Zenab Youssef
Celebrating Two Years of the IRA: Our ...

As we commemorate the two-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) today, August 16, there is much to celebrate about this historic legislation. The IRA represents the largest-ever climate investment in our country’s history, creating unprecedented opportunities for clean energy savings.

However, we at L4GG are acutely aware that historically marginalized communities often lack the resources to access the IRA’s historic funding opportunities. In response, we have intensified our efforts over the past two years to ensure that the benefits of the IRA reach those who need them most. See what we’ve been up to!

Celebrating Two Years of the IRA: Our Achievements and Impact
Zenab Youssef
A Law Student's Journey at the Border with ...
A Law Student's Journey at the Border with Project Corazon
L4GG Updates
Zenab Youssef
We Won’t Sit Silently in the Face of ...

Not enough people are talking about the water crisis in Jackson, MS. On Tuesday, the Mississippi governor declared a state of emergency for Jackson’s water system, the city’s largest treatment plant. Most of the city’s 150,000 residents are without running water, having to rely on bottled water for drinking, showering, brushing their teeth, and cooking.

We Won’t Sit Silently in the Face of Environmental Racism - Neither Should You
L4GG Updates
Sterling Howard
What can YOU do to fight for abortion access ...
L4GG Updates
Sterling Howard
L4GG Publishes Joint Report with New Georgia ...

Lawyers for Good Government (L4GG), the nation’s largest community of attorneys committed to human rights and equal justice for all, and New Georgia Project, a nonpartisan, nonprofit voting rights and civic engagement organization in Georgia, today released a report on ‘ballot selfies’, or the practice of taking photos of oneself at the ballot box and/or with their ballots.

A ballot selfie is when a person takes a photo of themselves holding their marked ballot and usually uploads the photo to a social media account to show friends that they voted, and for whom they voted. Ballot selfies are a great way to promote voting and engage with one’s community, yet many states have laws that prohibit them. Advocacy organizations are concerned that laws prohibiting ballot selfies are tools of voter suppression, and another way to criminalize ordinary behavior.

Click here to download “Selfie-Defense Training: Understanding and Reforming Laws that Ban Photographing and Sharing Your Ballot”

The report found that ballot selfies are completely legal in 28 states, and illegal in 13 states. Five states have laws prohibiting ballot selfies at polling locations, but not when casting a mail-in or absentee ballot. Six states have laws governing ballot selfies that are unclear. The report calls for states to update their laws to explicitly allow voters the right to take a ballot selfie, and prevent voter fraud and bribery without curtailing free speech.

L4GG Publishes Joint Report with New Georgia Project on Ballot Selfies

Ukraine

,

Ukrainians Receive Free Legal Help to Apply for U.S. Immigration Status

,

Pro Bono Lawyers from 130 Major Law Firms and Companies Are Volunteering to Help Ukrainians in the U.S. to Apply for Temporary Protected Status (TPS)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Lawyers for Good Government (L4GG), Kirkland & Ellis LLP, and a broad coalition of 130 law firms and companies have partnered to launch the TPS Pro Bono Project for Ukraine, a nationwide pro bono remote legal clinic to provide legal services for Ukrainian nationals in the U.S. to apply for Temporary Protected Status (TPS). 

Interested Ukrainians who would like to request free legal assistance in filing for TPS should click HERE and fill out the online screening form: L4GG.org/TPS-Ukraine.

Eligible Ukrainian nationals will be offered free legal assistance from pro bono attorneys who can help answer legal questions and assist in applying for TPS. TPS is a form of immigration relief offered to foreign nationals in the United States whose home countries are considered unsafe, and provides the right to live and work in the United States for a temporary period. The Biden Administration designated Ukraine for TPS in early March of 2022, and has declared that Ukrainian nationals who entered the U.S. on or before April 11, 2022 are eligible to apply. 

The initiative has recruited more than 2,400 attorney volunteers. A full list of participating law firms and companies is below. Additionally, the clinic was launched with financial support from Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Alston & Bird LLP, Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider LLP, Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC, Comcast NBCUniversal, Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, DLA Piper LLP US, Eversheds Sutherland, Fenwick & West LLP, Foley Hoag LLP, GE, Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP, K&L Gates, Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP, King & Spalding, Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP, Linklaters LLP, McGuireWoods LLP, Nelson Mullins, Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP, PayPal, Inc., Robins Kaplan LLP, Seyfarth Shaw, Sidley Austin LLP, Verizon Communications, White & Case LLP, and the Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Foundation.

“TPS is an important tool to safeguard lives, increase economic stability, and keep families united during a time of unprecedented uncertainty for Ukrainians,” said Traci Feit Love, Executive Director of Lawyers for Good Government. “We are proud to mobilize the legal community in support of this project and are grateful to the 130 law firms and companies who are standing beside us to serve the Ukrainian community.”

“Ukrainians in the United States are facing a period of extreme instability, in which they cannot return to their home country, and do not know what they will find when they can eventually return,” said Jacqueline Haberfeld, Global Program Director and Pro Bono Counsel at Kirkland & Ellis LLP. “As lawyers, we feel fortunate to have the skills necessary to help relieve them of the burden of concern about their immigration status, and to be able to help them obtain permission to work and support themselves while they shelter in the United States during the war.”

The TPS Pro Bono Project for Ukraine is an initiative of L4GG’s Project Corazon, an immigrants’ rights program defending the rights of asylum seekers and other migrants. Project Corazon runs a legal clinic in the Rio Grande Valley that provides legal assistance to asylum seekers, with a focus on serving particularly vulnerable asylum seekers, such as those with medical or psychological conditions, disabilities, LGBTQ+ individuals, and third-language speakers.  

If resources allow, L4GG hopes to expand the TPS Pro Bono Project for Ukraine to provide legal assistance to nationalities of other countries designated for TPS, such as Afghans, Haitians, Venezuelans, Cameroonians, and more. 

Full List of Participating Law Firms and Companies:

Akerman LLP

Alpert, Slobin & Rubenstein, LLP  

Alpha Medical

Alston & Bird LLP

Amgen

Arnold & Porter

Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider LLP

BakerHostetler

Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC

Blank Rome

Bloomberg

BNY Mellon

Brainly

Bristol Myers Squibb

Buckley LLP

Cable & Wireless Communications LLC

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft

Clark Hill PLC

Cohen & Siegel

Cohen Ziffer Frenchman and McKenna

Colgate-Palmolive Company

Comcast NBCUniversal

Crowell & Moring LLP

Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP

Dechert LLP

DLA Piper LLP US

Dorsey & Whitney LLP

Dykema

Elastic

Eversheds Sutherland

F5, Inc.

Fennemore

Fenwick & West LLP

Fidelity Investments

Fish & Richardson P.C.

Foley & Lardner LLP

Foley Hoag LLP

Ford Motor Company

Fragomen

Freshfields US LLP

GE

Goodwin Procter LLP

Hogan Lovells

Holland & Hart LLP

Hopin

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP

IBM

Infineon Technologies

Intel

International Legal Counsels PC (d/b/a femida.us) 

Irwin IP LLC

Jackson Lewis P.C.

Jenner & Block LLP

JPMorgan Chase

K&L Gates

Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP

Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP

Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP

King & Spalding

Kirkland & Ellis LLP

Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP

LinkedIn

Linklaters LLP

Loeb & Loeb LLP

Lyft, Inc.

Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP

Mayer Brown LLP

McCarter & English, LLP

McDermott Will & Emery LLP

McGuireWoods LLP

Milbank

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP

Morrison & Foerster LLP

Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr, P. C.

Nelson Mullins

Norton Rose Fulbright 

Orrick

Pacific Life Insurance Company

Paramount Global

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP

PayPal, Inc.

Pfizer

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

Pro Bono Strategies

Reed Smith LLP

RELX, Inc.

Robins Kaplan LLP

Robinson & Cole LLP

Ropes & Gray LLP

Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP

Seyfarth Shaw

Shearman & Sterling

Sheppard Mullin

Sidley Austin LLP

JM Family Enterprises, Inc.

Squire Patton Boggs (US) LLP

State Farm

Steptoe & Johnson LLP

Stroock

USAA

Vault Health

Verizon Communications

White & Case LLP

Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

###

Lawyers for Good Government (L4GG) coordinates large scale pro bono programs and issue advocacy efforts to protect human rights and ensure equal justice under the law, and has a network of 125,000+ lawyers to assist in its efforts. 


Kirkland & Ellis is committed to providing legal services without charge to those who cannot afford counsel, with the goals of improving lives, bettering communities and deepening our attorneys’ professional experience. Kirkland attorneys at all levels pursue pro bono matters dealing with a variety of issues such as immigration, disability rights, civil rights, prisoner rights, death penalty cases and criminal appeals, guardianship, veterans’ benefits, and the representation of nonprofit organizations, among other areas. In 2021, Kirkland devoted more than 122,000 hours of free legal service to pro bono clients. Learn more about Kirkland’s commitment to pro bono and corporate social responsibility at www.kirkland.com/CSR.

TELL BIDEN ADMINISTRATION: Protect Ukrainians in the United States

In response to Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine, L4GG is working on two important fronts to ensure that the U.S. government protects Ukrainian nationals within the U.S. We invite you to join us today.

CALL FOR TEMPORARY PROTECTED STATUS (TPS) FOR UKRAINIANS IN THE US.

We’ve written a letter to President Biden, Secretary of Homeland Security Mayorkas, and Secretary of State Blinken urging them to designate the 30,000 Ukrainian nationals within the United States as eligible for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) or Deferred Enforced Departure (DED), as well as Special Student Relief (SSR).  TPS provides protection from deportation and permission to work for eligible nationals of countries that have been designated temporarily too dangerous for return.

Join us today by calling directly on the Biden Administration to make this designation.

CLICK TO TWEET:

The serious and ongoing armed conflict in Ukraine is a humanitarian crisis. @POTUS @SecMayorkas must immediately designate TPS or DED and SSR for Ukraine. Read letter from @lawyers4goodgov calling for TPS: https://L4GG.org/TPS4UkraineLetter

A country reeling from military aggression is not appropriate for safe return! We urge @SecMayorkas to designate Ukraine for #TPS and protect 30,000 people from deportation. Read letter from @lawyers4goodgov: https://L4GG.org/TPS4UkraineLetter

COPY AND PASTE TO FACEBOOK:

A country reeling from military aggression is not appropriate for safe return! We urge President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas to designate Ukraine for #TPS and protect 30,000 people from deportation.

Read L4GG’s Letter Here: https://L4GG.org/TPS4UkraineLetter.

DEVELOPING RAPID RESPONSE PRO BONO PROJECT TO ASSIST UKRANIAN NATIONALS

Just as we’ve done in similar moments of crisis, we’re currently working in coalition with partner organizations to better ascertain the needs of Ukrainian nationals and determine how L4GG might be able to mobilize the legal profession to help at this moment. If TPS/DED status is granted to Ukraine, we intend to move very quickly to implement a new pro bono project to provide legal assistance. We have already begun building the infrastructure for this potential project and will keep you apprised as things develop.

Urgency to Continue Transitioning to Renewable Energy

The war in Europe also highlights the urgency for the US to transition to renewable energy sources and away from reliance on fossil fuels and petrostates like Russia. L4GG remains committed to helping localities transition to renewable energy, and you can learn more about our work doing so with our Climate Change program here.