In 2016, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr pro bono lawyers upended the death sentencing scheme in Florida and other states, opened the door to potentially thousands of dollars in federal contracts for veteran-owned small businesses, and reined in how certain offenses count toward deportation and enhanced sentences. And that was just in the U.S. Supreme Court.

With co-counsel, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the firm's lawyers, led by Jonathan Paikin and Kelly Dunbar, secured victories at trial and before the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit challenging Texas' voter ID law, one of the strictest in the country. And another team, led by Paul Wolfson, Mark Fleming, Felicia Ellsworth and Alan Schoenfeld, won a mandamus order from the First Circuit directing a recalcitrant district court to strike down Puerto Rico's same-sex marriage ban.

Pro bono “is just part of the DNA here,” said Seth Waxman, co-chair of the firm's Supreme Court and appellate practice. “We have average attorney billing 100 hours in pro bono last year. If you ask folks who run the firm, what are the hallmarks of the firm, there's no question that pro bono is in the very first couple of sentences.”