Akin’s 2026 Bruce McLean Pro Bono Awards Celebrate the Firm’s Outstanding Pro Bono Efforts

(Washington, D.C.) – On July 16, 2026, Akin held its annual Bruce McLean Pro Bono Awards, hosted every summer to honor the outstanding pro bono efforts by the firm’s lawyers and business services professionals. 

Firm co-chair Abid Qureshi led the firmwide ceremony in Washington, which was followed by separate office-level ceremonies at select Akin offices.   

Below are the individuals, teams and matters recognized at this year’s ceremony:    

Pro Bono & Public Service & Hall of Fame – Helen Marshall. A former partner and now litigation senior counsel in London, Helen has been a driving force behind the growth of pro bono service in London in her 12 years at the firm. Helen has led the firm’s longstanding partnership with Reprieve and its work advocating for death row prisoners in Malawi and criminal justice reform in that country. Since 2015, she has devoted more than 835 hours to pro bono service and inspired more than 5,000 hours of attorney time on the Malawi project alone. 

Office of The Year – Boston (Wells Miller, Partner-in-Charge). Since opening in 2022, the Boston office has quickly built a strong culture of pro bono service. From 2024 to 2025, the office nearly tripled its total pro bono hours, outsizing impact and establishing itself as a leader in the firm’s pro bono practice. 

Practice Group of the Year – London Litigation (led by Kambiz Larizadeh). In 2025, the group averaged an impressive 95 pro bono hours per attorney, an extraordinary commitment to public service alongside a demanding disputes practice.  

Pro Bono Litigation Matter of the Year – Immigration Habeas for Russian Refugee (Matt Pearson, Nick Lombardi, Anthony Sierra, May Johnson). These Akin attorneys secured an extraordinary result for our client, a Russian national who had been granted withholding of removal based on his opposition to the war in Ukraine and then taken into custody and sent to an ICE facility before being unlawfully removed to Uzbekistan. The team fought tirelessly to secure his return from Uzbekistan and ultimately his release from detention.  

Counseling Matter of the Year – Invisible Enemy (Ed Pagano, Zach Deatherage, Caryn Dyson, Francine Baidoo, Geoff Verhoff, Reggie Babin, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen). The team is honored for their advocacy on behalf of The Invisible Enemy - a nonprofit fighting for veterans who served at the classified Nevada Test and Training Range, advocating for the PROTECT Act and the FORGOTTEN Veterans Act. 

Associate of the Year – Shivani Prakash. An intellectual property associate in New York, Shivani has played a leading role in a major impact litigation challenging the constitutionality of cash bail in Riverside County, California and in the past year balanced this major litigation with four different short-term pro bono clinics including helping trafficking survivors, citizenship applicants, and low-income New Yorkers seeking public benefits. 

Counsel of the Year – Madison Gafford. A litigation counsel in Dallas, Madison has dedicated her time to representing asylum seekers and other vulnerable immigrants, helping obtain asylum for a Syrian refugee who had witnessed atrocities committed by the Assad regime. She’s also she served her local community through a secondment with the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office last year and recently presented her first Fifth Circuit argument in a challenge to a Texas statute that restricts the officiating of marriages to religious officials. 

Frank Reddick Partner of the Year – William Wetmore. An investment funds partner in San Francisco, William is a leader of the firm’s work with the Alliance for Children’s Rights. Since taking on his first matter last year, he has now worked on five adoption matters and supervised 12 associates, counsel, and summer associates. He also serves on the California Pro Bono Committee and acts as a liaison to Alliance for Children’s Rights.  

Julia Ghahramani Immigration Advocacy Award – J-G-Team (Joseph Sorkin, Billy Fowkes, Katie Swenson, Kaitlin Unkle). This team volunteered for the firm’s first immigration habeas matter in the fall of 2025, securing a victory for an asylum seeker facing unlawful detention. The victory reunited a family and paved the way for the firm’s involvement in numerous additional immigration habeas matters.  

Diane Streat Award – June Nam. A senior policy specialist in Akin’s lobbying & public policy practice, June provides critical support to several health policy clients, including the Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Foundation, the Melanoma Research Foundation, and the National Blood Clot Alliance, coordinating multiple Capitol Hill fly-ins and advocacy events. 

 Akin is a leading international law firm with more than 1,100 lawyers in offices throughout the United States, Europe, and the Middle East.   

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