Williams & Connolly LLP Receives Pro Bono Award from Washington Lawyers' Committee
June 2008

The Washington Lawyers’ Committee awarded Williams &Connolly the 2008 Outstanding Achievement Award in Immigrant and Refugee Rights: 

Williams & Connolly has provided outstanding asylum representation in a broad range of asylum cases.  In the past year, the firm won asylum for a woman from the Central African Republic by carefully documenting the horrendous conditions in her home country, as well as helping her cope with the aftermath of domestic abuse from her asylee husband.  A Williams & Connolly attorney won asylum for a man from the Congo Republic by documenting the 18 months of detention he suffered in his native country and showing that he had not been firmly resettled in a third country.  The firm’s lawyers are also working on appellate cases involving controversial issues of asylum law:  an amicus brief challenging a decision which held that female genital mutilation is a type of harm that generally is inflicted only once and thus not a basis for asylum; a pending appeal on whether a young Salvadoran male’s refusal to join in a gang makes him a member of a “social group” who has suffered past persecution; and a pro se case referred to the immigration court because for alleged failure to meet the one-year filing deadline.

Attorneys at Williams & Connolly also represented two immigrant construction workers employed by local contractors that failed to pay minimum, overtime and promised wages in violation of local and federal law.  They secured an award in D.C. District Court of total unpaid wages, liquidated damages, and attorneys’ fees.