Akin Gump Named to Inaugural ‘Pro Bono Innovators’ List by Bloomberg Law

(Washington, D.C.) – Akin Gump is proud to share that Bloomberg Law has selected the firm for its inaugural list of Pro Bono Innovators.

The list highlights “a selection of legal leaders who embody that philosophy in their pro bono work for the underserved,” law firms that take innovative approaches to pro bono client service, such as using “creative ways to get around barriers for their clients” and coming up with “unique solutions to tackle complex legal matters.”

Bloomberg noted that it honors Akin Gump for, among other matters, “its work assisting Afghans in applying for humanitarian parole” and “its remote clinic partnership with the Mississippi Center for Justice, helping 50 nonviolent and first-time offenders expunge their records.”

Each of the inaugural honorees was featured in a Q&A. Pro bono partner Steven Schulman and pro bono counsel Lauren Connell participated. Following are a few highlights:

• Remote clinic strategy: “Our first remote effort was a pre-pandemic partnership with Mississippi Center for Justice, helping 50 nonviolent and first-time offenders expunge their records. We used lessons from that clinic to help us build a more expansive clinic during the pandemic serving hundreds of applicants eligible for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the federal program for qualified undocumented individuals."
• Innovation: “For our DACA clinic, our IT department directed us to Quip, a Salesforce product. Quip enabled us to collaborate securely with both our legal services partner, CASA, and our DACA clinic clients… When the Afghanistan crisis happened in August 2021, we were able to redeploy Quip to help Afghans apply for humanitarian parole. With our software infrastructure already in place, all we needed to do was adapt our templates for the humanitarian parole process. This allowed us to deploy volunteers quickly to serve Afghans in need.”
• The key to results: “We strive to think beyond what we know and to come up with inventive ways to resolve our clients’ problems. Our approach is collaborative, engaging key internal and external stakeholders, which has included our IT department, legal services partners, the US government and other major law firms.”

To read the full Q&A, click here.

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP is a leading international law firm with more than 900 lawyers in offices throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

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