For decades, Latham & Watkins' public interest practice has provided pro bono assistance to both immigration clients and, in recent years, has helped military veterans fight to access their benefits.

But last year, Latham attorneys were able to put their expertise in both practice areas to use: They secured citizenship for Daniel Torres, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who did a tour in Iraq with the Marines but who was banished from the U.S.

Torres came to the U.S. with his parents while he was still a child. In 2007, when he was 21, Torres enlisted after a recruiter told him that it didn't matter that he was undocumented and registered him with a fake birth certificate.