2026 John H. Pickering Awardee

PBI is proud to present the 2026 John H. Pickering Award to Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP^*†. This prestigious award, presented in conjunction with Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr^*† (WilmerHale) and the Pickering family, recognizes Gibson Dunn’s outstanding institutional commitment to pro bono work and the inspiring performance of its attorneys and staff.

A Legacy of Life-Changing and Law-Changing Work

Gibson Dunn’s pro bono practice is core to the firm’s identity and stems from the professional excellence, commitment to justice, and diverse passions of its attorneys. Across the firm’s global offices, the same attorneys who guide multinational corporations through complex deals and bet-the-company litigation devote themselves to representing individuals and organizations who could not otherwise afford counsel. And that pro bono work spans a broad range of issue areas. Through its Justice for Women and Girls initiative, the firm advances the cause of equality for all by fighting for equity for women and girls around the world. The firm similarly helps immigrants, veterans, and small business owners; upholds constitutional rights; challenges religious and racial discrimination; expands access to safe housing; and demands that our criminal justice system lives up to the principles and promises on which it was built.

By taking on matters big and small—from helping a single veteran get access to earned benefits to litigating impact cases before the United States Supreme Court—Gibson Dunn’s pro bono work is both life- and law-changing. The firm strives always to live up to the highest ideals of the legal profession in its pursuit of justice for all.

Recent Achievements

The firm’s recent significant pro bono achievements include:

• Securing a unanimous victory before the United States Supreme Court in Olivier v. City of Brandon, a religious liberty case that will help ensure that victims of unconstitutional prosecution can seek prospective relief;
• Winning a Fourth Amendment victory and favorable settlement for a U.S. citizen wrongfully detained for weeks after being misidentified as a deportable immigrant;
• Obtaining a favorable settlement for the victim of a violent anti-Asian hate crime, through the Alliance for Asian American Justice, which the firm co-founded;
• Securing asylum for dozens of LGBTQ+ clients;
• Representing Dad’s Place, a church in Bryan, Ohio, whose ministry to homeless individuals was threatened with closure, and winning a unanimous reversal of a preliminary injunction that had barred the church’s overnight ministry;
• Representing a group of women, OB-GYNs, and abortion providers in a challenge to state abortion bans that led the Wyoming Supreme Court to strike down the bans as violations of the state constitution;
• Co-founding and staffing the Campus Antisemitism Legal Line (CALL)—a free helpline that has received more than 830 incident reports from students and faculty at over 260 campuses—alongside the Anti-Defamation League, Hillel International, and the Louis D. Brandeis Center, and helping launch the ADL Legal Action Network of more than 40 firms; and
• Achieving favorable results in impact litigation protecting immigrants and the organizations that serve them, including in Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto v. Department of Health and Human Services on behalf of programs serving unaccompanied children, and in Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project v. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, challenging a new annual asylum fee.

A Firmwide Commitment to Pro Bono Excellence

In 2025 alone, Gibson Dunn attorneys dedicated more than 240,000 hours to pro bono work (surpassing all prior firm records), valued at more than $321 million, with over 2,000 attorneys participating firmwide and more than 750 new pro bono matters opened. Over the past decade, Gibson Dunn has committed more than 1.4 million hours, valued at over $1 billion, to pro bono work around the world.

That sustained commitment has been widely recognized. Gibson Dunn regularly ranks among the top firms on Law360 Pulse’s pro bono rankings, and in recent years has been honored for its pro bono contributions by organizations like Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, and Human Rights First.

Learn more about Gibson Dunn’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.