Calls for transparency and accountability in law enforcement have grown louder in the years since the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, inspired a protest movement that spread across the country. Pro bono lawyers from large law firms are playing key roles in the effort to shine a light on police departments and their practices.

Some firms have offered their expertise to panels investigating allegations of police misconduct. Partners at Hinshaw & Culbertson and Mayer Brown, for example, co-led a police accountability task force in Chicago appointed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel that issued recommendations to improve police culture and its relationships with the community. Mayer Brown also worked on a similar effort in Fairfax, Virginia. In San Francisco, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius supported a Blue Ribbon Panel investigation of police bias, which found the SFPD needed more oversight and robust reform.

Other firms are tackling police misconduct via litigation to overturn wrongful convictions—often in conjunction with the Innocence Project, an organization that works to free men and women innocent of the crimes for which they've been incarcerated. At Covington & Burling, for instance, a team of lawyers is representing a former prisoner in New Orleans, Reginald Adams, who spent 34 years in prison for the murder of a police officer's wife in 1979. Adams was released in 2014 after the Innocence Project demonstrated that detectives had traced the murder weapon to a different suspect. With Covington's help, Adams sued the city of New Orleans in U.S. district court, seeking compensatory and punitive damages for alleged Brady violations related to the suppressed evidence; the case settled in June 2017, with the terms of the agreement under seal.