Our pro bono partnerships continued to grow in 2024. In matters involving capital litigation, compassionate release, asylum and immigration, veterans benefits, disability rights, and small business owners — among many others — Sidley is grateful to have worked alongside in-house counsel from our corporate clients.
Representation of federal prisoners seeking release from custody via “compassionate release” arguments based on the 2018 First Step Act. As of 2024, Sidley teams and in-house co-counsel have taken cases on behalf of more than 20 compassionate release inmates. In 2024, Sidley and in-house counsel secured the release of two clients who had collectively served nearly four decades behind bars.
Immigration clinics that our Chicago office hosts with the National Immigrant Justice Center to assist asylees and refugees seeking to renew their Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status; obtain temporary protected status; and petition to bring family members to the U.S. We also work with in-house teams from firm clients to represent individuals and families in ongoing asylum matters.
An ongoing asylum/Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) case referred to lawyers in our D.C. office by Kids In Need of Defense (KIND).
For the ninth consecutive year, Sidley’s New York office partnered with a client’s Legal and Compliance department to assist clients of Sanctuary for Families in preparing naturalization filings for individuals seeking U.S. citizenship.
Two clinics with Catholic Charities of Houston where volunteers assisted children with Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) in completing immigration applications.
Sidley participated in workshops in Chicago hosted by The Resurrection Project to assist new immigrant arrivals to apply for Temporary Protected Status and employment authorization.
A training and ongoing initiative focused on screening matters for military discharge upgrades in conjunction with the National Veterans Legal Services Program (NVLSP). Sidley was also serves as co-counsel with a U.S. Army veteran and in-house counsel from a corporate client to represent a military veteran seeking a discharge upgrade.
A discharge upgrade training with the Veterans Advocacy Project in New York City, which led to teams taking on five matters for full representation.
A project to staff the D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center’s Landlord Tenant Resource Center once a month. Sidley and the firm client with whom we have partnered on this project meet virtually with tenants and small landlords to provide legal information in residential landlord-tenant disputes.
An initiative in Sidley’s London office in which a Sidley team, working together with co-counsel from a client’s in-house Legal & Compliance team, handled welfare benefit appeal cases, representing individuals with disabilities before the Social Security Tribunal. Sidley lawyers ran a training session on Personal Independence Payment appeals and co-counseled on five successful appeals.
A Neighborhood Entrepreneur Law Project (NELP) clinic through the City Bar Justice Center in New York. During the NELP clinic, lawyer teams met with local entrepreneurs seeking legal advice. These clinics help clients achieve financial independence and break the cycle of poverty, while bringing jobs and services to the communities where they live and work.
An initiative with the Anti-Recidivism Coalition in which we participated, together with three firm clients, in fully remote clinics to interview people seeking to seal state criminal records.
Together with firm clients, Sidley co-sponsors fellows through the Equal Justice Works (EJW) initiative. The outgoing two-year fellows were based at Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) in Newark, New Jersey, and the national ACLU based in New York. Sidley is also co-sponsoring two-year EJW fellows, one at Americans for Immigrant Justice (AIJ) in Florida, and another at Lawyers for Children (LFC) in New York.