Akin Gump’s commitment to serving clients in need irrespective of ability to pay is unequivocal,  from asylum applicants fleeing persecution to U.S. servicemen and –women, from the indigent in our nation’s largest cities to disadvantaged schoolchildren working to better themselves.

Coast to coast and overseas, our lawyers defend human rights by representing asylum seekers, victims of trafficking and the nongovernmental organizations that assist them. Our transactional lawyers structure sophisticated deals for a wide range of pro bono clients, from sovereign governments in the developing world to charter schools in struggling urban neighborhoods. The list goes on and includes significant public interest litigation, legislative counseling, poverty law and transactions, both large and small, in every one of Akin Gump’s offices.

Akin Gump is a charter signatory to the Pro Bono Institute’s Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge, committing us to devote at least 60 pro bono hours per lawyer per year. In recent years, Akin Gump attorneys devoted, on average, more than 80 hours to pro bono clients per year, and more than 70 percent of our attorneys worked on pro bono matters. Our pro bono work is rewarding for our lawyers—particularly for newer attorneys who have the opportunity to cut their teeth on matters of real substance—and, more importantly, for our clients. The firm has been honored to receive substantial recognition for its work from legal media and nonprofit organizations.

We recognize that pro bono service is a matter of personal choice, and we are proud that so many of the firm’s lawyers have consistently demonstrated that they share our institutional commitment.

In 2013, Akin Gump received a Super Lawyers Pro Bono Award, the only global firm to be so honored that year.  The award recognized our success in litigation against a former Somali government human rights abuser and our work on behalf of immigration women and disabled individuals as well as the firm’s high per-lawyer average of pro bono hours devoted to clients.