Four lawyers from Dykema Cox Smith in San Antonio who had never before done immigration work spent a total of 555 pro bono hours valued at about $200,000 to successfully secure asylum for members of an Afghan family who entered the United States illegally in December 2016.

The lawyers represented Samira Hakimi and her two children, and Hakimi's sister-in-law Nazifa Nabizada and her son. The women alleged they were in danger in Afghanistan because their family opened three co-ed, secular schools in Afghanistan that were threatened by the Taliban.

Beginning in 2013, Hakimi's father, who started the schools, received numerous threatening telephone calls from the Taliban. Later, in 2016, two of the schools were attacked by the Taliban, including one at the university in Kabul where their extended family lives.