NEW YORK, June 6, 2022: Morgan Lewis has begun its worldwide signature service and programming event, Community Impact Week, with an emphasis this year on the global refugee crisis. The firm’s robust pro bono and community engagement efforts have targeted growing refugee issues historically but the ongoing humanitarian crises in Afghanistan and Ukraine have made the needs of refugees and the organizations that support them more acute than ever.
“Refugees are compelled to make daunting and often perilous moves to save their lives,” Firm Chair Jami McKeon said. “We are dedicating our Community Impact Week focus to supporting refugees in their search for safety at a critical time when they deserve to be understood as well as assisted.”
This year, Community Impact Week features educational programming, such as a panel discussion with Rebecca Cammisa, director of “Which Way Home,” a documentary on the personal struggles of unaccompanied children journeying through Mexico to the United States; and the reading and discussion of Alan Gratz’s “Refugee” by Morgan Lewis global book club members. Additionally, pro bono and service opportunities include naturalization clinics in the United States staffed by firm lawyers to help green-card holders apply for citizenship, training opportunities for lawyers looking to represent unaccompanied children seeking asylum, and the assembly of care packages for refugees sheltering locally. A fundraising drive will also benefit legal services providers and nonprofits serving vulnerable communities.
In fiscal year 2021, 100% of Morgan Lewis’s eligible lawyers firmwide met the firm’s annual Pro Bono Challenge to dedicate at least 20 hours to pro bono service. In total, the firm’s lawyers contributed more than 125,000 hours to the pro bono representation of individuals and nonprofit organizations. Morgan Lewis lawyers and professional staff came together to support the firm’s nonprofit partners, legal service providers, and neighborhoods confronting a number of the last year’s most urgent crises. These included the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, an increased focus on racial injustice, extreme weather disasters, and the Afghan refugee emergency.