Law360 Spotlights Akin Pro Bono Efforts to Secure Release of 13 People Wrongfully Detained in Nicaragua

Law360 has spotlighted Akin’s cross-practice pro bono effort to help secure the release of 13 people wrongfully detained in Nicaragua, and the months-long fight to bring home the 11 pastors and two lawyers affiliated with the Texas-based missionary group Mountain Gateway.

Akin Washington, D.C. based partner Ryan Fayhee is quoted extensively throughout the article, which highlights Akin’s work to help facilitate the negotiations which led to the release of the detainees in September.

“We were very supportive of the U.S. State Department’s efforts to negotiate with the Nicaraguans to secure this release,” Ryan said. “There was lots of effort through our lobbying practice to work with Congress and raise the profile of the case at the same time.”

Ryan added the goal was “to work across Washington to ensure that the government is thinking about human rights matters and all their facets and complexity, and then trying to work with foreign governments to try to find a solution.”

In addition to Ryan, the cross-practice team involved the litigation, regulatory, pro bono and lobbying & public policy groups and included Akin partners Hunter Bates, Claudius Modesti and Steven Schulman; senior policy advisers Roger Murry and Galen Roehl; counsel Lide Paterno and senior adviser Ryan Thompson.

Akin is continuing to provide pro bono services to Mountain Gateway members as they seek U.S. refugee status or other lawful migration pathways from Guatemala, where they were transferred immediately after their release.

For more on the firm’s pro bono efforts in securing the release of the falsely convicted Nicaraguan missionaries, please click here.