Each year, Sheppard Mullin recognizes a Pro Bono Attorney of the Year for his or her dedication to the community. At a reception held in his or her honor, the Firm donates $5,000 to a service agency in the local community in the recipient's name.
2013
Del Mar associate Gray Buccigross received the firm's 2013 Bob Gerber Pro Bono Attorney of the Year Award. In addition to personally handling pro bono matters, Gray leads efforts on the Del Mar office’s signature pro bono program: a partnership with Casa Cornelia Law Center, a public interest law firm focusing on victims of human and civil rights violations. Last year, he was awarded Casa Cornelia’s 2013 La Mancha Pro Bono Attorney of the Year for his tremendous efforts. Gray has also been responsible for building a pro bono partnership with the San Diego Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel, taking the lead on planning volunteer outings with in-house lawyers for Make a Difference Day.
2012
Los Angeles associate Paul Seeley received the firm's 2012 Bob Gerber Pro Bono Attorney of the Year Award. Paul has been the coordinator leading Sheppard Mullin’s Public Counsel Adoption Day efforts since January 2009. Through this adoption program, the firm’s attorneys have helped to complete hundreds of adoptions, doing an invaluable service for new parents and their new children.
2011
Washington, D.C. associate Malika Levarlet received the firm's 2011 Pro Bono Attorney of the Year Award. Malika was the first associate in Sheppard Mullin's Washington, D.C. office to take on a political asylum case through Human Rights First. The applicant was from Cameroon and spoke only French. As so often happens in political asylum cases, the applicant became very dependent on Malika not just for legal advice but for personal support and guidance. She put forth tremendous effort to help this client get through the very difficult process of recounting her horrible story and, ultimately, to gain political asylum in the US. Malika took on her second case through Human Rights First even before the first one was finished. Even beyond the cases that she has taken on, Malika is an active member of the pro bono committee, has devoted countless hours to inspiring others to take on pro bono cases, and often helps them work through their own cases.
2010
Orange County partner Jennifer Trusso and associate Aaron Fennimore jointly received the 2010 Pro Bono Attorney of the Year Award for their pro bono work in 2009. They obtained an award of over $4 million in a pro bono case involving mortgage fraud. Our client was cheated out of the proceeds of a mortgage banking business venture with the defendant Belvidere Networking Enterprises and its principal. Under the threat of terminating our client's interests in the business, the defendants demanded that she execute a note and deed of trust on her home to fund the venture. The defendants then created fraudulent financial documents to hide the substantial proceeds that were owed to our client, and they ultimately foreclosed on our client's home without notice. In awarding punitive damages, Judge Franz Miller noted that is "about as high as you can go without absolutely impinging upon the constitutional limit." Judge Miller commended the work of Jennifer and Aaron in unraveling the "very sophisticated" fraudulent scheme, and stated that this was one of the "rare cases that merits a nine-to-one punitive ratio." This was a terrific and rare trial outcome in the pro bono context that made a significant difference in the life of the client. Jennifer donated 409.1 pro bono legal hours in 2009, and Aaron 359.
2009
Gabriel Matus of Sheppard Mullin's NYC office won the 2009 Sheppard Mullin Pro Bono Attorney of the Year Award. Gabriel donated 191 hours of indigent pro bono legal services in 2008. He represented Aid for AIDS International in a variety of ways, including a headquarters move, establishing subsidiaries in three different countries, advising on threatened litigation, and providing advice on corporate governance. He essentially acts as outside general counsel for the organization. Aid for AIDS International (AFAI) is a non-profit 501 (c) (3) organization committed to improving the quality of life of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs) in developing countries and who are immigrants to the United States of America. For his work, Gabriel and Sheppard Mullin were awarded AFAI's "My Hero Award," presented at AFAI's annual gala in 2008. The My Hero Award honors individuals and organizations that have demonstrated outstanding efforts in the fight against HIV and AIDS around the world.
2008
In 2008, Silicon Valley partner James Chadwick received the firm's Pro Bono Attorney of the Year Award. He appeared before the California Supreme Court as counsel for amicus curiae in a case construing the California Public Records Act. He also assisted in reversing a temporary restraining order that imposed a prior restraint against the online whistleblower website Wikileaks, leading to the dismissal of the claims against Wikileaks and the restoration of the Wikileaks website. Jim also represented the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit corporation that provides Wikipedia, in a defamation action in New Jersey together with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and New York partner Kevin Goering.
2007
For 16 years, Phil Atkins-Pattenson in our San Francisco office represented the Natural Resources Defense Council and other environmental groups pro bono in a case that established a significant and historical water-restoration plan. A landmark settlement, approved in October 2006, restores flows to a 60-mile section of the San Joaquin river. For his dedication and achievement, Phil received the coveted California Lawyer Attorney of the Year award in the "Environmental" category. Phil has been a lifelong supporter of pro bono, serving on the firm's Pro Bono Committee and donating hundreds of hours. In calendar year 2006, Phil recorded 876 hours of non-indigent pro bono time.
New York associate Eric O'Connor provided ongoing assistance to partner Ed Tillinghast in the representation of a defendant in a death penalty case entitled Florida v. Nixon. The defendant, who is mentally challenged, was sentenced to death in a decision upheld by the Florida Supreme Court. Using medical and psychological evidence not proffered by former counsel at trial, Eric and Ed sought to have the Florida Supreme Court's decision reversed on Constitutional grounds. Eric also contributed heavily to other pro bono cases in the NYC office. Eric recorded 735 hours of indigent pro bono time in calendar year 2006.
2006
Former Orange County partner Andy Guilford, now serving on the Bench, was awarded the firm's Pro Bono Attorney of the Year Award. Andy donated 161 indigent legal services hours in 2005. He has worked on a variety of cases, including the Perry v. Cantarella case, in which he and a number of associates in the Orange County office billed thousands of hours representing an indigent domestic violence victim. He also represented an indigent homeless man in a dispute with the city over his First Amendment rights. In 2005, Andy was President of the Public Law Center, the leading pro bono service agency in Orange County. Andy also served on the California Supreme Court's Self-Represented Litigants Task Force.
2005
Elizabeth Balfour in Del Mar was named the firm's Pro Bono Attorney of the Year for her work with the Children At Risk Committee. Her leadership of the Committee involved coordinating the mock trial video program and creating, with Committee members, a program on peaceful conflict resolution for elementary school students and training volunteer attorneys to take the program into schools. She also helped further the Committee's partnership with Kennedy Elementary School by implementing a peer mediation program and supporting literacy programs through volunteer participation and fundraising.