Pro Bono

We represented a native of Thailand in a widely watched case that helped convince the U.S. Congress to dissolve the “Widow Penalty," which allowed the government to deport aliens if their marriages to U.S. citizens ended within two years, even if the spouse died.

We filed an amicus brief in a First Amendment case before the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals involving a challenge to a mandatory school policy forcing children to wear a uniform bearing a certain motto. The brief was filed on behalf of the Student Press Law Center and the parents who contested the school’s policy.

The firm provided pro bono legal services to help transform Ferguson’s destroyed QuikTrip location into a job training center operated by the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis. We represented the Urban League in the transaction in which QuikTrip donated the land, cost of demolition and remediation of the site.

Since 2008, Armstrong Teasdale has provided ongoing pro bono support to Ten by Three, formerly the Blessing Basket Project, a nonprofit organization that works with about 2,000 weavers in seven developing countries, helping them rise out of poverty through empowered entrepreneurship. The firm created the legal structure that facilitated Ten by Three’s creation and expansion. It has also filed dozens of trademarks on the nonprofit’s behalf as well as given counsel on employment matters and other legal issues.

Associates Casey Waughn and Bianca Valcarce represented a client under Washington, D.C.’s Second Look Project, which provides direct representation to individuals sentenced to extreme prison terms as youths and aims to obtain immediate release for these individuals under D.C.’s Compassionate Release laws and the Incarceration Reduction Act (IRAA). These laws allow individuals sentenced to lengthy prison sentences for crimes they committed before age 25 to petition the sentencing court to reduce their sentence upon proving that they are qualified for resentencing and should be resentenced based on the eleven factors of the IRAA. Valcarce and Waughn represented a client who was incarcerated for more than 31 years, since he was 19 years old, and who was serving a sentence of 45 years to life. They prepared and submitted a written petition to the court under Washington D.C.’s IRAA and Second Look Act, offering evidence and arguments as to why the statute’s 11 factors counseled in favor of a sentence reduction. After the petition was fully briefed, Waughn and Valcarce appeared remotely on behalf of the client for an evidentiary hearing, where they presented testimony from three witnesses, including their client. After hearing the evidence and considering the written submission, the judge immediately granted their client’s motion and resentenced him, giving credit for time served and resulting in his immediate release. Without this motion, the client would not have been eligible for parole for another 10-15 years, with the possibility that he would have served the rest of his life in prison.

Armstrong Teasdale Partner Darren K. Sharp assisted a client who advised her landlord that she would be breaking the lease on her apartment to escape her abusive live-in boyfriend. After raising defenses to the lease, and pointing out Missouri law allows victims of abuse to break leases without penalty, and asking for extensive written discovery, the landlord’s counsel ultimately agreed to dismiss the client and pursue only her former boyfriend. The client was being held accountable for several thousand dollars over the remaining term of the lease, and she was thankful she ultimately owed nothing.

Partner Beverly Weber represented a mother whose 17-year-old son came under the jurisdiction of the court after he ran away due to substance abuse. DFS alleged the mother was neglecting him, when in fact she had been trying to get him clean and was supporting him while he tried to stay with others during recovery. Working with the system, Armstrong Teasdale was able to support the mother while the son got the services he needed, and ensure there were no adverse findings against the mother.

CitySquash is a not-for-profit after school enrichment program based in the Bronx, New York. The organization offers after-school programming for young people from economically disadvantaged households. Partner Julie Schechter, with assistance from Associates Denise DeNicola and Marijana Predovan, was proud to volunteer her legal services to help them build a new, state-of-the-art facility in the Bronx, which is scheduled to open in Spring 2025.

Within the firm’s Intellectual Property practice group, the patent pro bono team helps independent inventors with a demonstrated financial need and who would likely be unable to obtain protection or commercialize their inventions. The team has filed and gotten protection for a number of inventions, many of which are for products that provide a social good, such as COVID-19 protection systems, education systems, and insurance and health care programs. These have included:

• Working with the family of a deceased repeat inventor to continue her patent work pro bono to provide a legacy and help her family following her loss.
• Patent applications for a nonprofit organization that help supplies water in countries and rural areas where children would not otherwise have access to clean water.
• IP licensing and contract work for nonprofits such as a software company providing remote education solutions for developing countries.