Davis Wright Tremaine's Pro Bono Report | Fall 2013
pro bono
FALL 2013
DWT pursues civil rights claim on behalf of transgender student expelled by Baptist university.
DWT wins favorable ruling in effort to release records from infamous U.S. military training school.
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Page 10 Asylum achieved for single mom threatened by Venezuelan regime.
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Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
is a national, full-service, business and litigation law firm representing clients located in the United States and around the world. The firm was founded on a simple guiding principle: to provide clients with high-value legal services customized to their particular needs. Today the firm has grown to include approximately 500 attorneys and nine offices, covering a wide range of practice and industry areas. We believe that all citizens deserve a voice and representation. And all lawyers have an obligation to assist people and organizations that otherwise would have no access to the justice system. We are pleased to provide you this report on our pro bono activities during the second quarter of 2013.
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I ended up taking a crash course not only in immigration law, but in how difficult life can be for people who might not agree with the government in Venezuela.”
We have embraced the American Bar Association’s challenge to law firms to commit three percent of their total firmwide billable hours to pro bono work. During the second quarter of 2013, our attorneys’ billable hours devoted to pro bono work totaled:
3,181
222
DWT attorneys participated in pro bono work during the second quarter of 2013. Our attorneys have a broad range of interests and political philosophies, and they are free to pursue those interests within the guidelines of our pro bono program. These projects are often emotionally demanding and may even involve unpopular causes or clients. But they’re always rewarding.
DWT Wins Favorable Ruling in Effort to Release Records From Infamous U.S. Military Training School
Two Davis Wright Tremaine clients were recently granted summary judgment in an important case seeking release of records from the military training school formerly known as the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA).
Working pro bono on behalf of plaintiffs Theresa Cameranesi and Judith Liteky, DWT attorneys Duffy Carolan and Jeff Glasser have been seeking access to the names of those who train and teach at the school, which is presently housed at Fort Benning, Ga.
The school trains military leaders from countries throughout the Western Hemisphere in combat and various counter-insurgency techniques. Eleven Latin American military dictators—including Manuel Noriega of Panama, Hugo Banzer of Bolivia, and General Rios Montt of Guatemala—
attended the school, which has long been subject to public criticism for its connection to gross human rights abuses throughout the Americas. SOA briefly closed—and changed its name—in 2000, after unsuccessful efforts by Congress to limit its funding. It’s now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute of Security Cooperation (or WHINSEC, pronounced WIN-sec).
From 1994 to 2004, the school routinely released the names, course, rank, country of origin, and dates attended for every soldier and instructor at the school—going back to its founding in 1946—upon request under the Freedom of Information Act. SOA Watch, a non-profit advocacy organization that seeks to close the school, compiled the data, and through other publicly available information, such as U.S. State Department reports, helped bring to light hundreds of cases where SOA alumni have been implicated in human rights abuses, including the formation of death squads.
The SOA Watch database, containing over 60,000 names, has been utilized by members of Congress seeking to make decisions about the school and other foreign policies. The data has also been relevant to the analysis of whether and to what effect the government is vetting individual officers and noncommissioned officers prior to admitting
and instructors previously disclosed by the Pentagon and matched those names with human rights reports prepared by the State Department and others. The group’s findings, which documented five cases where individuals were allowed to attend WHINSEC despite existing human rights records, were presented to the office of U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.).
Soon after this report, the Pentagon reversed its longstanding practice of releasing the names of WHINSEC attendees.
On February 6, 2012, Cameranesi and Liteky, both members of a San Francisco research group that is part of SOA Watch, sued the Defense Department and the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (which responded to the FOIA request). The suit, filed in the Northern District of California, seeks access to the names, military units, and other attendee information of the students and instructors of WHINSEC from 2005-2010.
On cross-motions for summary judgment, the military claimed that the information it previously routinely disclosed under FOIA was exempt under FOIA Exemption 6 governing “personnel and medical files and similar files the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”
Latin American military dictators— including Manuel
Noriega of Panama, Hugo Banzer of Bolivia, and General Rios Montt of Guatemala— attended the school.
them to the school and monitoring military units for human rights certification.
Following the creation of WHINSEC, the U.S. Department of Defense continued to release the names and military unit information to SOA Watch. Many members of Congress expressed their view to SOA Watch that until a student at WHINSEC could be tied to human rights violations, they were inclined to support the new school. In response, researchers with SOA Watch took the names of WHINSEC graduates
In granting summary judgment in favor of the plaintiffs, U.S. District Court Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton ruled that, under Exemption 6, the government had not made a sufficient showing that “the privacy interests advanced were substantial, and had not shown through admissible evidence that the release of the information would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of privacy, in light of the strong public interest in access to this information as shown on the record before the court.”
The District Court order is currently on appeal in the Ninth Circuit.
New York City 8th-Grader
With Special Needs Enjoys Blossoming Education Love for
WhenCamille Calman, now an associate in Davis Wright Tremaine’s New York office, first met Ziograin Correa, Jr. in 2010, he was 12 years old and had attended four different public schools in six years. Classified as autistic, Zio simply could not function in classes with as many as two dozen students. He did not have friends and was a target of bullies. He also wasn’t progressing in his studies, and his school was setting goals well below his capabilities.
Zio’s father turned to an organization called Advocates for Children of New York (AFC), which, among other things, works to enforce the Individu -
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with disabilities. If the district does not have a program appropriate to the child, parents can place the child in a private school and seek reimbursement.
Calman also got in touch with AFC around this same time. She was an associate with Debevoise & Plimpton and was looking for a pro bono opportunity that involved kids and education. AFC turned up in her Google search. She began training with the organization, and the second case they sent her was Zio.
“Zio was in a private school,” she says, “but most of his classmates were emotionally
He discovered a passion for learning after years of frustrating school experiences,” says his father. Zio has also learned how to make and keep friends.
als With Disabilities Education Act. First passed by Congress in 1975, the law requires public school districts to provide a free education that is appropriate to the needs of children
disturbed. Special ed classes weren’t working for him. He has difficulty with social skills and his classmates had trouble controlling their emotions. It was a very combustible mix.
He got beat up on his first day. It was a terrible place for him.”
In addition, Zio was regressing in his studies. “It was a school where they concentrated on basic living skills, not academic skills,” says Calman.
Zio’s father wanted another change, and placed him in the highly regarded Aaron School in midtown Manhattan. “It’s designed for kids on the autism spectrum,” says Calman. “There are lots of accommodations to overcome differences in attention processing. They have small classes and use a lot of techniques that have been shown to work.”
But the New York City Department of Education resisted the request for reimbursement. The DOE sought what’s called “an impartial hearing,” a kind of mini-trial in which information is submitted, and witnesses testify, before an arbiter appointed by the DOE. Thanks to Calman’s work with Zio and his family, she prevailed at the hearing.
With the specialized support provided by the school, Zio has begun to thrive. “He discovered a passion for learning after years of frustrating school experiences,” says his father. Zio has also learned how to make and keep friends.
However, Calman’s work with Zio continues. The hearing only provided approval for one year’s tuition. Calman, having since joined Davis Wright, had to create another extensive appeal to the DOE for reimbursement for each of the last two school years. DOE did not seek a hearing in those cases.
In April, Zio was featured at AFC’s Spring Benefit and honored with the organization’s “Education Champion” award, “in recognition of all his hard work and perseverance to receive an appropriate education.”
“What’s sad is that parents who are good at navigating the system are more able to get the benefits of the Act than parents who don’t have the education,” says Calman. “Advocates for Children helps the people who don’t normally have access to expensive lawyers like us.”
Twelve From DWT Named to Capital Pro Bono Honor Roll
Twelve attorneys from DWT’s Washington, D.C., office were named to the Capital Pro Bono Honor Roll, a list released in June by the chief judges of the D.C. Court of Appeals and the D.C. Superior Court.
The Honor Roll recognizes members of the D.C. Bar and others authorized to perform pro bono legal work who donated 50 hours or more of pro bono service during the previous calendar year. Six DWT attorneys were included in the High Honor Roll, reserved for attorneys who donated 100 or more hours.
In a letter to the members of the honor roll, Eric T. Washington, Chief Judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, and Lee F. Satterfield, Chief Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, wrote: “We congratulate the 2012 honorees, who make us all proud to be part of a profession that grasps that our neighbors matter… and then does something about it.”
DWT Helps Win Asylum for Single Mom Threatened by Venezuelan Regime
ForHeidy Gomez Garcia, the need to escape permanently from Venezuela became apparent one night in May 2011, when she and her daughter were riding in the back seat of a car, with her own mother at the wheel. A black SUV with darkly tinted windows pulled up on the left. Suddenly the rear window of the SUV opened and someone inside fired a half-dozen shots, then sped away. Were it not for the spare tire in the trunk, the bullets would have penetrated the car and struck Gomez Garcia and her daughter in the back.
The terrifying night was the culmination of years of intimidation, threats, and abuse, which began after Gomez
Garcia resisted attending rallies in support of the government of then-president Hugo Chavez.
Immediately after the shooting, Gomez Garcia and her daughter moved to a new state, and a month after that, they left for the United States. Arriving in the Seattle area, where Gomez Garcia had relatives, she sought help from the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, which then sought assistance from DWT. Peter Finch, an associate who had just recently joined the firm, raised his hand to take the case.
“I hadn’t been able to do a lot of pro bono work in my government job,” says Finch, who came to DWT after
14 years with the National Labor Relations Board. “I didn’t know a lot about asylum, but was glad to have the assignment. I ended up taking a crash course not only in immigration law, but in how difficult life can be for people who might not agree with the government in Venezuela.”
At the time her troubles began, Gomez Garcia was working at the state petroleum refinery and living with her young daughter in Venezuela’s second-largest city, Maracaibo. As an employee of a state company, she was regularly required to participate in
Trallies, and was transferred to another facility an hour away—“punishment,” her supervisor said, for her disloyalty. The forced rallies continued, as did her vocal resistance. Eventually, Gomez Garcia was terminated and subjected to an interrogation, at which a security officer laid a gun on the table and yelled at her so loudly she suffered hearing damage.
Shortly thereafter, PSUVlabeled vans began making late-night passes by her home directing searchlights inside. She also began receiving threatening text messages, as did co-work-
passed before the heavily-burdened agency could schedule an interview.
When the day for the asylum interview finally came, Finch, his clients, and a translator, were all in the cavernous waiting area of the Homeland Security building in Tukwila, south of Seattle, when news came across the television that Hugo Chavez had died.
“I immediately wondered about the impact of that on her application,” says Finch. “‘Ding-dong, the witch is dead’—so why not go back to Venezuela? But it’s not just about Chavez
he terrifying night was the culmination of years of intimidation, threats, and abuse, which began after
Gomez Garcia resisted attending rallies in support of the government of then-president Hugo Chavez.
marches and rallies celebrating President Chavez and his political party, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, or PSUV, who had just come to power.
These rallies could last an entire weekend and require hundreds of miles of travel on poorly equipped buses. Security cameras kept track of attendance. “I hated going to the rallies,” says Gomez Garcia. “I would often cry on the bus ride. I was away from my daughter and family, and I did not support the PSUV.”
Gomez Garcia did not hide her opposition to the
ers who had been similarly terminated. A year later, events came to a head with the shots from the SUV, and Gomez Garcia fled to the U.S. with her daughter.
The family lived with hosts they met through the Mormon church, which sponsored them on their arrival. Gomez Garcia did odd jobs while her 15-yearold daughter enrolled in high school. Without a granting of asylum, Gomez Garcia would have had to return to Venezuela. Finch began to meet with her in early 2012 and submitted her asylum application in June. Months
the person, but Chavez the ideals, and his replacement has been as bad or worse. In the weeks that followed, they helped us make that point by expelling diplomats, floating conspiracy theories that the U.S. was behind Chavez’s cancer, and so forth.”
After a brief flurry of concern about one element of Gomez Garcia’s story, which was settled to the satisfaction of the asylum agent, Gomez Garcia received her asylum approval in mid-May, exactly two years after the shots were fired.
“Enormously Significant”
Discrimination Claim
DWT Pursues On Behalf of Transgender Student
EXPELLED From California Baptist University
In a ruling described by one expert in gender law as “enormously significant,” a Superior Court Judge in Riverside County, Calif., has allowed DWT’s pro bono client Domaine Javier to proceed with her lawsuit against California Baptist University, which revoked her admission to the school after discovering her appearance on a TV show discussing the stigma of being transgender.
DWT associate Paul Southwick is spearheading the suit on Ms. Javier’s behalf. He and partner Timothy Volpert are working in collaboration with Clifford Davidson of Sussman Shank LLP.
Ms. Javier was born in the Philippines and lived there until she was 16. Though born male, she has viewed herself as female for as long as she can remember, and has presented herself as female since she was a child. Once in the U.S., she attended Riverside City College, where she was crowned Homecoming Queen for the years 2010-2011. She also sang alto in the choir of her Catholic church.
In 2011, she applied to transfer to California Baptist University (CBU), with plans to study nursing. She was accepted “with honors at entrance” for the fall semester, and was awarded academic scholarship funds. Follow -
ing an audition, she was also accepted into the CBU woman’s chorus, and won additional scholarship money for her singing skills.
But several weeks before the school year was to begin, Ms. Javier received a letter from the CBU Dean of Students. He told her information had been brought to CBU’s attention indicating she had violated the school’s policies against “committing or attempting to engage in fraud, or concealing identity.” Her admission to the university had been suspended, the dean informed her, and she was banned from the campus.
The dean invited Ms. Javier to schedule a meeting to discuss the matter. Ms. Javier was told she could not bring anyone else to the meeting, nor take notes. At the meeting, the dean told Ms. Javier that her fraud consisted in having checked the box that said “Female” in the section of the university’s student application that asked for Gender. At this same meeting, the dean mentioned an episode of MTV’s “True Life,” on which Ms. Javier had appeared, discussing her transgender status.
Ms. Javier acknowledged being transgender and said selecting female for her gender on the application was not fraud, but consistent with her gender identity.
A few weeks later, by a second letter, Ms. Javier was expelled. She appealed to the university’s Student Services Committee but was denied. The ruling meant she was prohibited from enrolling—or even taking courses online; though she was granted permission to attend “public events” held on campus.
Southwick, who is in DWT’s Portland office, offered to help file a lawsuit on Ms. Javier’s behalf in California’s Riverside County Superior Court. The complaint states that the university breached its contract with Ms. Javier, and also violated California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, which prohibits businesses from discriminating based on gender identity.
The university immediately sought to dismiss the suit, arguing that, as a religious in -
pointed out that CBU was a participant in a government backed, tax-free bond-financing program, through which “it has raised over $100 million…and is seeking an additional $155 million, to construct educational facilities to be used exclusively in support of secular education.”
In a ruling in May, Judge Matthew C. Perantoni allowed Ms. Javier’s case to go forward.
“This case stands for the proposition that a religious institution that makes services available to the public and receives public funds can’t discriminate based on religious views,” says Southwick, who is active in the national effort to make Christian universities more accepting of LGBT students. “When CBU chose to suspend, exclude, and expel Ms. Javier
Domaine Javier’s admission to California Baptist University was revoked after the school discovered her appearance on a TV show discussing the stigma of being transgender.
stitution, it was not bound by the restrictions of the Unruh Act.
But Southwick argued otherwise. He noted that the university, while private and religious, “competes in the public marketplace to attract students regardless of their religious affiliation.” He observed that the university offers a broad curriculum in secular subjects and that the “economic benefits” conferred on students through these services made the university a “business establishment” for the purposes of the Act. He also
because of her gender identity, it violated the Unruh Civil Rights Act and must pay her damages for the injuries it caused her.”
The case has received widespread attention. In an article in the Los Angeles Daily Journal, Suzanne Goldberg, director of the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law at Columbia University’s law school, called the judge’s ruling “enormously significant.”
Helping Sustainable Food Values Thrive at Portland’s Zenger Farm
Acentury after it was founded as a dairy farm in what was then an Oregon logging town, Zenger Farm today is a 6-acre working farm adjoining a 10-acre wetland in the center of urban Portland. Operated as a nonprofit, the farm provides a host of programs to underprivileged kids and adults that promote food awareness, healthy eating, and sustainable agriculture. As the farm embarks this year on a major fundraising campaign to expand its mission, Davis Wright Tremaine has been providing pro bono services, and helping raise the farm’s visibility.
Zenger Farm was the featured philanthropy partner at DWT’s first annual Farm to Label food and beverage summit, held in Portland in May, putting the nonprofit in front of
200 leading food industry executives. The farm was a perfect beneficiary to spotlight at the national event, says Jesse Lyon, chair of DWT’s food and beverage practice, and lead organizer of Farm to Label. “They’re an awesome community organization,” says Lyon. “And they can be a model for similar organizations in the rest of the country.”
In 2011, Zenger Farm was among the first farms in the country to pilot an effort to receive payments for their Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) produce shares from the USDA’s Sustainable Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, known colloquially as the “food stamp” program). The farm has since published an online guide to best practices and trained hundreds of other farms across the country in how
to work successfully under SNAP guidelines, and provide farm-fresh, healthy produce for needy families in a cost-effective way.
Lyon, who was himself raised on an Eastern Washington farm, joined Zenger Farm’s board of directors last year. “Even though I’m now a big-city lawyer, I appreciate Zenger Farm’s underlying values,” says Lyon. “All of us believe healthy food should be for everybody.”
In addition to Lyon’s service on the board, numerous other attorneys in DWT’s Portland office office have provided pro bono legal work for Zenger Farm, including Sheila Fox
DWT Hosts Veterans Appellate Training Event
In May, DWT was pleased to host a training session put on by The Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program, which helps provide legal representation to veterans who’ve had their claims for VA benefits denied, and who are seeking to appeal their case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.
Before the consortium was launched in the early 1990s, the majority of such veterans proceeded without legal help. Today, the goal of the consortium is that every veteran (or survivor of a veteran) with a legally credible claim who pursues an appeal, and
Morrison, who has helped with trademark issues; Marisa Meltebeke, who has worked on gift-acceptance policies and donor agreements; Chrys Martin and summer associate Kalia Bush, who worked on employee and volunteer handbook projects for the farm; and Phil Grillo and John Benazzi, who have helped with real estate and land use issues.
Zenger Farm is currently looking to raise $1.9 M to create an Urban Grange—with classrooms, commercial kitchen space, and work space—that will allow it to double the number of people it serves. To learn more, go to ZengerFarm.org.
who wishes to be represented by counsel, will have competent representation.
Several lawyers from DWT were among the many attorneys who participated in the training, which was offered onsite at our Seattle office and via the Web.
“I thought it was really good,” says Erica Wilson, a partner in DWT’s San Francisco office, who spent six years in the U.S. Navy. Wilson says she has not previously had an opportunity to do pro bono work on behalf of veterans. “That’s why I was so excited about this project.”
The training took place with the assistance of the American Health Lawyers Association (AHLA), whose Public Interest Committee adopted veterans’ health and disability issues as an area of focus over the past year. Bob Homchick, a partner in DWT’s health care practice and a member of the AHLA board of directors, says the training session “was one of the ways in which we sought to promote member involvement in veterans’ issues. AHLA hopes to host similar programs in other cities over the upcoming year. We are also working on veterans-focused publications on health issues.”
organizations we’ve helped in 2013
In addition to the organizations and individuals mentioned elsewhere in this report, we have provided pro bono assistance to many organizations around the country during the second quarter of 2013, including:
5th Avenue Theatre Association
ACLU of Washington
ACLU Oregon
Affiliated Mental Health Programs Inc
Alaska Network on Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault
Allied Daily Newspapers
Ankeny Alley Neighborhood Association
Arc of Anchorage, The
Arc of Snohomish County, The Bainbridge Island Land Trust
Bellevue Art Museum
Beta Omega Foundation
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Puget Sound
Boys & Girls Club of Portland
Curry Senior Center
Downtown Seattle Association
Early Music Guild of Seattle
Eastside Legal Assistance
Project
Eisner Pediatric & Family
Medical Center
Engine 557 Restoration Company
Equal Opportunity Schools
Familyworks
Fashion Law Institute
Feministing
Film Forum
First Amendment Coalition
Friends of Seattle
Mombasa Schools
Friends of the ChildrenPortland
Impact NW
Jim Neill Memorial Foundation
King County Sexual Assault
Resource Center
King County Bar Association
Housing Justice Project
King County Bar Association
Legal Services for the Homeless
King County Bar Association
Neighborhood Legal Clinic
King Family Foundation
Lake Oswego Women’s Club
Lake Washington Symphony Orchestra
Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights
Lifelong Aids Alliance
Ma-Yi Theater Company
Center for Investigative Reporting
Children of the Night
Children’s Home Society of Washington
China Free Press
Chris Elliott Fund, The Community Development Law Center
Community Service Society
Girls on the Run
Rain City Rock Camp
Global Partnerships
Global Visionaries
Henry Higgins Boiled Bagels
LLC
Hopelink
Housing Development Center
Human Dignity Trust, The
Ikluat, Incorporated
Macdonald Center
Mental Health Advocacy Services, Inc
Mercy Corps
Methow Recycles
Mt. Zion/Female Union Band
Historic Memorial Park, Inc.
Multnomah County CASA, Inc.
National Coalition Against Censorship
Naukati West, Inc
New Beginnings
Northwest Immigrant
Rights Project
North American Gay
Amateur Athletics
Northern Virginia CASH
Coalition
Northwest Health Law Advocates
Olympia Food Co-Op
One America
Operation Nightwatch
Oregon Healthcare
Ingenuity Plan, Inc
Oregon Sustainable Agriculture Land Trust
Oregon Women’s Lacrosse Umpires Association
Outside In
Overlake School
Pacific Musicworks
Northwest Agribusiness Executive Seminar, Inc.
Passages Northwest
Pesticide Action Network
PODER
Port Angeles High School
Portland Children’s Museum
Portland Fruit Tree Project
Portland Jazz Festival, Inc
Presidio Performing Arts Foundation
Prison Legal News
Program for Early Parent Support
PSU Business Outreach
Real Change
Regional Arts & Culture Council
Renton Area Youth Services
Russian Orthodox Sacred
Sites in Alaska
San Francisco Urban Forest Foundation
Santa Clara County Public Defenders
SOA Watch
Seattle Children’s Museum
Seattle Goodwill
Seattle Musical Theater
Seattle Repertory Theatre
Second Chance Legal Clinic
Seldovia Public Library
Snohomish County Volunteer Search and Rescue
St. Andrew’s Legal Clinic
Stand for Children
Sunny Sky’s Animal Rescue
Susan G. Komen Foundation
Together Center
Villa Academy
Washington Appleseed
Washington Assistive
Technology Foundation
Washington Coalition for Open Government
Washington (D.C.) Legal Clinic for the Homeless
Washington Public Affairs Network (TVW)
Wings of Freedom Project, The
Within Reach WA
Yes Men
Your House Boxing & Community Club
Youth, Rights & Justice
Youth Theatre Northwest
YWCA of Greater Portland
Pro Bono and Public Service Committee
Sam Bayard (NYC)
Kristin Blanchette (LA)
Robert Corn-Revere (Chair · WDC)
Duffy Carolan (SF)
Eric L. Dahlin (PDX)
Rhys Farren (BELL)
Marc Fernandez (SF)
Jennifer Toland Frewer ( WDC)
Alan Galloway (PDX)
Boris Gaviria (BELL)
Emilio Gonzalez (LA)
Elizabeth Hodes (ANCH)
Melissa Mordy (SEA)
Julie Orr (Pro Bono Coordinator · SEA)
Chris Robinson (NYC)
Robert K. Stewart (ANCH)
Report Editor
Mark Fefer
Contact Us
Information
contacting:
Julie Orr (Pro Bono Coordinator · SEA)
206.757.8586
julieorr@dwt.com
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