Pro Bono Matters
Inclusive to the Core
Reproductive Rights
In the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, MoFo continues to support reproductive rights as an anchor law firm in the Abortion Defense Network and in litigation to enforce medically necessary exceptions to state abortion bans.
Immigration
After five years of litigation spanning three
presidential administrations, MoFo won a court
order that requires beds, showers, quality food,
and medical screenings for immigration detainees
held more than 48 hours in Customs and Border
Patrol facilities near the Arizona-Mexico border.
Cutting Edge Advocacy
MoFo’s wide-ranging partnership with The Nature Conservancy advances innovative approaches to climate action to build a future where nature and people can thrive. One example: creating a “reverse auction” to pay farmers to flood their fields, off-season, in California’s Central Valley, creating temporary wetlands needed to support shorebird migration.
As a proud co-founder of Lawyers for a Sustainable Economy, we support creative thinkers who are testing new concepts to address global warming—like promoting local investment in community solar energy projects, creating a mechanism for crowdsourced investments in sustainable energy, and using microbiology to develop sustainable, cultured foods.
Pacific Environment is an NGO that partners with local activists to protect Pacific Rim communities and wildlife. Our attorneys in Shanghai and Beijing helped Pacific Environment meet the requirements of the Overseas NGO Management Law in China, registering a local office that enables it to continue its operations there.
Pursuing Racial Justice
Bringing Balance
Voter Rights
Combating
Discrimination
“Tough on crime” bills passed in the 1970s led to mass incarceration that has disproportionately affected communities of color in the United States. MoFo joined with the Southern Poverty Law Center to redress the impact of Mississippi’s harsh “Three Strikes” law by filing petitions to request parole hearings for some 100 SPLC clients who were originally given no-parole sentences for non-violent offenses.
Bringing Balance
Combating Discrimination
MoFo sued a local school district on behalf of four Black and Hispanic girls who, as middle-schoolers, were hauled into the school nurse’s office and subjected to intrusive searches because their school principal found it suspicious that they were “giddy” at lunchtime.
Voter Rights
In 2018, Florida restored voting rights to people with past felony convictions. In response, the state legislature passed a law requiring that, to register, these newly eligible voters must also pay any conviction-related fees. Would-be voters have no
easy way to determine whether they owe such fees, and face potential criminal charges if they erroneously register. At the request of the Southern Poverty Law Center, MoFo contacted officials in all 68 Florida counties to gather information on each county’s procedures.
We partnered with Northrup Grumman Corporation and George Washington University Law (“GW Law”) to more meaningfully invest in the next generation of diverse leaders and launched a joint mentoring program. The program is open to highly motivated GW law students from historically underrepresented groups who expressed an interest in government contracting law; seven students are participating in the program.
Here at MoFo, our lawyers invest time in more than 1,000 pro bono matters each year, for individuals, nonprofit organizations, small businesses, and social entrepreneurs.
While this offers a glimpse at what pro bono matters are, it would take volumes to tell the
whole story.
But why does pro bono matter? That we can answer.
Pro Bono Matters...
Give a voice to the unrepresented.
Bring justice to individuals.
Help small businesses survive disaster.
Empower visionaries to create change.
Tackle urgent social issues.
Uplift our communities.
Introduction
Cutting Edge Advocacy
Sustainability and the Environment
Pursuing Racial Justice
Additional Matters
Pro bono matters change lives –
our clients’ lives, and our lawyers’
lives, as well.
MoFo doesn't hold back when justice demands bold advocacy
LGBTQ+ Rights
The firm’s proud legacy of advocacy for marriage
equality has gone international as MoFo helped
to win support of bar associations and business
leaders for same sex marriage in Japan.
Protecting the Vote
MoFo’s lawsuit on behalf of Georgia voters led the
state to abolish its antiquated, electronic-only voting
system that was highly vulnerable to cyberattack,
and to adopt a system that includes paper ballot
back-ups.
Sustainability and the Environment
© 2023 Morrison & Foerster LLP
Providing pro bono legal assistance is a core value of Morrison Foerster – a value that our attorneys live out, in every one of our offices, every day. Pro bono work engages our lawyers’ intellects and develops their professional skills.
And perhaps most important, these close encounters with society’s most pressing needs teach lessons of the heart that last throughout a lawyer’s career.
Pro Bono Matters
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Social Enterprise
Helping Small Business Survive and Thrive
Youth and Education
Social Enterprise
Helping Small Business Survive and Thrive
And So Much More
As COVID-19 devastated small businesses, MoFo was a catalyst for creating the California Small Enterprise, or CASE Task Force, providing short-term legal and business advice and long-term loans to entrepreneurs affected by the pandemic.
We are proud partners of Start Small, Think Big, which offers pro bono legal and financial counsel to small businesses in New York and the San Francisco Bay Area.
In Miami, we work with the global nonprofit Endeavor, which selects high-impact entrepreneurs for extensive pro bono support to increase opportunity in the local economy.
London transactions attorneys regularly volunteer at qLegal, guiding law students as they advise start-ups and entrepreneurs on legal issues at a clinic sponsored by Queen Mary University of London.
Social entrepreneurs reach beyond traditional nonprofit structures to tackle important social problems in ways that are financially sustainable. Our guides for social enterprise, published in conjunction with TrustLaw and the UK’s UnLtd, help get social enterprises off the ground.
London attorneys have assisted AEROPOWDER, an awardwinning startup aimed at capturing some of the tons of feathers generated by the poultry industry each day and creating novel materials from this lightweight, strong, insulating resource that would otherwise go to waste.
MoFo patent attorneys work with many social enterprises including Prakti, whose highly efficient cookstoves address the enormous burden that fuel-gathering places on millions of women and children; Angaza Design, whose pay-as-you-go solar systems allow low-income families access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa; and Participant Assistive Products, whose wheelchairs for children are easily transportable and adaptable for recreational activities.
MoFo and Public Counsel sued California for denying the right to achieve literacy to students attending schools where just 4%-11% of students were graded “proficient” in reading. We reached a settlement that provided over $50 million to promote literacy. The new funds are targeted toward 75 low-performing elementary schools while also supporting literacy statewide.
Lawyers in our New York office succeeded in holding the Mount Vernon City School District accountable for its pervasive failure to provide legally required support to children with learning disabilities. The district is now implementing wide-ranging reforms as recommended by an
independent expert.
Children in foster care in California, Hawaii and New York are reaping the benefits of litigation brought by MoFo to require that foster parents get financial support sufficient to meet the requirements of the federal Child Welfare Act.
Youth and Education
