providing brief advice and full representation to survivors stabilizing their immigration statuses. The firm leads similar clinics in New York and assists in such matters in San Diego, San Francisco and other cities.

Since 2012, Duane Morris has donated nearly 5,000 hours to helping more than 65 survivors stabilize their immigration statuses, not to mention all the children, grandchildren, siblings, etc. that were impacted by the violence and had a chance to stabilize their familial and immigration statuses through the representation provided to survivors.

In one case, associate Elisabeth Bassani successfully represented a domestic violence survivor and her 7-year-old daughter in their Violence Against Women Act self-petitions before United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to obtain lawful permanent residency (i.e., green cards). Originally from the Dominican Republic, the client came to the U.S. to live with her husband, a U.S. citizen. However, upon her arrival she was verbally and physically abused for months, forced to work without remuneration and had her finances and movements controlled by her husband. In August 2018, after a particularly abusive altercation, the client escaped and sought police protection. She was granted a protection from abuse order, and with Elisabeth’s help, obtained her residency in 2022. The client and daughter will be eligible for U.S. citizenship in three years.

Naturalized Citizens Now on Equal Footing

Before fall 2022, Mississippi still enforced a 1924 law imposing a documentary proof-of-citizenship voter registration requirement on naturalized United States citizens, but not on native-born citizens. During recent years, Mississippi enforced the law by using a flawed driver’s license database matching program that the Secretary of State implemented for voter registration.

The program erroneously flagged some naturalized citizens as potential noncitizens, a practice which disproportionately affected voters of color and resulted in many eligible voters’ registration applications being placed erroneously. Along with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Mississippi Center for Justice, a cross-practice group of Duane Morris attorneys represented the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance and League of Women Voters of Mississsippi in challenging the law and database-matching program.

Amid discovery, the Mississippi Legislature passed House Bill 1050, which repealed the 1924 law and requires that voting registrants flagged as potential noncitizens have their records double-checked against the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Systemic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program, which maintains more up-to-date records of citizenship status. In the 2022 midterm elections, only voter registration applicants who are flagged as potential noncitizens by both Mississippi’s driver’s license database and the SAVE program were required to provide proof of citizenship.

Rising up to Claim the American Dream

Duane Morris aid for Afghan refugees in 2021:

• 100-plus Duane Morris volunteers
• 350-plus clients served
• Legal clinics with Comcast and PNC
• Clients ranging in age from newborns to very elderly grandparents

Mobilizing to Secure Safety for Afghan Refugees and Humanitarian Paroles

Our clients worked in positions ranging from post office workers, radio/TV and journalists, to serving in the International Security Assistance Force and Afghan military including officers in the war on terrorism/counter-Taliban group, Doctors Without Borders and international relief and development.

New Beginning for U.S. Military Interpreter and Afghan Refugee

Our client served as a front-line interpreter for the United States military during the U.S. War in Afghanistan. As a result, our client survived various death threats and attempts by the Taliban, including the murder of his father. Just before Kabul fell to the Taliban in August 2021, our client fled to France and stayed in a refugee camp outside Paris.

For the past four years, attorneys in Duane Morris’ Newark office have worked with Rutgers Law School students and the International Refugee Assistant Project (IRAP) to petition for a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) for our client to live safely in the United States. Four months after Afghanistan fell to the Taliban and following extensive vetting by the U.S. embassies in Kabul and Paris, on December 22, 2021, our client arrived in Detroit, Michigan. At the airport, he was greeted by his lead Duane Morris attorney for a long-overdue welcome celebration!

Precedential Third Circuit Win Affirms Asylees Need Not Subject Themselves to Physical Harm or Arrest to Reasonably Fear Persecution by Oppressive Regime

From a young age, our client was a member of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress, the largest political party in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He protested fraudulent elections as well as the policies of President Kabila, and following 2018, President Tshisekdi. In 2018, our client founded a political and social networking group, Liberté Congolaise, to oppose President Kabila, and he attended several demonstrations and documented others as recordings of the government’s abuse. Beginning in 2019, our client was personally targeted for his political activities, and fellow activists were shot or disappeared after being arrested by the government. When the national police came for his arrest, our client fled to the airport, where he made his way to the United States. At the airport, he was warned by a member of DRC customs and immigration to “never plan to return to the Congo.”

In the United States, our client was detained at DHS’ Elizabeth Detention Center in New Jersey at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Duane Morris attorneys took up his case via the Immigration Justice Campaign, representing the client in a half-day asylum merit hearing via telephone. The attorneys were not allowed into the detention center, and the center had no video capability, so the hearing was held with each party attending via telephone in a different location. While the immigration judge found our client credible, the judge denied asylum and ordered the client to be deported. The judge found the client had not suffered past persecution because he was not physically harmed and his fear of future persecution was unreasonable because he had been able to escape arrest via bribes. Undeterred, the team appealed the denial to the Board of Immigration Appeals, and then to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, simultaneously filing stays of removal so the client would not be summarily deported.

Miraculously, the pro bono team also got our client out of detention during the pendency of his appeal, and following his survival of COVID-19, a huge win in and of itself. Going above and beyond, the team took on the social work side of the case, securing housing for the client at various social service agencies and churches as the client had no work authorization, family or friend support or access to benefits in the United States while his case proceeded on appeal.

At the end of 2021, Judge McKee, in a precedential opinion for the Third Circuit, resoundingly rebuffed the Board of Immigration Appeals’ flawed reasoning, granted our client’s petition for review, and vacated his deportation order stating:

With this victory, we hope our client will be granted asylum by the immigration judge on remand and be able to remain safely in the United States, securing work authorization, refugee benefits and rebuilding his life in his new community.

Deportation Relief Under the UN Convention Against Torture for Guatemalan Taxi Driver

Our client, who originally worked as a taxi driver, fled after gangs extorted, threatened and persecuted him. Entering the case at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit at the request of HIAS Pennsylvania and Villanova Law School, a team of Duane Morris attorneys secured a remand to the Board of Immigration Appeals and the immigration judge. At the trial court on remand, the team successfully argued a change in country conditions, which would result in the client being tortured/murdered by gangs if forced to return to Guatemala. Securing removal/deportation relief under the United Nations Convention Against Torture, the team secured the client’s release after two years in detention, including surviving COVID-19. Presently living and working in the New York City area, he will be able to remain in the United States so long as it is unsafe for him to return to Guatemala.

Securing Safety and Freedom from Persecution

In 2020, Duane Morris donated over 10,000 hours to more than 200 immigrants, assisting clients from their very first steps in the U.S. to obtaining work authorization, permanent residency and naturalization.

Since 2019—in collaboration with Immigration Justice Campaign, Immigration Equality, HIAS Pennsylvania and more—Duane Morris has significantly expanded its LGBTQIA-related asylum practice, taking on 17 cases and donating over 1,500 pro bono hours.

Helping to Heal

In February 2021, the pro bono team secured asylum for our client Maria, a 29-year-old transgender woman from El Salvador. At 13, Maria moved to her grandmother’s home because her mother beat her for presenting as a woman and her mother refused to help Maria attend school. With her grandmother’s help, Maria became a cosmetologist and, after opening her own salon, Maria began hormone therapy and fully transitioned to live as a woman. A few months later, Maria’s cousin—a regional leader in the Mara 18 gang—began extorting Maria, knowing the police would refuse to protect Maria as a transgender woman. When Maria could not pay “rent,” the gang sexually trafficked Maria for seven years. She also was threatened with death, kidnapped, beaten and experienced friends’ murders simply because they were transgender. Maria’s cousin brutally tortured/murdered a third cousin who was gay, and he threatened to do the same to Maria if she did not leave because he viewed her as an abomination. Maria fled to the U.S. where she sought asylum and was detained in an all-male facility during the coronavirus pandemic. Duane Morris attorneys took on Maria’s case, arguing she was entitled to asylum as a member of a particular social group, transgender women in El Salvador. They built her case, working with witnesses in El Salvador who agreed to testify—even during the pandemic—and argued her case virtually. Maria was granted asylum and she continues working on healing and learning English. She also hopes to reopen her salon.

Supporting Culture Change and Acceptance

For over 30 years, GLAAD has been rewriting the script for LGBTQ acceptance. As a dynamic media force, GLAAD tackles tough issues to shape the narrative and provoke dialogue that leads to cultural change. Duane Morris attorneys support GLAAD’s critical work by advising on a variety of corporate matters pro bono, including partnership agreements, investment policies and event contracts.

Client-Team Collaborations: Leading by Example

Comcast

Beginning in 2019, Comcast teamed up with Duane Morris and HIAS Pennsylvania to staff bimonthly citizenship clinics providing legal representation to lawful permanent residents applying to naturalize as U.S. citizens. To date, more than 50 Comcast attorneys/legal staff have volunteered, and when COVID-19 postponed spring 2020 clinics, the team pivoted to virtual clinics held throughout the pandemic.

In 2021, Comcast extended the collaboration, teaming up with Duane Morris and Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity to represent individuals in obtaining pardons before the Pennsylvania Pardon Board. One in three American adults has a criminal record; for almost all Pennsylvania criminal convictions—even minor offenses or something occurring decades ago—the only way to erase the record is a pardon.

Mount Sinai Health System/Mount Sinai Medical Legal Partnership (MSMLP)

In 2018, Duane Morris in collaboration with Mount Sinai attorneys, medical professionals and social workers created a medical legal pro bono project benefiting Mount Sinai Queens and Mount Sinai Brooklyn patients with limited income/resources and legal issues affecting their health. Attorneys staff clinics every other Friday at Mount Sinai Queens, answering questions and providing full representation on estate planning, guardianships, immigration, benefits and landlord/tenant issues. During COVID-19, Duane Morris and MSMLP pivoted the clinics to a virtual model maintaining biweekly clinics. Since 2018, more than 70 volunteers have served over 150 clients in more than 40 clinics.

Cisco

As part of Cisco’s 2020 pro bono week, attorneys teamed up with Duane Morris and Pro Bono Partnership of Atlanta to host a virtual nonprofit/microentrepreneur tuneup clinic. Teams of attorneys advised six clients on various legal issues ranging from intellectual property to corporate governance to employment and more.

Asylee Client Reunited with Sons Four Years After Fleeing Horrific Abuse in Nicaragua

In 2018, attorneys and staff in our Boca Raton and New York offices secured asylum for our client, Aurora, who fled 20-plus years of horrific domestic violence beginning when she was only 16 years old. Perpetrated by her partner, the abuse – including attempts to kill her in front of their children – was permitted by local authorities because of her partner’s prominent, political family. Aurora reported the abuse to police numerous times and tried to run away, even enlisting the help of her local Catholic church and priest, but the violence never stopped and her partner always found her. As part of the asylum claim, Duane Morris included Aurora’s two sons – whom Aurora left in the care of family – as derivatives.

In early 2020, the sons’ visas were issued, permitting them to travel to the United States. Then, COVID-19 hit, preventing travel. Attorneys/staff helped arrange four flights earlier this spring, all of which were canceled. With time running short (the visas were set to expire in August), the attorneys collaborated with the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Consulate in Nicaragua to organize a charter flight. Four years after their separation and very fittingly on July 3, the sons – now 22 and 16 years old – were reunited with their mother at Miami International Airport! All three now will be able to live a life of safety in the U.S. and pursue the “American dream.”

Securing Safety and Freedom from Persecution

In response to the immigration crisis at the southern border of the United States, Duane Morris increased our immigration pro bono efforts nationally during the past several years. Aiding more than 350 immigrants and families in the past year, totaling over 6,000 hours, volunteer attorneys particularly focused on assisting LGBTQ immigrants and political activists fleeing oppressive governments, as well as individuals fleeing intimate-partner violence.

Duane Morris sent two teams of attorneys and staff to provide know-your-rights counseling and limited representation to immigrants detained in southwest Texas, held a bilingual book drive for children learning English while detained in foster shelters separated from their parents, and continues ongoing, monthly immigration clinics in various cities across the United States, in addition to full representations. Our immigrant clients have come to the United States from all parts of the world, including Afghanistan, the Bahamas, Cambodia, Chad, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Liberia, Russia and Ukraine.

Securing Refugee Status for Two Sisters Fleeing Gang Violence in El Salvador

Corporate and Trial attorneys from Duane Morris’ Newark office represented two young sisters from El Salvador through the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) in pursuing a request for review with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to challenge the denial of their request for refugee status. Living in an all-female household as practicing Christians, the sisters were targets for kidnapping and ransom by surrounding gangs and were repeatedly threatened with death, particularly since the gangs knew that no man was living in the household. The younger sister faced almost daily threats by gang members as she walked to high school in a neighborhood where several young girls recently disappeared.

The sisters experienced the murder of their maternal grandmother and aunt when gang members set off grenades in the bus in which they were riding. Several years later, another aunt who owned a small business was subject to extortion by gangs for “rent” in return for safety. When the aunt no longer could afford to pay the “rent,” she fled along with the sisters and their family.

The girls were desperate to flee to safety in the United States and be reunited with family members. Filing the request for review almost two years ago, volunteer attorneys argued the sisters suffered greatly and feared even greater violence and persecution by threatening gangs. A reinterview was conducted earlier this year and the sisters were granted refugee status, safely arriving in the United States in spring 2019.

U.S. Citizenship Established After 15-Year Mistake Corrected by the Board of Immigration Appeals

Duane Morris attorneys in New York established a claim to U.S. citizenship for a lawful permanent resident of the U.S. since 1978. Now an inmate of Sing Sing Correctional Facility, we initially sought clemency on his behalf, but soon recognized that without U.S. citizenship, our client was facing immediate deportation after the completion of his criminal sentence.

Our client was 7 when his father became a naturalized U.S. citizen and sponsored him and his mother. The client’s parents later divorced and the decree did not grant sole “legal custody” to either parent. In March 2004, the Board of Immigration Appeals affirmed, without opinion, the decision of an immigration court, finding that our client was not a citizen because his father—the only parent through whom the client could naturalize—did not have sole “legal custody”—then a requirement of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which has since been repealed. After reviewing the client’s entire immigration file and hearing record, attorneys concluded an injustice occurred. They filed a motion to reconsider, although the rules state such a motion must be made within 30 days. In a unanimous decision, the board vacated its earlier decision and found our client’s parents shared legal custody, his father had been actively involved in our client’s life and “constituted actual uncontested legal custody”—meeting the qualifications of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

While incarcerated, our client has turned his life around with a virtually perfect prison record. He maintains close ties with his family (all of whom are U.S. citizens), obtained his high school diploma and is on his way to completing a four-year college degree. Our fight for clemency on his behalf continues.

Political Asylum for LGBTQ Individuals Fearing Persecution and Death

Through Immigration Equality, the nation's leading LGBTQ immigrant rights organization, Duane Morris regularly represents individuals seeking asylum in the United States fearing persecution in their home country as a result of their sexual orientation.

Originally from Ghana, one client nearly was beaten to death for being gay and was imprisoned for 20 days to "cure" his homosexuality. The client fled Ghana to Brazil and eventually set out by bus, foot and human smuggler through South and Central America to California, seeking safety and asylum. In California, the client was detained by United States immigration officials and placed into deportation proceedings. Duane Morris defensively argued that the client feared persecution in Ghana and should not be ordered removed. The Philadelphia Executive Office for Immigration Review and the Department of Homeland Security agreed the client’s fear was credible and granted him asylum.

Another client, a gay man from Jamaica, was forced to marry a woman to "prove" he was not gay. He fled his home country after being stoned and his wife attempting to kill him. He sought asylum in the United States so he could live a happy, secure life with his partner. Duane Morris attorneys from the Miami and Philadelphia offices successfully represented the client in an affirmative asylum application based on persecution related to his sexual orientation.

Political Asylum Obtained for Survivor of Domestic Violence

Duane Morris obtained asylum for a survivor of domestic violence, who was put into removal proceedings at the U.S.-Mexico border. The client was involved in an abusive relationship in her home country, and for 22 years she endured frequent threats of violence and brutal beatings at the hands of her spouse, often in front of her children and neighbors. The client left her country and her children, whom she could not take with her, and traveled alone through Central America and Mexico. She crossed the U.S. border and asked for asylum on the grounds of domestic violence, a U.S. immigration category only recently recognized as a basis for asylum subject to showing acceptable facts and applicable law, and was arrested and placed in an immigration detention facility. The pro bono team worked together to get the client released by posting her bond, and continued their tenacious work when she arrived in New York. In an incredible victory, the team was able to obtain asylum status for the client along with work authorization and Social Security.

Pro Bono Team Obtains 11th Circuit Stay of Removal for Eritrean Refugee

Duane Morris won a stay of removal for an Eritrean refugee while the 11th Circuit considers his petition for review. The client had been persecuted for his political expression, including multiple rounds of months of solitary confinement and torture. He is being held at an ICE facility, and was to be deported by May 6, but now his removal will be put on hold pending the 11th Circuit’s merits review.

Permanent Legal Resident Status for Mexican National

Duane Morris represented a Mexican national in his petition to remove conditions on his legal permanent resident status. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) intended to revoke his status due to visa violations that occurred long before his present status. The client is married to a U.S. Citizen, has a disabled son and has lived in the U.S. for over 20 years. Documenting these equities, the pro bono team was successful in having the condition on the client’s status removed and securing his lawful permanent residency in the United States. He will be eligible for U.S. citizenship in three years.

Pro Bono Amicus Representation for Immigration Case

Duane Morris filed a pro bono amicus curiae brief in the Third Circuit on behalf of client HIAS Pennsylvania. The amicus brief argued that the Third Circuit should grant rehearing en banc in an immigration case to give additional consideration to how broadly the court interprets whether an offense is “relating to” a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act. HIAS Pennsylvania, a nonprofit legal services organization providing pro bono and low-cost services to immigrants in Philadelphia and the surrounding counties, sought to appear as amicus in the case because it assists immigrants who may be impacted by the panel’s decision. The brief provides an invaluable perspective on the potentially severe human impact of the panel’s decision, which is all too often overlooked in immigration cases.

Immigration Team Obtains Quick Approval for I-601 Extreme Hardship Waiver  

Duane Morris secured approval of a Mexican father’s extreme hardship waiver. The father had been stuck in Mexico for over five months while his U.S. citizen wife, who is physically and mentally handicapped, tried to care for their daughters in the U.S. The waiver, which allowed the father to return to his wife and daughters, was approved in less than two months (normal processing times can be upwards of six months or longer) and the father returned to the U.S. soon thereafter. 

Leaving No Woman Behind

Our client, a female officer, served honorably in the United States Army from 1995 to 2002, including assisting with rescue and recovery efforts at the Pentagon following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Afterwards, our client began experiencing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and major depression disorder. Additionally, in 2006, our client was sexually assaulted by an Army co-worker, and as a result, became pregnant.

Duane Morris attorneys met the veteran at a Women Veterans Legal Assistance Program clinic—a special clinic housed in the D.C. VA Medical Center’s Women’s Clinic and staffed entirely by female attorneys for female veterans. As a result of her illnesses and injuries, our client was granted Department of Veterans Affairs service-connected disability benefits in 2010 with a combined disability rating of 70 percent. She tried to increase her rating to 100 percent pro se, given her extensive trauma, but her case kept getting tossed around for further development because the VA failed its statutory duty to assist the client in obtaining her relevant military and medical records. Nearly ten years later, in 2020, the VA summarily concluded they exhausted all efforts to locate the missing records and denied the client’s appeal.

Duane Morris attorneys stepped in, successfully appealing the client’s case to the United States Court of Appeals for Veteran Claims, arguing the records in evidence more than established the veteran’s eligibility for a combined rating at 100 percent, and advocating that the VA failed in its duty to assist the veteran. In February 2022, the court vacated the board’s decision and remanded the matter to the VA regional office again, where the Duane Morris team continues to advocate for the veteran’s entitlement to a 100 percent rating, among other benefits. If granted, our client will receive an additional $20,000 annually in disability benefits, not to mention back benefits she is entitled to from 2011 to 2022. This increase in benefits—in recognition of the mental ailments she sustained as a result of her service—would create a life-changing standard of living for our client, who lives on a limited income.

Deported Veteran Becomes U.S. Citizen After 15 Years in Kenya

Our client David B. came to the United States in 1997 as a 21-year-old student from Kenya. While on a student visa, he was approached by an Army recruiter who promised him the opportunity to get his green card and eventually become a U.S. citizen. Unknown to David at the time, he was not eligible to enlist based upon his student visa status, and his recruiter, who also knew this limitation, was using David’s and other African students’ youth and inexperience to increase his recruiting numbers and the monetary bonuses he was receiving for each recruit. The recruiter provided false information to the Army and placed a fraudulent green card stamp into David’s passport so he could complete the enlistment process.

As David put it, “I thought since he was a government official and that because I was enlisting in the military, I would be given green card status. I did not find out until he was court-martialed that what he did was wrong, and that he had done it to many people.” Even though David, and other victims of the scheme, testified at the recruiter’s court martial, David and many others were later deported after immigration judges found they had made false statements on their enlistment papers. David was eventually removed from the U.S. in 2007, but only after he had served again in the Air Force Reserve after 9/11. In 2021, David reached out to the Veterans Consortium for help, after hearing news reports that programs were being started to bring deported veterans back to the United States for naturalization. That began a long, stressful application process, which involved first getting him permission to return to the United States, and second, a naturalization interview with USCIS in Seattle.

With the help of Duane Morris immigration attorneys and paralegals, David was finally able to become a U.S. citizen on November 17, 2022. Waiting for David, after his swearing in ceremony, were many returned veterans and those in the network who are advocating to bring all deported veterans back to the United States. The story continues, though, as now Duane Morris is assisting David to bring his two children to the United States.

“We Were Raised Better.” Veterans Advocating for Fellow Veterans

Our client, a young, African American woman, enlisted in the United States Air Force in 2013, rising to the rank of staff sergeant. As a teenager, she was raped in high school, and suffered from and was diagnosed with PTSD. She enlisted as a way to escape her community and seek a better life. Sadly, she was physically assaulted by a fellow service member while in the Air Force, which retriggered her symptoms. She sought mental health treatment for her PTSD, ultimately being hospitalized in a civilian hospital and diagnosed with borderline personality disorder—even though she clearly was experiencing PTSD symptoms. A personality disorder makes an individual “unsuitable” for service in the Air Force, as opposed to PTSD and other mental illnesses, which may make a service member “unfit” for service and eligible for medical discharge.

With an inaccurate borderline personality disorder diagnosis, in 2015, our client was summarily administratively discharged, rather than being considered for medical retirement, and her DD-214 discharge papers—which she must show anytime she seeks employment, education or other positions of trust—state she has a “personality disorder.” Beyond being inequitable and wrong, the classification is a major hindrance on her further aspirations and success.

John Simpson, a trial partner in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office, represents the veteran before the Air Force Board for the Corrections of Military Records, arguing the Air Force should have medically retired the veteran with disability pay and should right this wrong by correcting her DD-214 to list “medical retirement.”

Correcting her DD-214 will not result in any more money for our client because she already has service-connected veterans’ benefits at 100 percent due to her trauma and correlating PTSD, but it will restore her reputation and prevent further, lifelong stigma.

Veteran Success Stories

Our client, a Vietnam War veteran, witnessed horrific combat including surviving numerous bombings and the death of several friends, which resulted in post-traumatic stress disorder (although PTSD had yet to be diagnosed as a mental illness). After serving 11 months in Vietnam, our client’s PTSD symptoms became so intense that he went absent without leave, resulting in a dishonorable discharged, the stigma of which haunted him for the past four decades. Before the Army Discharge Review Board, Duane Morris volunteers successfully petitioned for the client’s discharge status to be upgraded to honorable both in equity and pursuant to Under Secretaries Hagel, Carson, Kurta and Wilkie’s memorandums proscribing liberal consideration for discharge upgrades that were the result of undiagnosed PTSD.

Our client served in the U.S. Army for seven years, during which time she was assigned to rescue and recovery efforts following the crash of American Airlines flight 77 near the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. Her job was to log victims’ body parts. Following her service, the client understandably began struggling with PTSD and major depressive disorder (MDD) while serving as a civilian employee for the Army. Her mental health diminished further after she was assaulted by an Army superior and became pregnant, and she had to stop working. Despite her service, our client initially was denied access to service-connected disability benefits because the VA incredulously lost the medical records documenting her PTSD and MDD. Appealing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, Duane Morris volunteer attorneys argued the Board of Veteran’s Affairs failed to take reasonable efforts to obtain the veteran’s medical records before denying her claim and remanded the claim to the VA for a rating decision. Duane Morris continues to represent the client before the board and VA.

Serving in the Pennsylvania National Guard, our client was deployed to Iraq for nine months, during which time he was stationed at a base outside the safe zone where he was in constant danger of incoming gunfire and IEDs and witnessed the death of a close friend. Our client struggled with PTSD, which years later still caused insomnia, nightmares, anger, thoughts of violence and depression, in addition to his lingering physical injuries from Iraq. Before his deployment, the client supervised a team of 700 employees at an inpatient medical center, but following his deployment he struggled to succeed and lost most of his responsibilities. Duane Morris attorneys successfully advocated for the client to obtain service-connected disability benefits at a 100 percent rating, which will permit him to focus on his mental and physical health.

$300,000 Awarded in Retroactive Veterans Benefits

Attorneys in Duane Morris’ Philadelphia and Cherry Hill offices obtained retroactive VA benefits totaling more than $300,000 for a disabled veteran battling an acquired psychiatric disorder from active duty. The veteran was dishonorably discharged due to his illnesses and was homeless for over a decade. He tried and lost over 16 jobs due to mental health problems. During this time, he received a discharge upgrade and applied for service-connected disability benefits in 2009, which the VA denied.

Duane Morris then entered the case, successfully representing the veteran in appealing the denial before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims and securing a remand requiring appropriate medical evaluations and adequate reasons and basis for the VA’s findings. In 2018, the client was awarded benefits and Total Disability based on Individual Unemployability (TDIU). Duane Morris attorneys then successfully argued to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals that the benefits should be applied retroactively to 2009 when the client first sought benefits, a sum totaling more than $300,000.

Now doing much better healthwise, the veteran has a home and is able to assist his daughter with nursing school through his GI Bill benefits. Duane Morris continues to represent the veteran in seeking service-connected benefits for traumatic brain injury and a seizure disorder.

Duane Morris recognizes the sacrifices that service members have made for our country and is committed to helping them solve significant problems that have arisen as a result of their service. We assist veterans and their families with disability benefits appeals, discharge upgrades, homelessness prevention and many other civil legal needs. Our attorneys also represent organizations dedicated to empowering military service members, veterans and veteran-owned small businesses.

Obtaining Back Relief, Literally and Financially

After serving in the United States Navy in the late 1970s/1980s, our client suffered chronic back pain that required a series of surgeries from 2008 to 2010, including spinal fusion. During the fusion surgery at a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, screws were malpositioned bilaterally, which led to additional pain—worse than the veteran experienced prior—weakness on his left side, depression and several additional surgeries. Today, the veteran still experiences chronic pain.

As a result, in 2010, the veteran filed a claim for service-connected disability compensation benefits under 38 U.S.C. § 1151, which permits benefits when a veteran experiences a disability caused by surgical treatment in a VA Medical Center due to negligence. Nevertheless, from 2010 to 2019 the VA denied our client’s claim.

Attorneys in Duane Morris’ Philadelphia office entered the case, moving to reopen a prior denial, obtaining a medical expert report affirming the nexus between the surgery, subsequent revision surgeries and our client’s total disability, and representing the veteran in an appeal to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals. Attorneys also argued the veteran was secondarily entitled to benefits related to depression as it was caused by his living in constant, debilitating pain.

Following a multiyear effort, in summer 2019 the VA awarded our client benefits under § 1151 for residuals for his lumbar spine surgery as well as for adjustment disorder with mixed anxiety and depressed mood secondary to his lumbar spinal benefits. The team continues to advocate with the VA concerning the rating level for the veteran’s injuries and monthly benefits as well as benefits dating back to 2010. Needless to say, the veteran’s life will forever be changed due to the surgery, but now he also will have monthly compensation to cover his bills and living essentials.

Teaming Up to Create Legal Clinics at VA Medical Centers Across the Country

In 2018, Duane Morris attorneys launched a new medical-legal pro bono project providing legal assistance to veterans directly at the Atlanta VA Medical Center. Duane Morris attorneys teamed up with The Home Depot, Emory Law School and Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation to staff clinics providing estate planning/drafting for more than 70 veterans and family members. Volunteers also teamed up to co-counsel on veterans’ service connected disability benefits appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans claims through The Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program.

The Atlanta clinic built upon Duane Morris’ success collaborating with the Veterans Administration, The Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program and Neighborhood Legal Services in Washington, D.C., to develop and staff weekly legal clinics at the D.C. VA Medical Center and in facilities across the D.C. Metro area. The first legal clinics to specifically serve D.C. area veterans when launched in fall 2016, the clinic – now housed in its own office space at the VA Medical Center – has served over 700 veterans.

Righting Wrong for Woman Discharged Due to Pregnancy

Our client enlisted with the U.S. Marine Corps at 17 years old, serving as a dedicated, successful Marine for more than three years before she was forced to leave the Marines because she was pregnant. Upon learning she was pregnant with her second child, our client was told she was being involuntarily discharged because the Marines believed they could not deploy her due to being a single parent with two children. This discharge occurred during the months following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and our client had, in fact, made preparations for child care if she was deployed. But, our client’s military records did not contain record that she was ever consulted about her child care plan.

In 2002, our client was discharged involuntarily with a characterization of “General (under honorable conditions)” and a narrative reason of “parenthood.” As a result, she was denied a career in the Marines, prevented from securing some government jobs, denied access to certain veteran’s benefits and felt deep embarrassment when she had to address her discharge characterization in professional or personal settings.

In the 14 years since being discharged, our client successfully raised her two children as a single mother. She is starting a Saturday school for students to learn about their African heritage and develop leadership skills.

Duane Morris attorneys successfully represented the client in a hearing before the Naval Discharge Review Board in Washington, D.C., advocating that the client’s discharge was inequitable because she had no misconduct that warranted discharging her less than honorably. Her military record demonstrated she was qualified and deserving of an honorable discharge, and she was awarded accolades just months before her discharge, including the Good Conduct Medal and National Defense Service Medal. Our client’s discharge status was upgraded to “Honorable,” permitting the client to move forward with her life without undue stigma. 

Settlement Reached for Veteran and Family Facing Eviction

Duane Morris reached a settlement in an eviction proceeding on behalf of a veteran who is a pro bono client of the firm through the Veterans Assistance Project. The veteran had been living with his wife and their three children in a rent-controlled apartment previously occupied by the wife’s uncle. Overcoming challenging legal obstacles, the team negotiated a settlement that allows the family to remain in the apartment rent-free for six months, forgives substantial rent arrears that had accrued during the lengthy litigation, and provides a substantial lump sum payment.

Securing Housing and Financial Stability for Elderly Veteran

Our client, a Navy veteran, is 60 years old and has end stage renal disease. He lived in his mother’s rent stabilized apartment on the Upper West Side of New York City, where he had resided for many years and planned to live out his remaining years. Reflecting the changing landscape of New York City, the client’s landlord bought out several other tenants in the apartment with the goal to convert rent stabilized apartments to a privately owned cooperative. The landlord offered the client only $150,000 to move, much less than the apartment was worth. When our client refused, the landlord sought to evict our client from the home – where he had potential succession rights to his mother’s lease – and the landlord trumped up nuisance and criminal allegations against our client.

Working with the Veteran Advocacy Project at the Urban Justice Center, Duane Morris attorneys obtained an order to show cause in the landlord’s lockout proceeding, restoring the veteran to his home. Attorneys then negotiated a buyout settlement of $320,000, along with time to secure a new apartment. Collaborating with friend of the Firm, the attorneys set up a special needs trust so that the client would continue receiving his Social Security disability and rental benefits, thus ensuring ongoing financial stability for the client.

Service-Connected Disability Benefits Restored for U.S. Navy Veteran

Duane Morris obtained service-connected disability benefits for a veteran of the U.S. Navy after his disability rating was reduced in September 2012, from 80 percent to only 10 percent. The pro bono team presented to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals that the reduction in the disability rating was improper, that the client was entitled to the benefits he did not receive when his disability rating was reduced, and that he was entitled to a total disability rating based off of unemployability. The team obtained $71,000 in back pay for the client from 2012, and he will again be receiving 80 percent disability.

The Veterans Consortium 2017 Law Firm Pro Bono Mission Partner

Duane Morris has been named The Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program (TVC) 2017 Law Firm Pro Bono Mission Partner for its service to veterans and their families, caregivers and survivors. Duane Morris has worked with TVC for many years, providing pro bono representation to veterans at the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. In the fall of 2016, the firm worked with TVC and Neighborhood Legal Services Program (NLSP) to implement pop-up legal clinics at Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities in the D.C. Metro area, providing free advice to more than 200 veterans.

Protection under Chapter 7 of Bankruptcy Code for Vietnam Era Veteran

Duane Morris represented a pro bono client in filing for protection under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code. The client is an 83-year-old veteran who served in the Air Force between 1962-1964 before he was honorably discharged.

Securing Remands Before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Army Veterans Claims

Our client served as a petroleum supply sergeant in the U.S. Army. She was denied service-connected disability benefits after sustaining a painful skin disorder when extinguishing a bulk fuel fire. The client’s primary responsibility was issuing and handling fuel for helicopters. She received an Army Commendation Medal while on active duty for quickly and calmly extinguishing a bulk fuel fire caused by a leak in the fuel pipeline on base, which could have caused major damage (and personnel injuries) if not for her prompt actions. Due to fuel spilling on the veteran, she experienced a disorder that manifested itself intermittently as swelling, knots or cysts on both of her hands that were periodically accompanied by pain and/or itching. The client filed a claim for service-connected disability benefits related to the skin disorder, which was denied for years because the VA physicians never "saw a rash" appear in any of her medical appointments. Firm attorneys discovered the client had been treated several times by the VA, including twice surgically, for painful knots and cysts on the back of her hands. Nevertheless, this evidence was ignored entirely by VA medical examiners, the VA Regional Office and the Board of Veterans’ Appeals. The attorneys successfully argued this was a blatant failure of the VA’s duty to assist the client in developing her claim, which was remanded requiring the VA to fully develop the claim so that our client may be awarded the disability benefits she deserves.

Uplifting Gardens & Artists: Helping Preserve the North Philly Peace Park for Future Generations

The North Philly Peace Park was founded in 2012 by residents of the Blumberg Housing Projects along with neighborhood residents, activists, designers, organizers and educators, who formed an ecological campus that sought to collectively solve many of the neighborhood’s critical issues. In 2015, the park was displaced by a Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) development, resulting in the Peace Park’s move to a new location in 2017.

Following the move, Duane Morris real estate attorneys were engaged pro bono to represent the Culture Trust of Greater Philadelphia in the creation of the new North Philly Peace Park. Duane Morris negotiated with PHA to give the new property to our clients to build the park and worked with community partners from the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, Diverse Design, Habitat for Humanity, Haverford College and Youth Build to build an off-grid facility to further complement the Peace Park’s programs and serve as a proof of concept/model for equitable design practice. Attorneys worked as land-use lawyers, transactional lawyers, construction lawyers and more to secure approvals from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, Philadelphia Streets Department, Art Commission, Flood Zone Management and Board of Building Standards, in addition to the PHA.

The Peace Park’s pavilion is designed in an Afro-futurist approach that merges and highlights continuities between ancient African architecture from countries of the western coast of the continent and modern African American architecture typologies. The building’s green systems and structure complement support the programs that occur outside seamlessly.

Facilitating Photographic Education Worldwide: A Legacy Ensured

The late Stanley Greene was an icon in France as well as the rest of Europe and Asia. While born in Brooklyn, his work is not yet very well known in the United States. He was one of the most influential human rights and war photographers of the last 50 years, and one of the very few influential Black photojournalists, recording the fall of the Berlin Wall as well as war and famine in South Sudan, Chechnya, Georgia, Iraq, Afghanistan and more. He also founded Noor Images, a significant photographer-owned agency in Amsterdam.

Following Greene’s death, Duane Morris attorneys worked with his estate to donate Greene’s photographs to the French Ministry of Culture through the Stanley Greene Foundation, a United States foundation formed pro bono by Duane Morris attorneys. Greene’s photographs will be indexed and used for education worldwide, including exhibitions in France and elsewhere in Europe. The foundation will retain all rights to produce prints of Greene’s work, raising funds to support arts education for underserved youths.

Empowering Through Education

Folds of Honor provides educational scholarships to children and spouses of fallen and disabled service-members across the United States. A generational foundation dedicated to giving back to the families of our nation’s heroes, Folds of Honor has granted more than 35,000 scholarships since 2007, with 6,500 of those coming in 2021-2022 alone. Duane Morris provides organizational diversity and inclusion training to Folds of Honor as well as providing corporate advice and diversity and inclusion training to individual foundation chapters.

Advocating for Asian American Pacific Islander Women

In 2021, a team of Duane Morris litigators across the United States represented Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC), the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum and 30-plus additional groups as amicus curiae before the Supreme Court of the United States in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, urging the Supreme Court to uphold women’s constitutional right to pre-viability abortion. Highlighting the intersectional experiences of Asian America Pacific Islander (AAPI) women, the fastest growing racial group in the United States, particularly in Southern and rural areas, the brief illustrates the language, immigration and economic barriers AAPI women already face when seeking to access their constitutional right to reproductive healthcare. Amici illustrated the disproportionate, undue impact an adverse ruling would have on AAPI women and other communities of color’s access to abortion and reproductive healthcare. Amici urged the Court to adopt an intersectional lens in considering the importance of achieving reproductive justice for AAPI women and all women by upholding a woman’s right to choose.

In addition, a team of Duane Morris healthcare and appellate attorneys represented medical professionals across the commonwealth of Pennsylvania as amicus curiae before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in Allegheny Reproductive Health Center v. Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, arguing that the commonwealth’s prohibition on Medicaid funding of abortion violates the Equal Rights Amendment and equal protection provision of the Pennsylvania Constitution, and it prevents women from receiving critical medical care. Amici urge the court to permit petitioners third-party standing on behalf of their patients as their interests are directly aligned.

Bay Area Rescue Mission (California)

Serving the Bay Area homeless, the Bay Area Rescue Mission provides hot meals, a food pantry, shelter and other services to help individuals focus on long-term recovery. Attorneys in Duane Morris’ San Francisco office provide employment advice to the Rescue Mission as well as real estate and COVID-19-related legal assistance.

Interfaith Food Pantry of the Oranges (New Jersey)

A “client choice” food pantry providing supplemental and emergency food, diapers and toiletries for more than 25 years, Interfaith Food Pantry of the Oranges (IFPO) primarily assists residents of Orange and East Orange, New Jersey, via an all-volunteer, collaborative effort of four religious congregations—Christ Church in Short Hills, Congregation Beth El, Congregation B’nai Jeshurun and Temple Sharey Tefilo-Israel. Over the years, Duane Morris attorneys have assisted IFPO with corporate governance, intellectual property, publicity waivers and employment/volunteer and tax advice. During COVID-19, when the church where IFPO operated closed, Duane Morris attorneys helped negotiate a new lease and space for the pantry to continue operations.

SouperBowl of Caring (Texas)

SouperBowl of Caring is a youth-inspired movement working across the nation to tackle hunger in local communities. Mobilizing grassroots resources including churches, schools, civic groups and caring individuals, the SouperBowl of Caring movement has created over $160 million worth of support that stays completely local. In 2020, thousands of groups collected over $10.6 million in monetary and food donations for hunger-relief charities across the country. Attorneys in Duane Morris’ Houston office aided SouperBowl of Caring with trademark and intellectual property matters.

Duane Morris plays a vital role in strengthening the communities in which Firm employees live and work. To expand access to justice, Duane Morris collaborates with numerous legal services organizations and other community-based nonprofits to support community building efforts and provide pro bono legal representation. Our representation includes matters involving domestic violence, housing, guardianship, disability benefits, landlord-tenant, nonprofit incorporation, governance, protection of intellectual property, tax-exempt status and many other criminal and civil legal matters.

Envisioning Global Brotherhood and Sisterhood as the State of Humankind

Founded by Mrs. Coretta Scott King, The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (“The King Center”) prepares global citizens to create a more just, humane and peaceful world using Dr. King’s nonviolent philosophy and methodology. Utilizing the life, legacy and teachings of Dr. King, The King Center inspires new generations to carry forward his unfinished work, in addition to preserving and providing access to the writings and papers of Dr. King, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and other civil rights leaders and organizations. Duane Morris attorneys support The King Center, thereby supporting the advancement of civil rights globally, by advising the Center on numerous legal issues, including the conveyance of the birth home of Dr. King to the National Park Foundation, the renovation of the Reflecting Pool and Crypt of Dr. King and Mrs. Coretta Scott King, and maintenance of the digital archives of Dr. King’s writing and artifacts.

Uniting Communities with Pizza

Scott Wiener’s love of pizza—particularly cultural and regional differences—led him to create Scott's Pizza Tours (New York). What began with friends in his car driving around New Jersey and New York led to renting out a bus and quickly transformed into an entrepreneurial business. Recognizing that treating food as entertainment is a luxury too many people cannot afford, Scott soon hosted the first annual Slice Out Hunger party. A simple idea, Scott uses food donated from independent pizzerias to raise money for local food banks and pantries with proven track records. Since New York City isn't the only community that could benefit from Slice Out Hunger events, Duane Morris attorneys are aiding Scott and Slice Out Hunger in their next venture: helping communities run Slice Out Hunger events on their own, as well as implement effective campaigns to raise funds and awareness for neighbors in need. Scott’s goal is to spread the message: Pizza has the power to unite and support communities.

Saving a Juice Bar in Harlem

Elma’s in Harlem dishes out mouthwatering West Indian cuisine and soul food in a fun, friendly atmosphere. Owner Jimmie began saving money in high school with the goal of owning his own restaurant and feeding the neighborhood just as his grandmother, Elma, brought people together through food. After investing all his personal savings into opening a juice bar, the landlord refused to turn on the water for several months, causing Jimmie to lose profits and stalling operations. Duane Morris attorneys assisted Jimmie in obtaining a judgment from New York Civil Court for the full amount of damages Jimmie endured as a result of the landlord’s actions. Now Jimmie is moving forward serving his local community and enhancing the lives of people that make up his culturally rich section of the city.

Jimmie was introduced to Duane Morris by colleagues at Start Small Think Big (New York), which connects immigrant and traditionally underserved/unbanked small-business owners with legal and financial representation.

Supporting Celiac Disease Awareness

Celiac disease affects an estimated one in 133 Americans. Over a decade ago, Beyond Celiac (nationwide) was founded as a small patient advocacy group, the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA), with the goal of creating a world where people with celiac disease can be quickly diagnosed, eat safely and live their lives to the fullest. Today, Beyond Celiac has grown into a leading organization impacting more than 2 million people by driving awareness and diagnosis of celiac disease. Along the way, Duane Morris attorneys have provided valuable intellectual property representation to Beyond Celiac ensuring its information, ideas and brand are protected so Beyond Celiac may focus on the mission of finding a cure for the disease.

Building Homes with Habitat for Humanity, Power Women Power Tools

Duane Morris has represented Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles pro bono for several years in negotiating real estate transactions for land parcels where Habitat will build affordable housing for low-income families. Duane Morris attorneys and staff additionally teamed up with Habitat L.A. families to frame buildings that will house 10 families in Habitat L.A.’s new Culver City project, the first affordable homeownership development in the city’s history.

"The Future Ain’t What It Used To Be."

Generations know Yogi Berra as one of the greatest baseball players to ever play in the major leagues, but fewer people know the stories of Yogi’s principled life, including his service in World War II and his dedication to family and diversity. The Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center (New Jersey) works to sustain and promote the values of respect, perseverance, sportsmanship and excellence through inclusive, culturally diverse sports-based educational exhibits and programs, thus keeping Yogi’s legacy alive for new generations of leaders. Duane Morris supports Yogi’s mission by representing the museum pro bono in restructuring the museum’s board and bylaws, negotiating and reviewing contracts, and securing its intellectual property, among other matters. Firm attorneys also provided legal advice to veterans and military families during the museum’s veteran service fair.

Duane Morris salutes the indomitable human spirit. Recognizing the need for new beginnings, clean slates and renewed hope, our attorneys provide thousands of pro bono hours to survivors of human trafficking and victims who were exploited and wrongfully convicted. We are humbled and inspired by the strength of our clients and the depth of their resiliency in spite of daunting circumstances.

Removal Order Terminated for Trafficking Survivor After Criminal Convictions Vacated

A team vacated a pro bono client’s trafficking related criminal convictions in summer 2017. The convictions had resulted in immigration removal proceedings, and last week, the Erie County Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project, Inc. successfully petitioned to re-open and terminate the client’s immigration case. The client now is awaiting her permanent green card and is applying for U.S. Citizenship; she was a lawful permanent resident in the U.S. throughout her trafficking and for almost 20 years.

Illinois Survivor Becomes National Leader

Trafficked, beaten and subject to unimaginable emotional abuse for more than 20 years, our client escaped in 1997 and dedicated her life to helping others escape similar circumstances. She founded the Dreamcatcher Foundation, a nonprofit organization serving Chicago girls impacted by the sex trade, worked with the Cook County Sheriff’s Office to provide desperately needed services to trafficked girls and women and won numerous awards for her work. Nevertheless, our client’s prostitution convictions kept her from achieving further goals, including becoming an adoptive parent, working with at-risk youth and opening a crisis center for her organization.

Working in conjunction with the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation (CAASE), Duane Morris attorneys assisted the client in expunging her criminal convictions under the Illinois Justice for Victims of Sex Crimes Trafficking Act. The Act allows state courts to vacate prostitution-related convictions if the petitioner can show they were a victim of trafficking at the time of the conviction.

Expanding Legal Protections for Victims of Trafficking

Collaborating with the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation (CAASE), Duane Morris attorneys helped expand the types of convictions that may be vacated under Illinois’ Justice for Victims of Sex Trafficking Crimes Act. In addition to successfully vacating prostitution convictions relating to our client’s trafficking, Duane Morris attorneys argued that the Act should be construed to permit vacatur of other convictions that were the direct result of a survivor’s trafficking. In doing so, Duane Morris attorneys helped set a precedent in Illinois, which will aid many more survivors to vacate convictions from their criminal records wherein they really were the victim, not the criminal.

Nationally, there is less than one civil legal aid attorney to help every 10,000 Americans living in poverty. Children are the most legally underrepresented and vulnerable members of society. In the United States, 21 percent—or one in five—children live in families with incomes at or below the federal poverty guidelines. Ensuring family unity and stability for children and families through all types of legal proceedings has been a hallmark of the Duane Morris Pro Bono Program since its founding.

Good Nights and Good Days

Every night in America, too many children do not get the sleep they need, compromising their health, school performance and emotional well-being. Founded in New York City, Pajama Program provides cozy pajamas, inspiring storybooks and critical resources for parents and caregivers to support comforting bedtime routines and healthy sleep for all children to help them thrive. Duane Morris continues to show its support of Pajama Program, volunteering time not only to share stories with children, but providing legal counsel as well. In 2020, Duane Morris corporate attorneys represented Pajama Program in its acquisition of another nonprofit, helping expand Pajama Program’s mission to provide good nights across the United States. Duane Morris intellectual property attorneys also represented Pajama Program in working with Tish Rabe Books LLC—owned by bestselling children’s author Tish Rabe, who has written over 170 children’s books for Sesame Street, Disney, Dr. Seuss and many more—on a forthcoming book, Sweet Dreams Ahead Time for Bed, published in April 2021.

Creating a Pediatric Telemedicine Program for Children Living in Conflict Zones

Armed conflict affects one in 10 children globally, with urban areas increasingly becoming direct targets, producing large numbers of casualties that outstrip the ability of local healthcare workers to provide the required care. In areas without adequate healthcare infrastructure, it is rare to find a doctor or psychologist trained in pediatrics, and lives are lost due to a lack of expertise. Imagine, instead, if a global network of pediatric specialists could be “brought” to a besieged or remote area in the time it takes to download an app. Enter Save A Child Global Pediatric Network, which aims to do just that. Save A Child combines pediatric expertise with digital technology to create a mobile case management and referral platform that can help save the lives of sick and injured children across the globe. Duane Morris corporate attorneys advised Save A Child regarding its corporate structure and governance as well as general advice on the telemedicine program, specifically concerning compliance with data security and privacy laws.

Girls Write Now

For more than 20 years, Girls Write Now has been a nationally respected leader in arts education as New York’s first and only writing and mentoring organization for girls. Girls Write Now matches underserved teens—over 90 percent of color, 90 percent high need, 75 percent immigrant or first generation and 25 percent LGBTQ/gender nonconforming—with professional writers and digital media makers as their personal mentors. Mentees’ multigenre, multimedia work is published in outlets, including Teen Vogue, BuzzFeed and The New York Times, performed at Lincoln Center and the United Nations and wins hundreds of writing awards. Girls Write Now ranks in the top 4 percent of programs nationwide for outstanding performance driving social-emotional growth for youth, and 100 percent of its seniors are accepted to college—armed with confidence, portfolios and life-long bonds. Through Girls Write Now’s Writing Works workforce development program, they prepare young adults as skilled communicators and competitive candidates, creating a diverse pipeline into the schools and industries most in need of their talents. Duane Morris attorneys have assisted Girls Write Now pro bono for several years concerning intellectual property matters, and recently, began providing employment and real estate legal counsel to Girls Write Now to ensure more girls and gender nonconforming youth have access to high quality educational and mentoring opportunities.

Nido de Esperanza

Founded by Duane Morris client Holly Fogle, Nido de Esperanza strives to break the cycle of poverty by changing the first 1,000 days of a child’s life. Nido takes a holistic, two-generation approach through early, intensive, culturally sensitive, community-based and parent-led interventions. Nido partners with a child’s parent(s) to provide diapers, food, clothes, parent education and community. Families join Nido’s weekly mommy-and-me group sessions, the Reading Corner, English language classes, trauma-informed yoga classes and more. In 2020, Duane Morris teamed up with Fogle and Nido to provide immigration and landlord/tenant know your rights presentations and legal representation to families, in addition to donating books and other supplies.

Father and Son Reunited Following International Child Kidnapping

Attorneys in Duane Morris’ Austin office represented a Mexican father in successfully petitioning the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas for the return of his 5-year-old son under the U.N. Hague Convention on Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. With no warning, the child’s mother took the sleeping boy in the middle of a December 2018 night without our client’s knowledge or consent and left the familial, habitual home and country. Unaware of their whereabouts, two months later, our client learned the mother and son had entered the United States. During the ensuing six months, our client sporadically was able to talk to his son, and he pled with the mother to return his son to Mexico, which she refused. As a result, he reached out to the Mexican and U.S. governments, seeking their help in the return of his son.

Upon filing for injunctive and full relief, Duane Morris moved for expedited discovery and sought permission for our client and witnesses to appear by phone or videoconference in Mexico, given the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. This appearance – and the representation generally – was difficult as the client lives in a remote, rural part of Mexico with little access to internet or other technology. Following a consolidated injunction and merits hearing – during which the mother attempted to relitigate a settled, Mexican custody order – and supplemental briefing opposing the mother’s claimed “grave risk” defense, the judge found in favor of our client and ordered the son’s return to his father in Mexico once safe due to COVID-19.

Supporting All Young People, Regardless of Sexual Orientation or Identity, via Safe Support Environments

Hetrick-Martin Institute (HMI), the nation’s oldest and largest LGBTQ youth services agency, fosters healthy youth development through a comprehensive package of direct services and referrals concerning education, healthcare, mental health, homelessness, economic empowerment and more. Duane Morris is proud to support HMI and its mission, and our attorneys have assisted HMI pro bono on numerous legal and regulatory issues, such as updating its employee handbook, negotiating and drafting a cause marketing agreement with a worldwide cosmetic company, and drafting legal documents for licensing its intellectual property, know-how and services to its first federated partner, HMI: New Jersey.

Protecting Seniors Against Elder Financial Exploitation and Abuse

Teaming up with SeniorLAW Center and AARP, Duane Morris attorneys are helping draft a protection-from-elder-abuse statute in Pennsylvania. Older victims often are confronted with elder financial, emotional and physical abuse, yet Pennsylvania’s current protection-from-abuse order was created largely to address intimate-partner violence, dating violence and/or stalking. Elder abuse victims face distinct crimes, including financial exploitation, often by different relative, nonrelative and caregiver perpetrators not covered by traditional protection-from-abuse orders. To date, only a handful of states have protection-from-abuse orders specifically protecting against the various forms of elder abuse. Attorneys drafted a model proposed statue designed to address the most common issues confronting older victims and are working with SeniorLAW Center, stakeholders, the Pennsylvania Legislature and Governor Wolf’s administration to advance its adoption.

Securing Grandparent Guardianship and Visitation Rights in Massachusetts

Several years ago, a team of attorneys obtained a judgement from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court holding that grandparents have legal standing to petition for visitation rights with their grandchildren. The client was a 77-year-old grandfather who had been denied contact with his granddaughter for over 10 years by her legal father. Despite a "limited guardianship" that was expected to encourage the young woman to develop independence and a court order allowing her freedom of visitation with her grandfather, her father still cut off any contact with the young woman’s grandfather. This past year, Duane Morris attorneys successfully enforced the grandfather’s right to visitation with his granddaughter. Three-and-a-half years after the team’s initial petition, the court granted the grandfather visitation and the two shared a big hug.

Father and Daughter Reunited Following International Child Kidnapping

Duane Morris represented an Ecuadorian father in petitioning for the return of his six year old daughter under the Hague Convention on Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, after the child’s mother refused to return her. The client was told his daughter was going to on an eight day vacation with her mother, traveling from Ecuador to Disney World, but instead was taken to Union, NJ, where the mother’s online boyfriend resided. The mother then refused to return her daughter to Ecuador, which violated the Ecuadorian custody order giving primary custody to the girl’s father. The client spent the next year trying to locate his daughter and secure her return. The pro bono team petitioned for her return and elicited the mother did not have status in the United States, nor was she willing to agree to a new visitation order allowing the girl to spend time with her father in Ecuador. The judge’s ruling ordered for the child’s return to her father in Ecuador.

Protecting Tenants Facing Eviction

Across the country, Duane Morris attorneys represent tenants living in uninhabitable conditions and facing eviction. One particular client couple struck a chord with Los Angeles attorneys in 2017, who won a bifurcated bench trial on the clients' behalf in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. The clients moved to the United States from Mexico in 2016 along with their three young children. That spring, the father suffered a back injury and could not work for many months. The family fell behind on their rent by less than one month. When the family attempted to make up the payment a few weeks later, the landlord refused and started eviction proceedings. Duane Morris represented the family in depositions, a summary judgment motion, mediation and bench trial before the Superior Court, ultimately ensuring the family remained in their home.

Win for Charter School Expansion in New Jersey

The Hoboken Dual Language Charter School (HoLa) offers an innovative educational program providing traditional core curriculum through immersion instruction in both Spanish and English to children of all language backgrounds. After the Hoboken Board of Education challenged renewal of HoLa's charter as well as HoLa’s expansion—alleging HoLa had a segregative effect on Hoboken district schools—Duane Morris attorneys, on behalf of the New Jersey Charter School Association and in support of HoLa, argued the Board’s measurements alleging segregation were improper and not supported by New Jersey law. The New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division, affirmed the New Jersey commissioner of education’s analysis of racial and economic segregation in Hoboken schools and supported renewal and expansion HoLa. Because claims of segregation have become the primary argument by charter opponents to oppose renewal and expansion, the case implicated every one of New Jersey’s 90 charter schools serving over 50,000 students.

Obtaining Guardianships for Families Caring for Their Disabled Loved Ones

Duane Morris attorneys in California, Maryland and Pennsylvania regularly work to ensure family unity by securing guardianships supporting incapacitated persons in living their lives to their fullest potential. When a child, sibling or parent no longer has or never will have capacity to handle his or her daily care and finances, a guardianship is the only legal remedy available to permit family members authority to take care of their loved one. Without access to counsel, low-income parents whose children are reaching the age of majority frequently have difficulty obtaining guardianship so they may continue making medical decisions on their children’s behalf. Children frequently are unable to receive therapy, assistance with daily living or schooling until the parents obtain guardianship. Likewise, low-income adult children seeking to ensure their senior parents are cared for after they have dementia, Alzheimer's or other illness frequently face roadblocks in accessing the court.

In one case, Duane Morris attorneys represented a guardian seeking to care for her 90-plus-year-old mother with dementia. The mother refused to leave her home, and due to her dementia, the woman did not recognize her limitations or remember her actions. The mother was living in a home infested with mice, roaches, fleas and bed bugs. Family members who supposedly were taking care of the mother did not ensure she was fed or clean. They did not even ensure the property taxes were paid on a neighboring home in which the mother graciously allowed them to live. Consequently, the home was put up for sheriff's sale and one of the mother’s daughters sought Duane Morris' assistance so her mother did not lose the home. Attorneys obtained guardianship of the woman on behalf of the daughter, who cleaned up the home, paid down the property taxes and ejected the other family members. The mother continues to age in her home surrounded by memories and family members who seek to ensure her safety.

“We aren’t passengers on Spaceship Earth, we’re the crew. We aren’t residents on this planet, we’re citizens. The difference in both cases is responsibility.”—Apollo Astronaut Rusty Schweickart, best known as the first to pilot the Lunar Module

Duane Morris responds to the call for responsible business practices through pro bono efforts increasing equal access to justice in our communities. Duane Morris Alumni Give Back, a pro bono initiative, formally aligns, activates and encourages alumni to team up with current Firm attorneys through its Pro Bono Program.

Duane Morris proudly sponsors regular pro bono clinics throughout our offices focusing on diverse matters, including:

• Medical legal partnerships at several Veterans Administration medical centers;
• U.S. naturalization screenings and application preparation clinics;
• Will drafting and advanced planning clinics for individuals with terminal illnesses, veterans and more; and
• Office hours for various court-sponsored self-help programs, entrepreneur and inventor clinics, and many more.

The Firm also distributes information on time-limited, emergent pro bono opportunities, such as telephone-based FEMA and civil legal advice for victims of natural disasters. Training opportunities and manuals are available to all new volunteers.

Spotlight On: Pro Bono Partnerships

An attorney with Duane Morris for nearly 20 years after joining the firm as a summer associate, Steve Janove began his own firm in 2002 focusing on domestic relations, criminal defense, commercial litigation and corporate investigations. He has been an active member and volunteer for decades through his synagogue, Congregation M’kor Shalom, in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. During the past several years, as he has looked toward a third act in retirement, Steve has become an active immigration pro bono attorney representing lawful permanent residents applying to naturalize as U.S. citizens through Duane Morris’ pro bono clinics with the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) Pennsylvania. 

Innocent Man's Arson Conviction Vacated

Duane Morris represented the Innocence Network pro bono as amicus curiae in helping vacate the conviction of a Kentucky man who was sentenced to 52 years in prison for arson, second degree manslaughter and other offenses. At issue was the government’s expert testimony in the initial trial. Expert witnesses applied burn pattern analysis and used a specially trained dog to detect potential chemical accelerants, thus claiming the fire originated in different places and implying the fire was set intentionally. Advocating for a new trial, Duane Morris attorneys argued that such fire science methods and analyses now are recognized as faulty in an increasing number of jurisdictions. At the new trial, defendant's experts testified to the unreliability and faultiness of the government's experts' methods, analysis and opinions. Because the conviction was based on unreliable expert testimony regarding fire origination, the court found the interests of justice required the conviction be vacated. The defendant was released from prison after serving over 10 years. The court held, "It is now objectively clear that the opinions given by these four experts at trial were, viewed in the most favorable light, based on obsolete and erroneous techniques, 'rules of thumb' and assumptions, and none can be relied upon as true."

Pro Bono Representation in Two Successful Presidential Commutations

Attorneys in Duane Morris' Philadelphia and San Francisco offices successfully represented pro bono clients Curtis Bell and Christopher Pfaff, respectively, in obtaining commutations of their sentences for nonviolent drug offenses. At 58 years old, Mr. Bell spent the past 22 years in federal prison on a drug conspiracy charge for which he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Mr. Pfaff served 12 years of a 21-year sentence in federal prison; he had pled guilty to a drug manufacturing charge.

Working with the American Bar Association and Clemency Project 2014, Duane Morris petitioned the president, through the Department of Justice’s Office of the Pardon Attorney, for the clients’ release under the Justice Department's program to commute and pardon exemplary, nonviolent offenders who served more than 10 years of sentences for crimes that, if sentenced today, the individuals already would have been released.

Released in May 2017, Mr. Bell is working as a chef in prepared foods. He reunited with and cares for his 85-year-old mother, two children and several grandchildren. While incarcerated, Mr. Bell expressed remorse and was a productive, peaceful and hardworking inmate. He served as one of the main cooks at Federal Correctional Institution Yazoo City (Mississippi) Medium. He also earned his GED and hopes to work with programs designed to keep youth out of prison.

Despite Mr. Pfaff's history of no violent behavior or ties to any drug cartel or supplier network, he faced a long sentence under prevailing sentencing laws. If he were sentenced today, Mr. Pfaff likely would have received a sentence of fewer than eight years, not 21 years. During his 12 years in prison at United State Penitentiary, Marion (Illinois), Mr. Pfaff had an exemplary record of good conduct, showed commitment to hard work, earned his GED and excelled in college-level math courses. Mr. Pfaff plans to study physics and engineering and to pursue a career in those fields.

Parole for Client Sentenced to Life in Prison as a Juvenile

Richard Phelps was sentenced to life without parole as a juvenile for a crime he committed when he was 16 years old. After serving 35 years of his sentence, Mr. Phelps was paroled in spring 2017. Duane Morris attorneys successfully represented Mr. Phelps in his constitutionally mandated resentencing hearing under Miller v. Alabama (2012) (holding that mandatory life without parole sentences are unconstitutional for juvenile offenders) and Montgomery v. Louisiana (2016) (holding that Miller must be applied retroactively). In advocating for a reduced sentence, the team considered Mr. Phelps’ young age, lack of prior misconduct of any form and difficult childhood as well as his remorse and rehabilitation efforts while incarcerated. Prior to his resentencing, Mr. Phelps had been free of any misconduct—minor or major—for over 20 years, and he worked as the manager of the soap detergent factory at the state correctional institution from 1988 to 2015. In 2015, he began working in the print shop to accommodate his taking GED classes. Mr. Phelps also participated in courses and programs aimed at violence prevention and victim awareness.

Now living with his godmother, Mr. Phelps is pursuing opportunities with Philadelphia's Center for Employment Opportunities for formerly incarcerated individuals and the Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project, which partners with court-involved youth to provide support to children prosecuted in the adult criminal justice system, including juvenile lifers.

Duane Morris Helps Organize Citywide Expungement Clinic for Over 300 Philadelphians

Historically, Pennsylvanians encountered steep barriers to expunging criminal records. Absent expungement, a publicly accessible record would remain even when a person was merely arrested and never convicted of a crime. Indeed, only such non-convictions were expungable in Pennsylvania; criminal convictions could not be expunged no matter how many years elapsed or whether a person completed his or her sentence. Beginning in November 2016, a new law allows Pennsylvanians to seal minor misdemeanor convictions so they only are accessible to judicial and law enforcement officials. Duane Morris attorneys—in collaboration with Community Legal Services of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Bar Association—led a citywide clinic to help clear the records of more than 1,000 Philadelphia residents. Duane Morris attorneys assisted over 300 individuals in expunging and sealing their records, with the hope of helping open doors to employment for fellow city residents.

Corporate Pro Bono Help for the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation

The Atlantic Center for Capital Representation (ACCR) (Philadelphia) provides consultation and mitigation services, legal advocacy and training for defense attorneys providing legal representation in death penalty and juvenile life without parole sentencing and resentencing cases in Pennsylvania. Duane Morris attorneys represented ACCR in establishing as an independent nonprofit with IRS tax-exempt status and ACCR supported Duane Morris by providing mitigation and reentry services for several clients in juvenile life without parole resentencing hearings.