For more than four years, the legal department at Unum Group** has been engaged in a deeply impactful pro bono effort: representing a family seeking asylum in the U.S. after fleeing persecution in their home country. What began as a single asylum application evolved into a long-term, department-wide commitment. Led by an in-house lawyer at Unum’s Portland, Maine, campus, and supported by a dozen colleagues across practice groups, the matter reflects the persistence, empathy, and sustained advocacy required in asylum work, where cases often unfold over many years.
For our latest Signatory Showcase, we spoke with Lisa G. Iglesias, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Unum Group, about this project and the importance of institutional support, cross-department collaboration, and long-term commitment in ensuring that vulnerable individuals can access the protections the legal system promises.
- Please tell us about this project.
This project involved the pro bono representation of a family seeking asylum in the United States after fleeing persecution in their home country. It has been led by one of our in-house lawyers based at our Portland, Maine, campus, with about a dozen members of our legal department providing limited pro bono assistance on the project. What began as an asylum application has grown into a four-year commitment, encompassing approximately 200 hours of legal services and representation through every stage of the asylum process.
This work has included extensive client interviews with interpreters, researching country conditions and verifying information provided in client interviews, preparing and filing asylum applications, securing employment authorization while the case has been pending, drafting pleadings and supporting evidence, and representing the family throughout immigration proceedings. Like many asylum matters, the case has required not only legal advocacy, but also patience, persistence, and a long-term commitment to building trust while guiding clients through a complex immigration system where months, or even years, can pass between key milestones.
- What has been the role of Unum Group in this project?
Supporting pro bono service is an important part of Unum Group’s legal department culture and is an extension of our company’s core value to support and create positive changes in the communities in which we operate. Legal department leadership encouraged the lead lawyer to accept this matter and consistently reinforced that pro bono work is valued alongside our department’s day-to-day responsibilities.
Unum Group also provided practical support throughout the representation, including providing private spaces to meet with the clients and resources for printing, mailing, and preparing the substantial filings required during the asylum process.
This work has truly been a team effort. While one lawyer has led the representation, other in-house lawyers, paralegals, compliance professionals, and legal assistants across the department have stepped in at key points over the past four years as the workload ebbed and flowed. Senior leaders helped coordinate that support by communicating opportunities for assistance and encouraging participation across practice groups. This matter illustrates how institutional support, including leadership’s commitment to creating a collaborative culture where colleagues readily step up to help others, enables lawyers to take on pro bono work that might otherwise be too daunting, or beyond the capacity of a single volunteer.
- What organization(s) did the legal department collaborate with for this project? Why are the collaborations with them so important?
We partnered on this project with the Immigration Legal Advocacy Project (ILAP) based in Portland, Maine. ILAP is Maine’s only state-wide immigration legal services organization and collaboration with them was vital. Immigration law is complex, and some of that complexity can only be learned from the inside: how to navigate immigration applications and forms, specific wording to use or not use in applications, rules for courtrooms that are not readily known by those who don’t practice regularly in that field, best practices, etc.
For lawyers considering pro bono work that is outside their areas of expertise, it is so important both that you feel that the company or firm you work for supports pro bono work, and also that you have connections with organizations with the experience and knowledge to support your work.
Unum Group’s Portland, Maine campus has partnered with ILAP previously. Annually, Unum Group supports Maine’s Campaign for Justice, a fundraising drive within the Maine legal community to raise awareness of and funds for civil legal aid organizations serving the State of Maine. We are proud that 100% of our in-house lawyers donated to the Campaign last year, in addition to donating hours of service through pro bono projects.
- What is the impact of this pro bono work?
For this family, the impact is difficult to overstate. A successful outcome would mean the opportunity to build a life without the constant fear of persecution or being forced to return to a country where they believe they would be targeted for violence because of who they are and what they believe. It also would mean stability for their children and the ability to work, contribute to their community, and begin rebuilding lives that have been interrupted by years of displacement and uncertainty.
More broadly, this project is a reminder of the unique role lawyers can play through pro bono service. The legal system offers many protections, but those protections are meaningful only if individuals can successfully navigate the processes. By donating our time and skills, we help ensure that the protections afforded by law are accessible to those who need them most.
- What would you say is the most challenging part of this type of work?
One of the greatest challenges in this project has been the length and uncertainty of the asylum process. Cases can take years to reach a final hearing. As counsel, it requires remaining engaged, responsive, and available over the long-term, even during extended periods when little appears to be happening procedurally. For many lawyers, pro bono service can also mean stepping into new and complex areas of law outside of their day-to-day practice. That requires a willingness to be uncomfortable, but to act anyway.
The legal work is only one part of pro bono representation. Pro bono service often requires lawyers to build relationships with clients whose experiences, circumstances, and legal needs differ significantly from those encountered in their day-to-day practice. Success depends not only on understanding the law, but also on earning clients’ trust through active listening, empathy, and a willingness to meet clients where they are. Although this can sometimes be challenging, it also reminds us that some of the most important skills lawyers bring to pro bono work are not practice-area specific, they are the ability to listen, communicate, learn, analyze and advocate.
- Is there any advice that you would give to other legal departments who want to become more focused on a certain pro bono issue?
As a legal department leader, you can shape a culture where pro bono service is viewed as an integral part of the department’s mission and values – not just something lawyers should do if they have extra time. When leadership visibly supports pro bono work, and authentically demonstrates that pro bono work is valued, lawyers become willing to take on matters they otherwise may never have considered.
That cultural commitment should be reinforced with meaningful infrastructure. Formal pro bono programs or policies can help lawyers understand the resources, administrative support and time available to them for pro bono matters, while partnerships with legal services organizations, other legal departments and organizations like the Pro Bono Institute provide opportunities for training, mentorship, networking and sharing best practices.
Finally, pro bono work is deeply rewarding. Helping an individual or family navigate a life-changing legal matter, while working alongside colleagues in new or different ways to make a meaningful difference, can offer a unique sense of accomplishment that complements our day-to-day practice and reminds us why we chose to become lawyers.
| 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. VIEW THE SIGNATORY SHOWCASE |
* denotes a Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge® signatory
** denotes a Corporate Pro Bono Challenge® signatory
† denotes a Law Firm Pro Bono Project® member