Ballard Spahr Named ACLU's National Pro Bono Law Firm of the Year

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has named Ballard Spahr its Pro Bono Law Firm of the Year in recognition of the firm’s work on multiple transgender rights cases in partnership with the ACLU, one of the nation’s foremost civil rights advocacy organizations.

Through its ongoing work on these cases, Ballard Spahr has contributed “extraordinary litigation experience, a shared commitment to civil rights and civil liberties, and thousands of hours of attorneys’ time,” the ACLU said in announcing the award today.

“Congratulations and thank you to all our lawyers who are donating time to work in partnership with the ACLU on these important cases,” Ballard Spahr Chair Peter Michaud said. “You embody our firm’s core commitment to going beyond expectations in service to our clients and communities.”

Ballard Spahr has partnered with the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project on three major, ongoing cases in defense of transgender Americans’ civil rights: Loe v. Kansas, a state-court challenge to a Kansas law that prohibits certain medical care for transgender adolescents; Doe v. Kansas, a state-court challenge to another Kansas law that immediately invalidated the driver’s licenses of transgender people across the state; and Robinson v. Labrador, federal-court litigation challenging the deprivation of essential health care to incarcerated individuals, under an Idaho state law that prohibits the use of state funds for gender-affirming care.

“We are grateful to the ACLU for this tremendous honor, but even more so for the organization’s leadership in identifying and addressing important cases in which civil rights and liberties are being impinged and threatened,” said Lisa Swaminathan, Pro Bono Counsel at Ballard Spahr. “We are proud to partner with the ACLU to advance and protect civil rights and human rights, a value that has always been at the center of our pro bono efforts. I’m personally proud of all our lawyers who devote their skill and energy to providing pro bono legal services to meet the most pressing needs of our communities.”

Through the firm’s acclaimed Pro Bono program, Ballard Spahr lawyers contribute more than 50,000 hours a year in pro bono legal service, ensuring that clients have a voice and a legal advocate regardless of their ability to pay. The firm’s pro bono work spans an extraordinary range of matters, from cases involving fundamental human rights to high-impact legislative advocacy to representing low-income individuals and families in a full spectrum of matters.