Pro Bono Efforts in the News

Haynes and Boone Team Achieves Victory in Asylum Case

DALLAS On Jan. 24, Haynes and Boone lawyers Thomas J. Williams and Ian Peck obtained asylum for a foreign citizen who fled her own country after extensive persecution in retaliation for her assistance to an indigenous group. >>

Kenneth J. Friedman in the New York Law Journal: Pro bono work

After standing vacant for nearly a decade, the redevelopment of 470 Vanderbilt Ave., between Fulton Street and Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, has attracted two tenants seeking large spaces. >>

Haynes and Boone Recognized by Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program for Pro Bono Service

DALLASThe lawyers of Haynes and Boone, LLP were recognized by the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program (DVAP), a joint program of the Dallas Bar Association and Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas, as outstanding civic attorney volunteers at the 29th Pro Bono Awards Reception Oct. 26. The firm also received the 2011 Gold Award for pro bono service (for firms with 150 or more Dallas office attorneys). >>

Haynes and Boone and American Airlines Receive 2011 Law Firm of the Year Award from Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas

FORT WORTHHaynes and Boone, LLP and American Airlines were honored by Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas (LANWT) with the 2011 Outstanding Law Firm of the Year Award. >>

Haynes and Boone Washington Office Wins First Pro Bono Asylum Case

WASHINGTON – On Aug. 16, the Haynes and Boone, LLP Washington, D.C., office won its first pro bono asylum case. >>

In Texas, Two Freed Men Target Those Who Put Them Away

Thirteen years after being convicted of a killing they say they didn't commit--and three years after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals vacated their convictions--Jesus Ramirez and Alberto Sifuentes are back before a jury this week. This time around, though, the two men are on the offensive.

Ramirez and Sifuentes are plaintiffs in a civil rights case filed against a variety of individuals and entities that they blame for their wrongful convictions. The two men are represented in the matter, which went to trial Monday in Lubbock federal district court, by the same Haynes and Boone lawyers who helped free them from prison after 12 years. >>

Haynes and Boone Houston Office Recognized By Houston Bar Association for Pro Bono Work

HOUSTON – The Haynes and Boone, LLP Houston office has been recognized by the Houston Bar Association as an Equal Access to Justice Champion for its continued support of the Equal Access to Justice Champions Program through the Houston Volunteer Lawyers Program.

Since the program’s inception in 2006, Haynes and Boone has handled more than 25 pro bono cases each year, and recently pledged to do so again for the next five years. >>

Jonathan Pressment in the New York Law Journal: City Insists There Will Be 'Many, Many Cases' for 18-B Lawyers Under Plan Fought by Bar Groups

A lawyer from the New York City Law Department seeking to uphold a ruling allowing the city to move conflict cases from private lawyers to groups like the Legal Aid Society yesterday disavowed any intention to "knock out 18-B lawyers," as the private lawyers are commonly called.

The city has steadfastly refused to divulge any aspect of how it intents to handle conflict cases under its plan, maintaining that all details are confidential until contracts are awarded to the groups that will handle the cases.

Jonathan D. Pressment, who argued for the five county bar groups challenging the plan, told the panel that the city had provided it with no information as to how conflicts will be handled one contracts are awarded. >>




Serving the Common Good Where We Live and Practice

At Haynes and Boone we believe that a meaningful professional career is much more than just handling major business transactions or trying complex lawsuits. Our lawyers actively use the law for helping those people and organizations who need it most but are least able to pay.

Haynes and Boone is committed to supporting such opportunities for pro bono service and believes this kind of leadership is the right thing for a firm like ours to do. It serves the common good where we live and practice.

Taking Pro Bono Seriously

Although we believe that all of our lawyers should make personal decisions about public service, we formed our firmwide Pro Bono/Public Service Committee nearly 20 years ago to coordinate pro bono legal work and other public service opportunities and match them to our lawyers and staff. The Committee includes associates and partners, and our encouragement of pro bono service is reflected in the fact that more than 70 percent of associates and nearly 40 percent of partners regularly undertake pro bono work.

Our goal is that each lawyer should aspire to at least 50 hours of pro bono public legal services per year – and our annual total of more than 11,000 pro bono hours is testimony to how seriously Haynes and Boone lawyers take the pro bono challenge.

We take these individual efforts seriously:
  • Our lawyers are all required to report their pro bono hours the same way they report billable hours
  • Pro bono time is viewed favorably in performance reviews
  • Every associate is required to handle a pro bono case as soon as they join the firm.

Achieving Worthwhile Results

The matters that our lawyers undertake are as diverse as society’s needs. For example, we represent:

  • Abused and neglected children, and unaccompanied immigrant children in the U.S.
  • Seekers of political asylum who face violence or death if they return to their home countries
  • Indigent clients who need help ranging from family violence situations to defense in death penalty cases.

Often our efforts result in well-deserved recognition. A team of our attorneys received the 2008 W. Frank Newton Award for outstanding pro bono effort after a 7-year fight to free two indigent Mexican nationals wrongly convicted and sentenced to life for murder. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered that both defendants be given new trials, and a grand jury declined to indict them, setting both free after 12 years in prison. In 2010, the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program (DVAP) presented the Dallas Office of Haynes and Boone, LLP with the Pro Bono Law Firm of the Year Award for donating about 1,500 hours of pro bono services to DVAP clients. The next year, DVAP honored the firm with its Gold Award for Pro Bono Service when 122 Haynes and Boone attorneys and staff volunteers worked a total of 2,003 hours on pro bono matters referred to the firm by DVAP.

Meanwhile in Fort Worth, Haynes and Boone and American Airlines were honored by Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas (LANWT) with the 2011 Outstanding Law Firm of the Year Award for taking pro bono cases providing quality civil legal representation to deserving low income clients.

In Houston, the firm has won designation as the Outstanding Firm Contribution Award from the Houston Bar Foundation for the firm's significant contributions and volunteer work on behalf of the Houston Volunteer Lawyers Program. Meanwhile, a special award has been conferred on Dallas Partner Joyce Mazero by Promise House (a non-profit shelter for runaway, homeless and at-risk youths).

But many are quiet victories for those in dire need of legal services. For example, two Houston associates - Josh Chaffin and Erin LeBaron - represented a Nepalese couple who suffered kidnapping and threats for their politics while living in their homeland. Haynes and Boone attorneys, working in collaboration with the Human Rights Initiative of North Texas, spent more than two years seeking asylum in the United States for the couple. When victory was finally secured in July 2009, Christine Cooney Mansour, legal director for Dallas-based HRI, thanked the firm for its dedication. “Haynes and Boone has been a long-time HRI supporter,” Ms. Mansour said. “The firm is the only one in Houston that we turn to when one of our Dallas attorneys cannot be there. That is a big deal to us. We really appreciate it.”

Organizations we assist include:

  • 2011 New York World Police & Fire Games
  • Access Fund
  • Camp Fire USA
  • D.C. Bar Pro Bono Program's Advocacy & Justice Clinic
  • Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program
  • Goodwill Industries of Dallas
  • Houston Volunteer Lawyer Program 
  • Human Rights Initiative of North Texas
  • Justice for Children
  • Kids in Need of Defense (KIND)
  • National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
  • Promise House
  • State Bar of Texas Access to Justice Commission
  • Volunteer Legal Services of Central Texas