A pro-choice protest outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., in the wake of recent legislation passed in Alabama limiting abortions. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

If it started as a trickle, it's turned into a flood. New laws limiting abortion rights have been spreading throughout the country, and law firms have responded by channeling their pro bono resources into the fight against them.

Shannon Rose Selden, a partner at Debevoise & Plimpton who leads the firm's asset management litigation practice, says the current moment represents a “sea change” in the volume and nature of the new laws.

“The laws restricting access to abortion are fundamentally not about abortion but are about equality and dignity and respect for women and girls in this country,” Selden says. “I don't want to live in a country where that is not something that is important to us and is not something that we protect.”

In an effort to offer protection, Selden and her Debevoise colleagues have poured thousands of hours of pro bono work into litigation challenging the wave of legislation. Alongside the Center for Reproductive Rights, the firm is battling in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to overturn a law whose burdensome regulations have led three-quarters of clinics in Louisiana to close, Selden says. The suit has twice survived the state's motions to dismiss.

Debevoise isn't alone among Big Law firms getting involved in the push for reproductive rights.

Shannon Rose Selden, a partner at Debevoise & Plimpton.

Orrick represents Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky in a case in the Sixth Circuit challenging a Kentucky law that would have closed the last clinic in the state. Karen Johnson-McKewan, a San Francisco-based patent partner at the firm, served as lead trial counsel in the Western District of Kentucky, which found the law unconstitutional. Despite the controversial nature of the issue, Orrick, Debevoise and others have proudly stepped in to offer assistance to the nonprofits on the “front lines,” as Johnson-McKewan says.

“I won't say that there's nobody in the firm who disagrees with our taking the case. There were some people who really did not feel good about it, and I have nothing but respect for their views,” Johnson-McKewan says. “But this is a constitutional right, and we're lawyers, and we have an obligation to give back to our communities. I couldn't think of a more appropriate place for us to spend our resources.”

Johnson-McKewan says she's spoken with colleagues at other law firms about how they can best support the organizations at the center of lawsuits opposing new restrictions, and she's also heard from some clients and in-house lawyers who want to offer their hand. But she acknowledges that law firms can't simply step in and save the day.

Karen Johnson-McKewan, partner with Orrick.

In the meantime, law firms continue to play their part. Morrison & Foerster helped ensure that a Texas law forcing the cremation of fetal remains was struck down in district court last year, and the firm also secured a $200,000 contempt fine against an anti-abortion activist who attempted to use covert videos to threaten abortion providers. And Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison won a Mississippi district court ruling last November striking down a 15-week abortion ban.

“These laws are being passed with such rapidity around the country. There's a danger of feeling swamped and overwhelmed by them all,” Johnson-McKewan says.

Nonetheless, she says the lawyers and organizations involved in the fight are galvanized, and law firms will continue to help where they can.

In addition to the Louisiana litigation, Selden says Debevoise has a hand in amicus briefings at the U.S. Supreme Court and eight different circuit courts on behalf of a variety of medical organizations. The support is representative of the important role large law firms have in fighting to preserve human rights, she says.

“Even though I have a very busy practice that is revenue-generating, nobody has ever said, 'Look, you should spend less time on that and more on your paying clients,'” Selden says. “It's something that we celebrate, because it's important. It's a fight about justice and women's rights, and that's clearly where our interests lie.”