Page 8 - Katten 2025 Pro Bono Annual Review

NEW YORK TEAM OF ATTORNEYS AND PAROLE PREP DELIVER
A SECOND CHANCE

While at Fordham Law School, our Transactional Tax Planning case neared the next parole interview, and managing restric-
Associate Dan Collins connected with Parole Prep, a New tive communication rules for incarcerated clients in New
York nonprofit that prepares incarcerated individuals for York. Katten’s Legal Executive Assistants Lynn Mooney and
parole and connects them to pro bono appellate counsel, Victoria Brannigan also supported the effort by facilitating
through Martha Rayner, the nonprofit’s counsel and former legal communications.
Fordham professor. Their relationship led to Dan, Litigation
The result is especially meaningful because their client, who
Associate Taylor Quinlan and Commercial Litigation Associate
had been incarcerated for more than 41 years for a crime
Alex San Martin becoming volunteers. The team took on a
committed as a child, is now awaiting paperwork for a
parole appeal for a “juvenile lifer” client denied release in July
December 2025 release. Against the backdrop of evolving
2024, filed the first appeal in early 2025, and ultimately pre-
constitutional law on life sentences for juveniles and national
pared two appellate briefs while conducting two months of
reform efforts, Katten’s team delivered a concrete second
intensive parole preparation. They navigated significant legal
chance for their client.
and logistical challenges, including arguing that the New York
Board of Parole failed to follow its rules, overcoming tough
odds at the administrative level and the risk of mootness if the

CHICAGO TEAM WINS ASYLUM FOR
SALVADORAN WOMAN FOLLOWING
YEARS-LONG PROCESS

In association with the National Immigrant Justice Center, a Katten team led by
Chicago Litigation Associate Bora Nieds secured asylum for a pro bono client, who
was connected with the firm in 2020. Katten’s client, who had fled El Salvador in 2018 to
escape severe mental, emotional, physical and sexual abuse and coercive threats from a former
partner, an MS-13 member, had since moved to Indiana with her children.
Bora joined the matter as a first-year associate in 2021 and took over the lead in 2024. She recruited Chicago Litigation Associate
Samantha Drake and Financial Markets Litigation and Enforcement Associate Michael Beirne, and received support from Senior
Counsel and Director of Pro Bono Services Jonathan Baum and Chicago Receptionist Veronica Moncada, who provided translation
and emotional support at hearings. Katten’s team persevered through numerous challenges, including demonstrating continued
risk despite the passage of time and political changes in El Salvador. They also engaged experts on intimate partner violence and
country conditions. The immigration judge, finding that our client and her children had suffered severe persecution and faced
ongoing threats, granted asylum on February 4, with the government declining to appeal.

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