PBI Signatory Showcase Interview with Stinson LLP*
In the face of a growing humanitarian need, Stinson has stepped up with a powerful response. Through its Deinard Legal Clinic—the nation’s oldest firm-led medical legal partnership—Stinson launched a pro se asylum project to support newly arrived West African asylum seekers, primarily from Guinea and Liberia. For this Signatory Showcase, we spoke to Tim D. Sanders Szabo, Pro Bono Attorney at Stinson LLP, about this initiative.
Please tell us about this project.
Our firm runs the Deinard Legal Clinic, a legal clinic at the Community University Health Care Center (CUHCC). The Deinard Legal Clinic is the oldest firm-led medical legal partnership in the country. Through the clinic, our firm’s attorneys and paralegals provide pro bono legal assistance on a wide variety of matters, including immigration. We launched the pro se asylum project in May 2024 in response to a large influx of newly arrived individuals from West Africa being referred for pro bono immigration assistance to our legal clinic. Nearly all the new arrivals were from Guinea or Liberia, and they all had objectively strong asylum claims. However, with the ever-increasing number of individuals seeking help, I knew our firm would not have the capacity to provide full representation on all the asylum matters. So, I reached out to the Advocates for Human Rights, a well-respected immigration legal services organization in Minneapolis, to discuss how we could address this huge demand, and we came up with this project.
What has been the role of Stinson LLP in this project?
Stinson LLP and the Deinard Legal Clinic have served as the fulcrum of this project. Since these asylum seekers are all patients or clients receiving medical, behavioral, or social services and support at CUHCC, they were referred to our clinic. Our attorneys and paralegals take great pride in our longstanding legal clinic and, as with all the work that comes out of our legal clinic, the Stinson volunteers really showed up to provide support. Our firm’s volunteers screened asylum seekers, met with the asylum seekers to draft their asylum applications, and helped review and finalize those applications. Since the project launched last year, Stinson volunteers have met with well over 100 clients in person, on the phone, and via Zoom, working with Mandingo, French, Fula, and Malinke interpreters for most of the meetings. Stinson hosted “know your rights” trainings for this population via Zoom, in person at CUHCC, and in person alongside the Brooklyn Park, MN mayor at a local community center.
On top of that, the main pro se asylum project has evolved from focusing on asylum applications to include additional ways in which we can support the clients. Many of the kids from Liberia and Guinea arrived alone and most of them do not know where their parents are. As a result, we have helped 10 kids obtain at-risk guardianships and later Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS), securing for them a pathway to permanency and protection here in the U.S. We are helping 13 more kids with this same process right now and we plan to screen and help any/all qualifying kids from this population with this SIJS process.
Given our firm’s growing knowledge of the conditions in Guinea that have forced so many of these individuals to flee, we have partnered with the Advocates to draft comprehensive country conditions research on Guinea. We are now tailoring that research to fit and support the facts and arguments in each asylum seekers’ matter. In October 2024, the firm, our legal clinic, and I joined the Advocates for Human Rights in submitting a Joint Stakeholder Report to the United Nations that focused on civil and political rights and gender-based violence in Guinea. The firm was uniquely positioned to join the Advocates in the submission of the report given the extensive work Stinson volunteers had been engaging in to support recent arrivals from Guinea fleeing persecution.
Finally, we are beginning to staff some of the asylum matters for full representation. The first individual (final) asylum hearing for any of the asylum seekers is in April 2026. We will be staffing the case with attorneys to represent the client at her final hearing. We will also be mobilizing additional support in our firm to draft country conditions and conduct research into some unique legal issues we envision this client, and many others in this population, will face as a result of their having entered the country when they did and without prior authorization.
Are there any organizations that the firm collaborated with? If so, why are these partnerships so important?
The firm worked closely with the Advocates for Human Rights and CUHCC on this project. Without the support of the Advocates and CUHCC, this project would not have been possible. The Advocates provided much of the training and mentorship our volunteers relied on to get involved. The Advocates also provided administrative assistance, tracking closely the growing numbers of clients seeking help, their entry dates, filing deadlines, and any red flags or complexities in their cases.
CUHCC supported the project in myriad ways. A victim advocate at CUHCC who works closely with this population provided incredible support to the clients and our volunteers. She arranges rides, interpreters, helped bring filings to court, etc. Her tireless work and assistance were crucial to the success of this project. We relied on CUHCC medical providers in many cases. All victims of female genital mutilation (FGM) had undergone a formal examination and were provided with a certified letter from a CUHCC physician attesting to the type and severity of the FGM suffered. These letters were submitted with the asylum application and will hopefully serve as powerful evidence of the persecution suffered. CUHCC providers also conducted forensic medical exams to document the physical and mental trauma of the persecution suffered by individual asylum seekers. Finally, CUHCC served as the physical location for our monthly pro se asylum clinics. This was crucial as CUHCC is a well-known and trusted place in the community. Given the incredibly hard details clients had to share with our volunteers, it was so important to make sure they felt as safe as possible.
What is the impact of this pro bono work?
Through this project, volunteers from our firm have helped over 100 West Africans file for asylum. We provided “know your rights” presentations to attendees of each asylum clinic. We also held “know your rights” presentations and discussed relevant updates in immigration law to community leaders, elders, and members of greater Minneapolis’s Guinean population. We served as witnesses to the human rights situation in Guinea, addressing the hardships clients faced not solely on an individual level but a universal one as well. We have helped secure SIJS protection for 10 unaccompanied minor children from West Africa and we expect that number to double or triple in the next several months. And we are looking forward to providing full representation to our first set of West African asylum seekers soon.
However, this work has not only impacted the clients and the West African community. Our firm has been impacted as well. Several of our volunteers have commented to me and others about the effect working alongside these clients has had on them. One word that I’ve heard a lot is “resilience.” Their ability to endure what they have in their home countries and throughout their travels to the United States is all at once heartbreaking and empowering for those who get to meet them. They are amazing individuals, and it is an honor for us to work with them and hear their stories.
What would you say is the most challenging part of this type of project?
One of the biggest challenges has been managing the sheer volume and urgency of need. These are individuals with strong asylum claims and rapidly approaching filing deadlines, many of whom do not speak English and are unfamiliar with the legal system. It quickly became clear that we wouldn’t have the capacity to provide full representation in every case. Balancing quality legal assistance with limited resources, while trying to ensure each client felt seen, heard, and respected, was and continues to be a difficult line to walk.
Another challenge has been the emotional weight of the work. Many of the clients are survivors of horrific abuse, including state violence and gender-based violence such as female genital mutilation. Several are minors who traveled to the United States alone and have no idea where their families are. Supporting them through their asylum process while also managing the vicarious trauma that our staff and volunteers experience requires thoughtful planning, access to trauma-informed training, and a strong support network within the firm.
Is there any advice that you would give to other law firms who want to become more focused on a certain pro bono issue?
The most important starting point is to listen to community needs. Rather than selecting a pro bono issue based solely on internal interest or capacity, firms should stay in close communication with community partners, legal services organizations, and the clients themselves to understand where the need is greatest. In our case, we didn’t set out to create a pro se asylum project — we responded to what we were seeing on the ground and what we heard from CUHCC and other community stakeholders who were overwhelmed by the number of newly arrived West African asylum seekers in urgent need of legal help.
Once you’ve identified a pressing need, think creatively about the many ways your firm can support that work. Legal skills are just one piece of what a firm can offer. Our project relied not only on attorneys and paralegals, but also on the firm’s ability to provide physical space, cover the cost of professional interpretation and translation services, support mailings and logistical coordination, and mobilize staff to assist with document preparation and communications. All these things were essential to the success of the project and helped stretch our legal capacity even further. Pro bono impact isn’t limited to courtroom victories; it’s also about removing barriers, building trust, and showing up in ways that are meaningful and sustainable. The more creatively and flexibly a firm approaches its role, the more impactful that engagement can be.
| Each year, the signatories to the PBI Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge® and Corporate Pro Bono Challenge® initiatives provide important pro bono services to underserved, disadvantaged, and other individuals or groups unable to secure the legal assistance needed to address critical problems. The PBI Signatory Showcase spotlights some of the amazing work signatories have done to serve those in need. |
* denotes a Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge® signatory
** denotes a Corporate Pro Bono Challenge® signatory
† denotes a Law Firm Pro Bono Project® member