Davis Polk announces 2024 Pro Bono Award honorees
Davis Polk is delighted to announce the 2024 winners of the firm’s annual Pro Bono Awards.
This year we honor three individuals, four teams and six “advocates” for consistently demonstrating the commitment, care and excellence to which we aspire in giving back to our broader community and assisting those in need. We celebrate a long legacy of pro bono work at Davis Polk driven by these core values and applaud these honorees for their outstanding achievements.
In honor of our individual and team award recipients, the firm will make charitable donations to nonprofits chosen by the individual honorees or associated with the work of the four teams we are recognizing.
Individual honorees
Contact via email Kathryn has demonstrated continued excellence and commitment to pro bono over the course of her time at Davis Polk with a focus on civil matters. Over the past year, Kathryn led a team litigating a contentious Article 10 matter in family court and co-led a team prosecuting a similarly complex intellectual property and partnership civil litigation in the federal district court. In connection with both cases, she handled numerous fact and expert depositions, drafted a variety of legal motions, argued in court on many occasions and played a key role as a trial lawyer. As a result of her excellence in written and oral advocacy, the team Kathryn led reached a favorable settlement on behalf of our family court client, allowing her to reunite with her child, and the team Kathryn co-led successfully defended a summary judgment motion for our civil litigation client, who will finally get his day in court in 2025 after more than six years of litigation.
Mikaela is a pro bono champion across a wide range of matters including trademark and licensing litigation, nonprofit transactions and advice, small business and artist consultations, and data privacy trainings and webinars. Mikaela has been indispensable for many years in staffing the firm’s pro bono clinics with Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, and she has also spearheaded our ongoing intellectual property engagement with Start Small Think Big, through which she has mentored Davis Polk associates and provided IP advice to small business owners, primarily women and minorities. In addition to this ongoing work, over the past year she played a lead role in establishing a joint venture between two nonprofits collaborating to produce an innovative modern opera interrogating opera’s historical legacy as a tool of cultural hegemony. Throughout lengthy negotiations, Mikaela provided sound and strategic advice and helped our client understand the myriad of intellectual property issues at play.
Throughout her career at Davis Polk, Esther’s pro bono engagement has been exemplary, especially on humanitarian immigration matters. This past year, a team she led secured an immigration trial victory in Maryland on a case involving an LGBTQ activist and gender non-binary individual from Latin America. As the team approached trial deadlines, her flexible and supportive leadership was the critical factor in maintaining morale and cohesion, even through dozens of unexpected obstacles. Over the course of several years leading up to the trial, Esther expertly managed contact with our client, the expansive case file, and a substantial amount of preparation, which included drafting the legal brief. Impressively, she learned a completely new-to-her universe of immigration law and applied it to our client’s case with deft. The trial judge even commented on the high quality of the team’s legal submissions. During trial, Esther’s examination of witnesses was attuned to the judge’s concerns, and she skillfully navigated the opposing counsel’s demands and objections. Her hard work paid off – after years of legal proceedings, our client was granted relief immediately at the trial’s conclusion.
Team honorees
Trial team for LGBTQ rights activist
After years of preparation, this team secured asylum for a gender non-binary individual who faced severe persecution in Central America. In their home country, our client was an advocate for LGBTQ rights and took on community leadership roles that made them publicly visible. Targeted because of their sexual orientation and gender non-conformity, our client was assaulted multiple times, including incidents when assailants and police officers used homophobic and transphobic slurs. Our client was also kidnapped and raped as a means to control and deter them from their activism. These experiences led our client to flee and seek asylum in the United States. This team stood out for their unity, collective commitment to the client and non-hierarchical collaboration. They developed their case through extensive work with our client, several affiants and an expert witness. During the trial, the team skillfully navigated between having the client re-live their traumatic experiences and eliciting critical testimony. At trial, the judge made a point to commend the team on the high quality of work throughout the case and noted that their argument was so well-developed that it overcame the government’s objections; he went on to issue an asylum grant directly from the bench. The government conceded and waived appeal.
The team included Pro Bono Counsel for Humanitarian Immigration Nishan Bhaumik, associates Chris Looney, Emily Park and Esther Townes, Senior Pro Bono Coordinator & Specialist Sónia Batten, senior paralegal Alfonso García-Moncó, and paralegals Teddy Donilon and Adi Mayer.
Holloway Project – Rufus Brown team
Our client, Rufus Brown, was originally sentenced to 119 years in prison for his participation in a series of robberies in which no one was physically injured. His sentence, which was more than five and a half times the average federal sentence for murder imposed today, was unusually long due to the now-prohibited practice of “sentence stacking.” Sadly, the change in law since Rufus’ incarceration was not made retroactive, but compassionate release is considered under “extraordinary and compelling” circumstances. As part of their compassionate release petition on Mr. Brown’s behalf, this team extensively briefed the complex and novel issues of law, provided mitigating evidence about Mr. Brown’s upbringing and highlighted his exemplary record since incarceration. In January, the team argued before the Southern District of Ohio, and soon after, the court issued an order granting Mr. Brown’s motion and reducing his sentence to time served. On February 5, Mr. Brown was released into the care of his brothers and reunited with his mother, more than 28 years after he first entered prison.
The team included partner Paul Nathanson, Counsel and Head of Pro Bono Litigation Dara Sheinfeld, Counsel and Head of Racial Justice Pro Bono Diane Lucas, associates Logan Crossley, Henry Goldberg, Emily Park and Timothy Sullivan and librarian Marjorie Richmond.
James Merrill House Foundation team
James Merrill was a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, novelist, playwright, essayist and LGBTQ activist. Our client, the James Merrill House Foundation (JMHF), was recently established to raise an endowment to maintain the late poet’s house in Stonington, Connecticut and support a writer-in-residence program held there. This program nurtures both established and emerging authors through residencies in Merrill’s former home while also furthering his literary, philanthropic and artistic legacy through community outreach, conservation and preservation. M&A lawyers established an operating LLC and mapped out its governance structure; a cross-practice group of Davis Polk lawyers worked with JMHF to transfer the house, related intellectual property and other assets from the former owner, a local 501(c)(3) organization, to the Foundation; Real Estate, IP & Commercial Transactions and Environmental lawyers negotiated and documented the transfer of the house, related IP and assets; and Tax lawyers advised on federal regulations to ensure that JMHF maintained its tax-exempt status. Throughout the transaction, the dedicated team coordinated precisely and expertly to reach a closing that will ensure the continuance of James Merrill’s literary, philanthropic and artistic legacy.
The team included partner Mario Verdolini, Chief Pro Bono Counsel Amelia Starr, counsel Michael Comstock, Counsel and Head of Corporate & Transactional Pro Bono Jillian Berman, Pro Bono Attorney for Corporate & Transactional Matters Connie Chiang, associates Matt Cutts, Jordan Khorshad, Edward Peck and Anthony Tran, senior paralegal Kelsey Stevens and business development coordinator Joe DeLollo.
Brooklyn Family Court Family Defense team
This team successfully reunited a Mandarin-speaking mother with her child after partnering with Brooklyn Defender Services (BDS) Family Defense Practice to defend her in an abuse case before the Brooklyn Family Court. The case was initiated by the New York City Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) after our client slipped on stairs while carrying an infant she was babysitting. The incident resulted in serious injury to the baby. Our client’s explanation of what happened was not believed, and she was accused of intentionally harming the baby. Our client was subsequently barred from her home, where her husband and child reside. Over many months, our client worked with Mandarin speakers on the Davis Polk and BDS teams to tell her story, and through hard-fought motions, they secured the government’s consent to allow our client to return to her family home. The team simultaneously handled the case at trial and conducted a series of successful cross-examinations that raised questions about the government’s allegations. These examinations led the diagnosing pediatrician to withdraw many of her assertions, and as a result, ACS proactively agreed to settle the matter.
The team included counsel Kathryn Bi, Counsel and Head of Pro Bono Litigation Dara Sheinfeld, associates Yao Chen, Christian Hines, Ian Hogg, Ryann Moelis and Cindy Wu, senior paralegal Angela Quach, paralegal Qingui Ye and former associate Angela Guo.
Pro Bono Advocates
Jack has emerged as a leader in Davis Polk’s U.K. pro bono practice, diving into a number of nonprofit matters in the last year and shining in each. Most significant has been his involvement in a merger between the American Modern Opera Company and The Industry, two nonprofits formed to build and share collaborative, experimental operas with new audiences. Jack led the M&A work to form a joint venture through which these separate organizations will produce a new and innovative modern opera. This complex transaction involved partnering with senior lawyers across the firm’s Mergers & Acquisitions, IP & Commercial Transactions, Tax and Executive Compensation practices, and Jack deftly coordinated among them all internally, while simultaneously providing a calm and reassuring voice of reason throughout prolonged client discussions.
In her pro bono work, Marie focuses on representing the most vulnerable clients in notably complicated matters. In a custody matter for a client, she recently achieved a positive resolution in a custody matter in family court despite challenging circumstances. On behalf of an individual incarcerated for more than 20 years, Marie led a team in pursuit of a compassionate release. For this case, she brought motion after motion in the federal district court and the First Circuit Court of Appeals, persisting in the face of repeated setbacks, and ultimately succeeded in obtaining her client’s release based on his excessive sentence. Marie is currently playing a key role in a Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act matter, for which she is preparing the factual and legal submissions in pursuit of a significant sentence reduction for our client.
With a tremendous sense of leadership, Andrew maintains an expansive pro bono practice that includes family legal care consults, small business representations, domestic violence matters, Young Adult Opportunity Program civil legal assistance, senior law and extensive transactional, corporate governance and real estate nonprofit advice. Most recently he has taken a lead role in Davis Polk’s representation of the Holocaust Organization for Promoting Education (HOPE), whose mission is to address the rise of antisemitism in the United States through education and advocacy. Andrew has been the primary point of contact for this client and a critical, trusted voice in ongoing discussions regarding the organization’s structure as it gets off the ground.
Over the past several years, Gilbert has been devoted to legal research and drafting projects concerning human rights issues in Asia, Africa, North and South America. He played an important role in Davis Polk’s preparation of the terms of reference for South Sudan’s Commission on Truth, Reconciliation and Healing (in partnership with the Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG)). He also worked on a report regarding the use of accessible and easy-to-read judgments to improve access to justice in conjunction with the Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice, which will be presented to judges’ associations in Latin America and Africa. Gilbert is currently part of a team drafting advice for the Prosecutor General in Ukraine regarding the standards governing prosecution of cultural war crimes.
Meredith took the lead on the case of a married gay couple from Trinidad seeking asylum in the United States due to unsafe conditions in their home country. While the case was in progress, the couple divorced and the conditions in Trinidad changed, further complicating an already challenging matter. After years of diligent and quite independent work on behalf of these two clients, both got their separate asylum hearings. Meredith simultaneously managed both trials, which happened within a span of three months, and as a result of her thoroughly analyzed and precise legal briefs and substantial supporting evidence, one client has already been granted asylum. Meredith’s patience, flexibility, positivity and client-centered approach are exemplary.
With exuberance and willingness to lead, Shua has taken on a variety of matters, ranging from limited scope clinics to full representations in senior law, nonprofit work and humanitarian immigration matters. In his most recent nonprofit representation, Shua identified a little-known or used article in New York Nonprofit Corporation Law to develop a creative solution to the board’s unusual governance structure. He has led a wide variety of challenging immigration matters, including the successful representation of a New York Times employee who was evacuated from Kabul, Afghanistan when the Taliban seized control. Shua has also provided invaluable support to Davis Polk’s pro bono asylum clinic at Columbia Law School.