Sidley continues to expand our pro bono impact through firmwide initiatives that span all of our offices. We also work with local nonprofits to directly serve the legal needs of our communities.
Sidley works with individual veterans seeking benefits, as well as with veterans’ advocacy groups to pursue systemic challenges. In 2025, the firm worked on over 135 matters for individual veterans, plus multiple class action matters.
We have long been dedicated to representing veterans in pursuit of their hard-earned medical and disability benefits from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Department of Defense. Our lawyers represent veterans at the agencies and before federal courts on claims for VA service-connected disability compensation, Combat Related Special Compensation, discharge upgrades, and military medical retirement. We have also recently expanded our veteran advocacy to our London office to assist UK veterans.
Sidley’s Capital Litigation Project ensures that people incarcerated on death row have access to high-quality legal representation. To date, we have represented 24 prisoners on Alabama’s death row at all stages of post-conviction proceedings. Since the project’s inception, Sidley has invested more than 186,000 hours in these cases. Sidley’s representation of people on Alabama’s death row has been greatly supported by the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit based in Montgomery, Alabama.
As part of the firm’s Political Asylum and Immigrants’ Rights Pro Bono Project, lawyers across Sidley’s U.S. offices handle impact litigation and individual representations, including asylum cases and Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) cases, on behalf of asylum-seeking immigrants and refugees fleeing persecution abroad. We also represent victims of trafficking, domestic violence, and other crimes who are seeking immigration status.
Sidley also partners with several legal departments of our corporate clients to host clinics and staff cases to help asylees and refugees obtain lawful permanent resident status and bring family members to the United States.
We are proud to provide pro bono assistance to nonprofit arts and cultural organizations, as well as individual artists who cannot typically afford the legal services needed to survive and grow. This investment helps our communities thrive and encourages our neighbors to share their stories and preserve their rich histories. Our work includes, but is not limited to, venue contracting, international touring logistics and finance, property acquisition, advising on technology questions, and reviewing and drafting IT service agreements. We have assisted many nonprofits with their day-to-day operations, from entity formation, drafting and reviewing contracts, to advising on corporate governance. In supporting the visions of artistic innovators, we hope to connect people from all backgrounds.
Our work this past year included drafting policies and guidance; advising on intellectual property licensing, investments/asset management, corporate governance, tax, employment, grant agreements, fiscal sponsorship agreements, and donation agreements; and providing immigration counseling.
The Emerging Enterprises Pro Bono Program provides free legal support to micro, small- and medium-sized enterprises, and nonprofits with a clear social, economic, or environmental impact in developing countries. These enterprises span diverse sectors that include food and agriculture, manufacturing, education, technology, health, finance, clean energy, water, and sanitation. The EE Program contributes directly to the realization of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Additionally, focused on making a larger impact on the international ecosystem, Sidley’s Trade for Development Initiative (TDI) provides legal and technical advice to least developed countries, trade associations, and international organizations in areas related to trade, investment, environmental regulations, and green growth.
The mission of both the EE Program and the TDI remains more relevant than ever. The adverse effects of global health crises, conflict, and climate change have created additional hurdles for businesses who seek to improve living standards in developing countries. These pro bono initiatives answer major, ongoing — and increasingly acute — needs for cross-border and international legal services for businesses and organizations across developing countries.
Sidley works closely with many civil rights advocacy organizations across the country to protect and defend the constitutional rights and civil liberties of all people, especially those most subjected to marginalization, persecution, or profiling. Our clients include prisoners and detainees, women in the workplace, LGBTQ+ individuals, and racial and ethnic minorities. Our pro bono practice has worked through the courts, administrative agencies, and legislatures to safeguard, promote, and expand individual rights and civil liberties so that all people can live freely and proudly.
In addition to our firmwide cornerstone projects, we provide pro bono services that address the critical legal needs of our neighbors and communities, including individual representation cases on a host of areas of law that clients living on low incomes often face.
We partner with many local legal services organizations in order to represent our neighbors who could not otherwise afford counsel. In 2025, Sidley’s lawyers handled cases on behalf of individuals and families in eviction defense, family law, and public benefits matters. Sidley’s Washington, D.C. office has an annual commitment to accepting at least 12 new cases from the D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center’s Advocacy & Justice Clinic. Sidley remains the top Advocacy & Justice Clinic firm and takes on more cases than its peers.
