Pro Bono

Kirkland is committed to providing legal services without charge to those who cannot afford counsel, with the goals of improving clients’ lives, bettering communities and deepening our own professional experience. In 2021, Kirkland devoted more than 122,000 hours to pro bono matters — some representing classes of individuals, some involving significant legal issues, and all important, sometimes life-altering, to the people and organizations represented.

We staff and support pro bono work with the same enthusiasm and resources that we devote to our billable work. Kirkland treats pro bono work equivalently with billable client work in performance reviews and for compensation purposes.

All of our attorneys — from summer associates to senior partners — have opportunities to work on a broad variety of projects that appeal to their unique interests, time availability and experience. Our award-winning pro bono work includes immigration law, disability rights, civil rights, death penalty cases and criminal appeals, discrimination cases, health and patient rights, veterans’ benefits, and the representation and counsel of various nonprofit organizations, among other areas.

We frequently partner with clients and public interest organizations on pro bono initiatives to maximize the impact of our work.

Since 2006, the Kirkland Immigration Network (KIN) has helped to connect our attorneys and staff with opportunities to serve immigration clients and facilitate knowledge-sharing among all members of the team who are committed to immigration matters.

Through KIN, Kirkland attorneys and staff serve immigration clients in asylum petitions, U-Visa and Violence Against Women Act petitions, appellate advocacy, know-your-rights presentations, and the representations of unaccompanied minors to obtain special immigrant juvenile status. KIN attorneys also represent immigration organizations, such as the National Immigrant Justice Center, by filing amicus briefs and administrative petitions for rulemaking. We also work closely with Sanctuary for Families, Immigration Equality and other immigration partners in representing clients seeking immigration-related remedies. 

Under the KIN umbrella are the Kirkland Immigration Intervention Project for Domestic Violence Victims and the LGBT Asylum Project. Including these projects and others under one Firmwide initiative allows these projects to benefit from the related work that each has accomplished, and provides a support framework for any immigration-related cases that attorneys take on from other organizations.

We have established strong relationships with many important public interest organizations and often partner with them to represent those in need. They include such groups as the Alliance for Children's Rights, the Legal Assistance Foundation, Lambda Legal, Sanctuary for Families, the National Women's Law Center, the Western Center on Law & Poverty, the Disability Rights Legal Center and the National Immigrant Justice Center.