2024 Pickering Award Recipient

PBI is proud to present the 2024 John H. Pickering Award to Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP* (MTO). This prestigious award, presented in conjunction with Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr*† (WilmerHale) and the Pickering family, recognizes MTO’s outstanding institutional commitment to pro bono work and the inspiring performance of its attorneys and staff.

A Legacy of Consequential Pro Bono Work

From its founding, MTO has set a high standard in the legal community with its dedication of resources to pro bono efforts that address critical issues such as voting rights, civil liberties, racial and criminal justice, housing, women’s rights, and LGBTQIA+ rights. MTO was a charter signatory to the PBI Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge® initiative, and its attorneys have consistently devoted more than 6 percent of their billable time to pro bono work. This includes significant time and resources dedicated to the firm’s MTO Police Reform Initiative, an offshoot of its Combatting Systemic Racism Task Force. Through this initiative, the firm partners with ACLU California affiliates to obtain records of police misconduct via California’s Public Records Act. The initiative has resulted in the release of thousands of pages of records from law enforcement agencies related to police misconduct, including officer-involved deaths, which will be made available to the public at large. 

Recent Achievements

In 2023 and 2024, MTO’s pro bono efforts led to several landmark victories, including:

  • Successfully arguing in the U.S. Supreme Court against the “independent state legislature” theory, affirming state courts’ power to enforce rules for federal elections;
  • Securing a historic preliminary injunction eliminating the cash bail system in Los Angeles County for most low-level, non-violent offenses, with co-counsel Civil Rights Corps, Public Justice, Hadsell Stormer Renick & Dai LLP, and Schonbrun Seplow Harris Hoffman & Zeldes LLP;
  • Advocating on behalf of a Virginia school board, supporting its continued use of race-neutral admissions criteria to enhance diversity, with co-counsel Hunton Andrews Kurth, LLP*†;
  • Overturning the wrongful conviction of C.J. Rice, leading to his release after he had served more than 12 years in prison, with co-counsel Wiseman & Schwartz and the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project;
  • Obtaining asylum for three Afghan women journalists under threat by the Taliban for their reporting and women’s rights activism, in coordination with Human Rights First;
  • Curbing deceptive “knock and talk” practices by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials approaching immigrants’ homes without a warrant and arresting them, in partnership with the ACLU Foundation of Southern California and the UC Irvine School of Law Immigrant Rights Clinic;
  • Ending San Francisco’s practice of towing, without a warrant, vehicles used as living spaces by unhoused residents, as co-counsel with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area and Bay Area Legal Aid;
  • Successful applications for asylum by LGBTQIA+ immigrants facing dangerous, even deadly conditions in their countries of origin;
  • Winning asylum in San Francisco and Los Angeles Immigration Court on behalf of two Salvadoran nationals who fled violent attacks and death threats from the notorious Mara gangs; and
  • Obtaining a consent decree requiring Washington State to protect the medical records of transgender, non-binary, and intersex prisoners from Public Records Act requests, as co-counsel with Disability Rights Washington, the ACLU, and MacDonald Hoague & Bayless.

Commitment to Pro Bono Excellence

Since 2020, MTO has devoted more than 182,000 hours to pro bono matters, including:

  • More than 17,000 hours on police reform;
  • More than 11,000 hours protecting immigrants from deceptive ICE practices;
  • More than 5,000 hours challenging Los Angeles County’s cash bail policies;
  • More than 4,000 hours defending the rights of Native American children in underfunded schools and foster care systems that did not meet their needs; and
  • More than 2,000 hours defending veterans’ rights.

In 2023, MTO lawyers and professional staff worked on 198 pro bono matters, devoting 41,897 hours to pro bono work, with partners and associates averaging 136.8 hours of pro bono work per lawyer. As a result of MTO’s work, the firm has been ranked multiple times in the top ten on The American Lawyer’s Pro Bono Scorecard.

Learn more about Munger, Tolles & Olson’s ongoing pro bono work by visiting the firm’s website.

_________________________________

About the John H. Pickering Award
PBI’s award is given in honor of the late John H. Pickering, a distinguished appellate attorney and leader in the legal profession who was equally well known for his extraordinary commitment to pro bono and the public interest. PBI presents the award in conjunction with his law firm, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr (WilmerHale), and the Pickering family to honor a law firm for its outstanding commitment to pro bono legal services. Read more about the award and view a list of previous recipients.

 

* denotes a Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge® signatory

** denotes a Corporate Pro Bono Challenge® signatory

† denotes a Law Firm Pro Bono Project® member