Williams & Connolly is committed to ensuring that access to justice is not a privilege only for those who can afford it.  Each year, our attorneys and staff devote tens of thousands of hours of legal services to individuals trying to navigate complex legal systems.  Most of the firm’s pro bono matters are direct representations of individuals in criminal, civil, or administrative proceedings.  We also partner with non-profit organizations challenging government action and advancing the rights of low-income communities. 

 

Areas of Practice

Williams & Connolly attorneys handle pro bono matters in a wide range of practice areas, including:  

Appellate and Supreme Court Matters Asylum and Humanitarian Relief Civil Rights Criminal Defense First Amendment and FOIA Litigation

Nonprofit Formation Death Penalty and Post-Conviction Relief Veterans’ Benefits and Discharge Upgrade Matters

 

Recent Experience

• Through the firm’s partnership with the Maryland Office of the Public Defender (“OPD”), firm attorneys have represented clients in over 160 criminal cases.  In 2025, firm attorneys tried two murder cases—one resulting in an acquittal and the other in a mistrial.  Associates have also handled over 170 OPD appeals in the Maryland Court of Appeals.
• Williams & Connolly successfully represented the Wausau Pilot & Review, a small Wisconsin local paper, and two of its journalists in connection with a defamation lawsuit brought by a prominent local business owner, politician, and political activist arising out of the Pilot’s reporting on heated public hearings over civic diversity and inclusion resolutions .  The Wisconsin Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment in our clients’ favor, holding that the plaintiff politician was a limited purpose public figure and could not establish actual malice.
• In 2025, Williams & Connolly successfully represented a police officer who worked on gang investigations in his home country until his fellow colleagues discovered his homosexuality.  He was ostracized, and his colleagues told the gangs about his sexual orientation.  Our client faced multiple death threats and attacks by local gangs before fleeing to the United States.  The firm began representing the client just three months before his merits hearing in Immigration Court, and the judge granted the client’s asylum application.
• The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Williams & Connolly client Carlos Concepcion, who was seeking to reduce his prison term under the First Step Act, the 2018 criminal-justice reform bill.  The Court held that district judges may consider intervening changes of law or fact in exercising their discretion to reduce a prison sentence pursuant to the First Step Act.
• Williams & Connolly secured a victory for an Army Veteran before the en banc Federal Circuit.  Our client suffered physical and mental disabilities after his participation in a secret chemical and biological weapons testing program with the U.S. Army.  After two tours in Vietnam and an honorable discharge, the client was unable to access veterans’ disability benefits because of the government’s secrecy oath about the testing program.  The Federal Circuit held that the government had improperly prevented our client from seeking benefits and ordered that the government consider him for an additional 35 years of benefits dating back to his discharge in 1971.

 

Partner Organizations

Over the last 30 years, the firm has developed strong partnerships with many non-profit organizations who help identify cases for the firm and work with W&C lawyers to provide pro bono legal services.  Those partners include:

American Civil Liberties Union Amica Children’s Law Center Federal Public Defender for the District of Columbia Human Rights First International Refugee Assistance Project Lambda Legal Legal Aid D.C. Maryland Office of the Public Defender Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project

Mwalimu Center for Justice and Death Penalty Advocacy National Veterans Legal Services Program National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Public Defender Service Reporter’s Committee for Freedom of the Press Second Look Project U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Volare Volunteer Legal Advocates