Akin Gump Wins Legalweek Pro Bono Innovations Award
(Washington, D.C.) – Akin Gump is proud to share that, in the 2022 Legalweek Leaders in Tech Law Awards, the firm won the Innovations in Pro Bono, Law Firm category.
The awards honor innovation occurring in legal departments and law firms across the country. The honorees this year for the Legalweek Leaders in Tech Law Awards “have demonstrated knowledge, skill and compassion, recognized by the peers and clients who nominated them.”
Akin Gump was recognized for utilizing Salesforce’s Quip to help Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program applicants to complete an immigration questionnaire and upload required documentation using a mobile phone
In the profile published in conjunction with the recognition, Akin Gump pro bono partner Steven Schulman spoke about overcoming the challenges in pro bono work during the pandemic, encouraging access to justice, and assessing the role of technology in pro bono. A few highlights:
- Overcoming challenges: “When the pandemic hit, we learned that many of our clients did not have access to basic technological tools, such as a computer and Adobe PDF. Akin Gump’s pro bono practice began to think of ways that we could use technology to facilitate information-sharing and document delivery. Our solution was to create a remote clinic for that could be used to facilitate any kind of ‘non-testimonial’ application—i.e., where the bulk of the work is gathering basic information.”
- Closing the justice gap: “Collaboration between pro bono lawyers and technology companies and professionals has resulted in changes that increase access to counsel for individuals who cannot otherwise be reached, including persons in rural areas, without access to affordable or effective transit, or with disabilities that limit travel.”
- Putting tech to work: “By allowing the pro bono practice to provide on-demand training and an on-line introduction to clients, the remote DACA clinic produced a surge in volunteerism from our attorneys, staff, and corporate clients to meet an increasing need for pro bono legal services. The desire to help is innate to the legal profession; legal technology allows us to make that aspiration reality for the benefit of the lawyer and the client.”
To read the full profile, click here (subscribers or free account).
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP is a leading international law firm with more than 900 lawyers in offices throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
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