White & Case helped the nonprofit Unchained At Last end child marriage in Connecticut, Michigan and Vermont in 2023, representing the greatest number of legislative victories achieved by this nonprofit organization in a single year.

Child marriage—in which one or both parties is under 18 years of age—was recognized as a human rights abuse by the United Nations in 2015. That year, the US was among 193 countries that pledged to end the practice by 2030. Still, it remains legal in 40 US states, typically through legal exceptions to the age limit of 18 years, such as parental consent and/or judicial approval. Marriage laws in ten states fail to specify a minimum age limit, and there is no federal legislation banning the practice.

Nearly 300,000 children, some as young as ten years old, were legally married in the US between 2000 and 2018, according to the nonprofit's research. The vast majority of these cases involve girls married to adult men.

Advancing state by state

Since 2016—when child marriage was legal in every US state—203 White & Case lawyers and legal staff from 11 offices have provided pro bono legal services to Unchained At Last. The Firm's research and advice have been instrumental in helping to persuade state legislators to update their laws to end child marriage in ten states to date.

Unchained At Last initially requested research on the laws of only a few states, but White & Case volunteered to cover all of them. The result was a 50-state research project, which includes updates. "When we started out, we needed research done in all 50 states, but it didn't even occur to us that we could ask one firm to do all of that," says Unchained At Last's Founder and Executive Director Fraidy Reiss.

In 2018, Delaware became the first state to outlaw child marriage. At that time, Reiss says, most states were reluctant to be the first to act. "But that victory made the next one a little easier, and each subsequent victory paved the way for the next," she adds. Reiss suspects the record number of victories in 2023 suggests we are reaching a tipping point.

In addition to this work at the state level, White & Case, together with William & Mary Law School and another law firm, is finalizing draft legislation that, if enacted, would change federal laws that enable child marriage.

Exposing legal contradictions

Our Los Angeles associate Taylor Akerblom, who leads a large project for Unchained At Last, says the team provides an in-depth review of all the state laws that impact and enable child marriage in the US. Often, the Firm's analysis helps Unchained At Last with research for its advocacy efforts, for example, by comparing a state's age limits for marriage with the minimum statutory age for activities such as buying cigarettes and alcohol, getting a tattoo or using a tanning salon.

In other cases, the Firm reviews case law and other material to analyze how a state's agencies apply relevant laws in cases of child marriage, identifying inconsistencies. For example, Akerblom noted that in many states that allow marriage before the age of 18 years, people cannot legally file for divorce until they are older than 18 years.

"Before White & Case came on board, no one was listening to us," says Reiss. "Our success rate was zero. But when we said, 'Are you aware you're marrying off girls who are not old enough to file for divorce?' then we started to get somewhere."

According to census data, 7.5 million girls live in states where Unchained At Last and White & Case have ended child marriage. Reiss says, "Sometimes when I get overwhelmed by the thought that we have 40 states to go, it helps to think about those girls."

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Two teenage girls raise their fists to the sky.