Leaders of 34 law firms pledge to help reunify families and provide representation for asylum seeker

[Gothmog]

My profession is answering the call

Link to tweet

[BigmanPigman]

1. THANK YOU!!!!!!

[CurtEastPoint]

2. Could it be possible to list those 34 firms?

I am hoping my former employer is on the list.
Thank you.

[Gothmog]

8. Here you are

From the article cited in the tweet https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/06/25/opinion/zero-tolerance-trump-asylum-family-separation-lawyers.html

David I. Spector, Chairman & CEO, Akerman LLP
Richard M. Alexander, Chairman, Arnold & Porter
Paul Rawlinson, Global Chair, and Colin Murray, North America Managing Partner,
Baker McKenzie
John C. Sumberg, Chairman, Bilzin Sumberg Baena Price & Axelrod LLP
Joseph F. Ryan, Chairman and CEO, Brown Rudnick LLP
Benjamin B. Klubes and John P. Kromer, Co-Managing Partners, Buckley Sandler
LLP
Michael J. Heller, Executive Chairman and CEO, Cozen O’Connor
Jeffrey P. Gray, Managing Partner, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
Michael T. McNamara, Chief Executive Officer, Dentons US LLP
Mark D. Wasserman, Managing Partner, Eversheds Sutherland (US) LLP
Richard L. Dickson, Chair, Fenwick & West LLP
Alan M. Fisch, Managing Partner, Fisch Sigler LLP
Peter J. Devlin, President and Chief Executive Officer, Fish & Richardson P.C.
David J. Greenwald, Chairman, Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP
Kenneth M. Doran, Chairman and Managing Partner, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP
Timothy E. Powers, Managing Partner, Haynes and Boone, LLP
Stephen J. Immelt, CEO, Hogan Lovells
John C. Hueston, Co-Founder, Hueston Hennigan LLP
George C. Howell, III, Chair, Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP
Lewis Rose, Managing Partner, Kelley Drye & Warren LLP
Paul S. Pearlman, Managing Partner, Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP
Gary M. Wingens is chairman and managing partner of Lowenstein Sandler.
William Quicksilver, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner, Manatt, Phelps
& Phillips, LLP
Ira J. Coleman, Chairman, McDermott, Will & Emery LLP
Michael P. McGee, CEO, Miller, Canfield, Paddock & Stone P.L.C.
Brad S. Karp, chairman of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.
Larren N. Nashelsky, Chair, Morrison & Foerster LLP
W. Russell Welsh, Chair, Polsinelli PC
Martin R. Lueck, Chairman, Robins Kaplan LLP
J. Stephen Poor, Chair Emeritus, Seyfarth Shaw LLP
William R. Dougherty, Chairman, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP
Jeffrey R. Keitelman and Alan M. Klinger, Co-Managing Partners, Stroock &
Stroock & Lavan LLP
Mark Kelly, Chairman, and Scott Wulfe, Managing Partner, Vinson & Elkins LLP
Susan W. Murley and Robert T. Novick, Co-Managing Partners, Wilmer Cutler
Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP

[CurtEastPoint]

15. Thank you and thanks to these dedicated legal pros.

[Gothmog]

16. Was your old firm on the list?

I am irked that the one surviving firm where I worked was not on this list

[CurtEastPoint]

18. No, neither one. And both are Amlaw 100

Based in Atlanta.

[Gothmog]

23. My son's firm is on the list

One of my old firms is AMLAW 100 and is not on the list

[elleng]

10. 2 named here:

Mr. Karp is chairman of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. Mr. Wingens is chairman and managing partner of Lowenstein Sandler.

List: https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/56-karp-law-firms-immigration/e5909f3724676d9bf77e/optimized/full.pdf#page=1

[Iliyah]

3. The good shall outweigh the bad.

K & R

[Gothmog]

4. The Law Did Not Create This Crisis, but Lawyers Will Help End It

This makes me smile https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/06/25/opinion/zero-tolerance-trump-asylum-family-separation-lawyers.html

We speak for a group of lawyers who lead 34 major American law firms. As a group, we cannot stand by as our government, under the pretext of enforcing the law, violates it and traumatizes children and their parents in the process. We are professionally obligated to safeguard the rule of law and to protect the poor and the vulnerable against targeted governmental abuses. We call upon the administration to develop an immediate plan for reunifying children with their families, to release families who pose no threat to our country and to terminate the policy of criminally prosecuting asylum seekers.

While it is the government’s responsibility, ultimately, to solve problems of its own making, we have coalesced our resources and joined forces with the legal services community to protect the rule of law. Our firms, which collectively employ about 30,000 lawyers in nearly every state, have pledged to help reunify families and ensure representation for legitimate asylum seekers. This outpouring of volunteerism depends on strong partnerships with the legal services entities on the front lines. The firm Paul, Weiss, working with the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, has sent a team of lawyers to represent parents detained near the border in Texas. The Lowenstein Sandler firm has been working alongside the Vera Institute of Justice and the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights to secure access to counsel for the young, separated children held in New York State and to advise lawyers of their ethical obligations when they undertake such representation.

This crisis requires an army of lawyers to untangle because the immigration courts are flooded and detention centers across the country are bursting. The world is watching, and the private bar is mobilizing to serve the thousands who have been imperiled by the Trump administration — and to ensure that the rule of law is protected as well.

[elleng]

6. Yes we will!

[Gothmog]

9. Our profession is answering the call

[elleng]

11. which is why some of us WENT to law school.

[Demsrule86]

5. Wonderful! Thanks for this.

K&R

[Leghorn21]

7. Best tweet EVER, many thanks yet again, Gothmog. Just WOW!!!

[LakeArenal]

12. Please please follow through...

We need professionals to help.

[in2herbs]

13. I think my blood pressure just dropped with this wonderful news.

Last edited Mon Jun 25, 2018, 10:41 PM - Edit history (1)

I'm a newbie and still trying to figure out how to do things. Please be patient. I'm not computer savvy.

[Gothmog]

14. Welcome to DU

[Amaryllis]

21. Just ask questions if you dont get something. People are glad to help. We are democrats, after all.

[DesertRat]

17. Thank you,Gothmog!

[Honeycombe8]

19. Oh, my. That's unbelievable! How wonderful! nt

[Cha]

20. Yay, Good Lawyers.. Love them!

Mahalo, Goth!

[Gothmog]

22. Hey, Cha

I am proud of my profession

[Cha]

24. You should very well be!

[Glimmer of Hope]

25. Mueller's old law firm is on that list.

[Gothmog]

26. Trump's law firm fell off AMLAW 100

Link to tweet

[Rhiannon12866]

27. K&R! Finally, some good news!

[Gothmog]

28. A great example of civil society mobilizing to put a check on Trump's latest abuses

Link to tweet

[Gothmog]

29. Corporate lawyers were among first to go airport during first travel ban

This is from a high school classmate of my son who is a lawyer and is an editor of the Houston Chronicle

Link to tweet

[Gothmog]

30. Here is an e-mail that I just received from the President of the Texas state bar association

I am proud of my profession

Dear Member,
This week I traveled to the border to learn how we can promote access to justice and the rule of law related to the separation of immigrant families. I met with a number of dedicated attorneys and organizations that are working long hours and pouring all of their energies into ensuring that children and parents are reunited and that legal rights are protected through due process of law.

I’m saddened to report that many children are still separated from their parents. Attorneys who visited an adult detention facility recounted women sobbing immediately upon being asked whether their children had been taken away. Others described struggling to explain legal rights to detained children whose sole desire was to be back with their parents. These accounts are from pro bono and legal aid attorneys who are accustomed to working with clients in difficult situations; they said the sorrow they witnessed at these facilities was on a wholly different level.

Your State Bar of Texas exists, in part, to aid the courts in carrying on and improving the administration of justice and to advance the quality of legal services to the public. In that spirit, the State Bar is compiling a list of volunteer trainings and opportunities at texasbar.com/volunteer for those who would like to get involved in reuniting children with their parents.

By far, the greatest need is for Spanish-speaking immigration attorneys to volunteer their time at the border. Many organizations are also seeking monetary donations. The State Bar will continually update the volunteer webpage as resources and information develop.

In my presidential inaugural address last Friday in Houston, I said we are uniquely equipped to address the problems vexing our nation—including the current family separation crisis. This is not about politics. It’s about access to justice. The people involved in this crisis may not be citizens, but they are still entitled to due process in a land that values the rule of law.

Sincerely,
Joe K. Longley
President, State Bar of Texas

[Gothmog]

31. From one of the legal blogs

This is from one of the legal blogs http://texaslawbook.net/

‘Mami, Por qué dejas que me lastimen?’ – Corp. Lawyers Help Anguished Parents & Children at the Border

By Mark Curriden LOS FRESNOS, TX – (July 2) – Corporate lawyers left the Port Isabel Detention Center exhausted Sunday evening after hearing Honduran and Guatemalan mothers and fathers describe the reasons they fled their homelands. Many were repeatedly gang-raped or forced into prostitution by gangs or beaten because they could not afford a gang-imposed tax. Others were tortured or had family members kidnapped because they witnessed a crime.

Swatting away swarms of mosquitos, the lawyers said detainees – exhausted, confused and emotionally overwhelmed – begged them for legal help and for information about their children, which were taken from them when they were arrested. This weekend, The Texas Lawbook interviewed in-person and on the telephone seven corporate lawyers who worked pro bono for detainees at Port Isabel and two other facilities in South Texas. The stories they tell are horrifying.