Pro bono
Racial Justice Task Force
White & Case formed the Racial Justice Task Force during the summer of 2020 to fight racism and social injustice. What began with 50 members of the Firm's Antitrust Practice today includes more than 160 lawyers and business services professionals from every practice group across the Firm. The Task Force's founding principle—"concrete action"—centers around three pillars: criminal justice reform, education and economic empowerment.
A unique role to play
While achieving racial justice is a continuous, complex challenge that requires many different solutions, the Task Force's contributions spotlight how the legal profession can drive real and lasting change.
Criminal justice reform
The Task Force works with organizations that provide advocacy and legal support to individuals seeking relief from extreme criminal sentences. Our projects include:
Litigation on behalf of incarcerated individuals and those serving civil life sentences
The Task Force has supported clients through the Second Look Project in Washington, DC, the Decarceration Initiative in Maryland, the Promise of Justice Initiative in New Orleans and the Legal Aid Society's Case Closed Project in New York City.
Accountability for police violence
Our lawyers have filed appellate briefs on behalf of the National Police Accountability Project, are working with the ACLU of Louisiana's Justice Lab in a Section 1983 case on behalf of a woman whose father was a victim of a fatal police shooting and conducted critical state and municipality research on police accountability with the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (LCCRUL).
Eastern District of Virginia Federal Public Defender secondment
Created by the Task Force, this secondment allows associates to represent indigent defendants in all manner of criminal matters.
Research and transactional work
Our work has supported Spread the Vote's work helping clients obtain proper identification to vote and access other governmental services and the Justice Innovation Lab, which provides data analysis to prosecutors to help reduce racial disparities and improve the effectiveness of the criminal justice system.
Education
We aim to provide opportunity to students of color and those from underrepresented communities through initiatives such as:
First-of-its-kind, pro bono-only externship program with HBCU law schools
The Task Force created this innovative program enabling second- and third-year law students from Howard University School of Law and Southern University Law Center to earn academic credit while working alongside lawyers on racial justice pro bono matters, gaining valuable mentorship and guidance at an international law firm and designing their own racial justice project for the Firm to consider.
Mentoring partnerships
We work with pipeline programs, such as New York City's Defying Legal Gravity, to match Firm lawyers with high school students in mentoring relationships.
Urban debate league support
All eight of our US offices have relationships with local urban debate leagues. In 2021 we began a collaboration with the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues (NAUDL) to sponsor the White & Case NAUDL Alumni Fellows Program, where our lawyers and business services colleagues participate in weekly career-readiness discussions.
Economic empowerment
Economic empowerment is critical to achieving racial equality. To that end, the Task Force coordinates with local nonprofit organizations on projects, such as:
Supporting small Black-owned businesses
We are working with Black chambers of commerce in Maryland and Florida to provide seminars on general corporate topics, including common legal issues small businesses should consider to ensure legal compliance and to protect their assets.
Heirs' Property Research
Task Force members are working with Common Future to survey state laws governing Heirs' Property, which is family-owned property inherited by multiple generations without formal legal proceedings to establish ownership. This issue disproportionately impacts communities of color, especially in the southern United States.
Awards
The Task Force has won a number of high-profile awards for its work, including:
Pro Bono Publico Awards from Legal Aid Society
More than 20 of our lawyers received individual pro bono publico awards from the Legal Aid Society for their Task Force work.
FT Innovative Lawyers Awards
In 2022, the Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Awards North America ranked the Task Force initiative in its "Equity and racial justice" category.
#1 Diversity Initiative
In 2022, the National Law Journal named the Task Force a "#1 Diversity Initiative."
There is a real opportunity here for people from all parts of the Firm to get involved and to work on projects they are passionate about, because not only do we support initiatives the Firm is already involved in, but we’re also constantly looking for new opportunities in different jurisdictions and communities in the US and other countries.
It is very important to us to have a real-world, concrete impact on individuals and communities. Our focus on criminal justice reform, education and economic empowerment provides a framework for us to take on specific projects that can make a difference.
The Task Force is an amazing example of what we can achieve as a Firm. Attorneys at all levels, business services professionals and externs alike have started projects, developed relationships with partner organizations or simply pitched ideas that have resulted—or have the potential to result—in life-changing successes for our clients.
Highlights
Read more about how the Racial Justice Task Force creates meaningful change in people's lives.
