Morgan Lewis's pro bono practice helps give families a new start.

A team of Miami associates helped a mother gain independence from an abusive husband for herself and her two children. Our client had been abused by her husband, a former boxer who punched her in the face and threw her six-year-old son into a wall. When she filed a pro se Petition for Protection Against Domestic Violence, her husband hired an attorney and gathered multiple witnesses. With Morgan Lewis's help, our client was able to take her case to trial and obtain a Permanent Injunction for Protection Against Domestic Violence. She has since instituted divorce proceedings, is living on her own, and working to support her two children.

In Philadelphia, our client's life had been threatened by her husband, who had also prevented her from seeing her son for more than a year. Morgan Lewis became involved after our client's several attempts to obtain custody as a pro se litigant had failed. We filed for an expedited custody hearing and retained a private investigator who discovered that the father was wanted in connection with several outstanding warrants. Unexpectedly, the father appeared at the custody hearing where we learned that the child was with his grandmother at a local restaurant. The Morgan Lewis team coordinated a response by the Philadelphia Police, law enforcement officials from the neighboring county and requested that the father be taken into custody at the conclusion of the hearing. The father was taken into custody from the bench, and the mother was awarded full custody of the child. The Morgan Lewis team, along with two Philadelphia Police officers, reunited the mother with her child on the steps of the courthouse.