MacArthur Justice Center Celebrates ‘National Celebration of Pro Bono’ 2024
This week is the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Celebrate Pro Bono Week with this year’s theme, “Making Justice a Reality in Our Communities.” MacArthur Justice Center has partnered with many wonderful pro bono lawyers and firms over the years, and we are grateful for each attorney’s dedication to our clients and zealous advocacy. Below is just a small slice of the work our offices across the country are doing with our incredible pro bono partners:
National Parole Transformation Project
Our National Parole Transformation Project (NPTP) is partnering with Covington & Burling LLP as well as Kelly Guzzo PLC to litigate a class action lawsuit in Alabama. The state of Alabama is continuing to contribute to the high incarceration rates within our country by routinely over-detaining people entitled to mandatory parole. We are grateful to Robert Gianchetti and Stacy Grigsby (Covington and Burling) and Pat McNichol (Kelly Guzzo) for their continued support in this endeavor.
Supreme Court and Appellate Program
Our Supreme Court and Appellate Program (SCAP) is co-counseling with an outstanding team at Sidley Austin, led by partners Steven Horowitz and Kathleen Carlson, pro bono counsel Leslie Kuhn-Thayer, and a terrific group of associates, to represent Mr. Cordell Sanders in an appeal to the Seventh Circuit. Mr. Sanders brought this civil rights case against medical providers contracted by the Illinois Department of Corrections, whose deliberate indifference to Mr. Sanders’s serious mental illness caused him to suffer for years in solitary confinement. MJC’s team is led by Gregory Cui, who is delighted to be working again with his former colleagues at Sidley, where Greg worked before joining MJC.
Our SCAP team is also co-counseling with a stellar team at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, LLP, comprised of partner Julius Chen and associate Margo Rusconi. Together, we represent Edward Spencer, an incarcerated plaintiff, on four consolidated appeals challenging a district court’s decision to deny Mr. Spencer in forma pauperis status based on an erroneous interpretation of the Prison Litigation Reform Act’s “three strikes” provision. Spencer represents just one of several successful collaborations between MJC and Akin. Recently, in another MJC-Akin partnership, Adams v. Todd (11th Cir.), the Eleventh Circuit reinstated our client’s claims that two nurses were deliberately indifferent to his serious medical needs.
Michael A. Brockland of SWMW Law, LLC is a litigation partner based in St. Louis who is co-counsel with SCAP in Perry v. Precythe, a Prison Litigation Reform Act case pending in the Eighth Circuit. Mr. Perry suffers from end-stage renal disease after he was repeatedly neglected by prison officials and prison health care companies, but the district court blocked his ability to hold them accountable in court based on a provision in the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA). We are grateful for Mike’s partnership to ensure erroneous interpretations of the PLRA do not prevail and deprive incarcerated people the ability to vindicate their rights behind bars.”.
MJC regularly partners with law firms to represent our clients pro bono on remand from our successful appeals. Currently, MJC is partnering with DLA Piper on remand from our Sixth Circuit win in Finley v. Huss, and with Goodwin Proctor on remand from our win in Tubbs v. Payton, also in the Sixth Circuit.
St. Louis, Missouri
Husch Blackwell is a valued pro bono partner in our St. Louis office. They were co-counsel in Brown v. Precythe, a class action on behalf of all juveniles unconstitutionally sentenced to life without parole in Missouri and on Fields v. Payne, an actual innocence case pending on federal habeas litigation in the Eastern District of Arkansas federal court. They also continue to represent juvenile life without parole clients as they go up for parole in Missouri after serving 25 years and have represented transgender prisoners in name change proceedings in state court.
Shook, Hardy, Bacon work with our St. Louis, MO office as co-counsel on a federal lawsuit seeking damages and injunctive relief on behalf of our client Jane Roe. Ms. Roe is a transgender woman who was housed in solitary confinement at a men’s prison for nearly seven years due to her HIV status. We are challenging the discriminatory policy affecting members of the LGBTQIA+ community while imprisoned and seeking justice on behalf of Jane Roe utilizing pro bono services.
Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner was counsel for our capital client Brian Dorsey on Mr. Dorsey’s challenge to the Acting Director of the Missouri Department of Correction’s authority to oversee executions in the state. They are also a partner on Robert Fields’ actual innocence case and have also provided some limited representation in name change matters for transgender incarcerated people.
Kirkland & Ellis is co-counsel on Thomas v. Stitt. Mr. Dwain Thomas was sentenced to life in prison as a juvenile, and is suing various government entities in Oklahoma for failing to provide a meaningful opportunity for release based upon maturity and rehabilitation as required by the Supreme Court of the United States.
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe was an active pro bono partner on two lawsuits addressing indigent criminal defense in Missouri: Church and David. The David case successfully challenged MSPD’s use of a waiting list for indigent defense, and led to the elimination of this unconstitutional practice.
The MacArthur Justice Center is grateful to all of our pro bono partners for their work to make justice a reality in many communities across the country by supporting MJC’s mission to vindicate individual rights, hold people with power accountable, and demand real reform.