James Figorski of Dechert.

Describe your firm's philosophy on pro bono service. 

Dechert lawyers approach pro bono with the same energy, enthusiasm and resources as work for commercial clients. We strive to find projects that make a difference and that match our lawyers' personal interests and the needs of the community. Headline initiatives focus on protecting the rights to vote, to freedom of speech and to live free from discrimination, violence and persecution. Globally, our lawyers performed over 90,000 pro bono hours last year, equivalent to 5.5% of billable hours.

What are the two biggest cases your firm worked on in 2019? Tell us more about those cases and how you reached the outcome. 

Pro bono client Shaurn Thomas spent 24 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. Despite questionable witnesses and evidence concealed from the defense, he was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole in 1994. Working alongside the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, I unearthed a lab report that had not been provided to Thomas' original defense team. Additional evidence later came to light strengthening Thomas' alibi and his conviction was subsequently vacated. Shortly after, Dechert filed a civil rights action against the city of Philadelphia and two of its detectives, which in December 2019 led to a $4.15 million settlement, the largest Philadelphia has ever paid in a non-DNA exoneration case.

More recently, we won freedom for pro bono client Willie Veasy, who was also serving a life sentence for a murder conviction based largely on a false confession that Veasy said had been fabricated by Philadelphia detectives. We scoured police files and trial transcripts from the Thomas case, finding a pattern of coerced false confessions and witness statements, many involving the same detectives who convicted both Veasy and Thomas. We filed for relief, and the Philadelphia District Attorney's Conviction Integrity Unit agreed that Veasy was wrongly convicted. As a result, the court vacated the conviction, allowing him to walk free.

What was the most satisfying aspect of that work? 

The eight years I worked on the Thomas case literally changed my life. It brought the two of us so close that we became best friends. We still speak every day. And now Veasy is another happy addition to my family's lives and to our lives at Dechert. Both are frequent visitors to Dechert's Philadelphia office, where they are extremely popular. The Thomas case also convinced me that freeing the innocent is a moral imperative. Witnessing the incredibly positive impact that our work has had on the lives and families of these two men moves all of us. It is simply the most satisfying work I have ever accomplished.

What other pro bono matters is the firm working on?

Among notable voting rights cases, we successfully challenged a New York state law that removed the names of individuals from the poll book if they failed to return just one piece of election mail. In January, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York held that New York state's refusal to include "inactive" voters on poll ledgers, which had disenfranchised tens of thousands of voters, violated the National Voter Registration Act and the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Elsewhere, we challenged the criminalization of the homeless in Texas and litigated to prevent the deportation of 4,000 Liberians, winning time for lawmakers to craft a legislative solution allowing them to remain permanently. Further afield, we also helped win freedom for a Mauritanian accountant sentenced to death by firing squad for writing a Facebook post.

Why does pro bono work matter to you as a lawyer? 

Our pro bono program allows me to represent people in incredibly worthy causes who would not otherwise have a voice. Thomas and Veasy spent decades in prison not because they were guilty but because they were poor. Without pro bono work, innocent people would quite simply die in prison.

Responses submitted by James Figorski, senior staff attorney of the litigation practice group at in Dechert.