Last year, all eyes were on Philadelphia as a federal judge was set to decide the implications of its status as a “sanctuary city” in the age of the Trump administration.

Specifically at issue in the case was whether the government had the authority to cut off federal funding to the city over its policy of noncooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in rounding up undocumented immigrants within city limits.

At the head of the team that successfully convinced U.S. District Judge Michael Baylson of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to enjoin the U.S. Department of Justice from withholding grant funding was Virginia “Ginny” Gibson, a partner at Hogan Lovells in Philadelphia.

According to Gibson, the case was a collage of legal firsts in a case that, at its core, dealt with an attack on federalism.

“We were the first to present testimony from city leaders like the first deputy (now) managing director, from the police commissioner, from the health commissioner, from the deputy managing director of Health and Human Services, and the City Grants department,” Gibson said. “These leaders explained how they carry out their missions under the city welcoming policies that protect all our law-abiding residents, that help immigrants feel safe in using city health and education services and in reporting crime committed against them and their neighbors.”

“The police cannot be everywhere; they need the eyes and ears of our residents to report crime,” she continued. “Contagious diseases and other health issues are blind to nationality or immigration status. Our city leaders withstood the scrutiny of cross-examination by the Department of Justice, their narrative informed the courts' review of the legal issues. We felt confident they could describe our city culture best and it was an honor to help them tell that to the court, our city, and the nation.”

Philadelphia City Solicitor Marcel Pratt, who worked closely with Gibson, called her “an extraordinary lawyer.”

“Her experience, reliable instincts, and intellect are precisely what the city of Philadelphia needed in a case with so much at stake,” Pratt said. “Ginny is the perfect counselor—she has an amazing ability in high-pressure situations to restore calmness and clarity of thought to an entire room of people.”

In June 2018, Baylson held in a 93-page ruling that former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions could not impose requirements that the city assist in ICE roundups of undocumented immigrants as a condition of receiving about $1.6 million in federal money from the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant, earmarked for local law enforcement. The three requirements—that a city must provide ICE access to prisons to interview suspects, notice when undocumented immigrants are to be released from prison, and that the city is restricted from withholding a person's citizenship status—formed the basis of Philadelphia's lawsuit.

This past February, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit agreed with Baylson's interpretation of the law, noting that the attorney general does not have the authority to cut off federal funding.

“After reviewing the three sources of authority offered by the attorney general, we hold that Congress has not empowered the attorney general to enact the challenged conditions. Because the attorney general exceeded his statutory authority in promulgating the challenged conditions, we needn't reach Philadelphia's other arguments,” Senior Judge Marjorie Rendell wrote in the Third Circuit's opinion.

Throughout most of the litigation, Gibson was also serving as managing partner of Hogan Lovells' Philadelphia office—her stint in that role ended Jan. 1 of this year—not to mention serving a host of other clients.

But Pratt praised Gibson's steadfast dedication to the city's case, despite there being little to no financial incentive to do so.

According to Pratt, ”In what effectively became a pro bono representation, Ginny spared no expense, giving us countless hours of her time and assigning some of the firm's brightest associates to the case.”

“Ginny treated the city like one of Hogan's Fortune 50 clients, minus the invoices,” he said.