partnering

Stephanie Hipp, senior counsel at McDonald’s, knew from the start that pairing with Jenner & Block would be a positive experience. There was, she said, a “great synergy.”

In 2018, Stephanie had worked on her first asylum case, helping a seeker from Cameroon. The following year, she was eager to take another.

Connected with Jenner & Block through McDonald’s own award-winning pro bono committee, Stephanie and Partner Gay Sigel quickly aligned on a client. They chose a 26-year-old Muslim woman from Myanmar who, because of her religion, was subjected to repeated threats, assaults and mistreatment by men operating under color of government protection.

“From the moment I met Gay and her team, we hit it off really well together,” Stephanie said. “When I think of my experience of working with Jenner, it was like a well-oiled machine.”

In addition to Stephanie and Gay, the team included Senior Paralegal Theresa Busch, Legal Assistant Margaret Petit, and former staff attorney Alexis Gabay. The colleagues marshaled forces, shared resources, and divided tasks. Stephanie, whose background is in real estate law, worked mostly on the affidavit portion of the application. For McDonald’s, “to partner with firms is invaluable to us.  On the asylum cases, the resource-sharing aspect is crucial,” Stephanie explained.

“Whether it was medical or police reports or personal statements from the client’s relatives, pulling it together was a lot of detailed work. Many, many hours of work. I think another nice aspect of having the firm to partner with was that we were able to share in workload, with each part of the team taking a different part of the application,” she added.

The team was also able to tap into the skills of Associate Umer Chaudhry and Associate Director of Litigation Support Zulaikha Master, both of whom speak the client’s language, Urdu. “That worked out wonderfully,” Stephanie said.

This year, Stephanie is handling her third asylum case. 

“I can honestly say these asylum cases are the most impactful and rewarding cases I’ve worked on,” she said. “They are the things I’m most proud of in my legal career because they are life-changing for the client.”

At National Geographic in Washington DC, Evelyn Miller, a deputy chief counsel and head of legal affairs, is partnering again this year with Associate Grant Schweikert on another asylum case. Previously, she, Grant, and former of counsel Joe Smith dedicated nearly two years to help an unaccompanied minor secure asylum from El Salvador. After being granted asylum in 2019, the client secured his Green Card and is now working to become a nurse.

Like McDonald’s, National Graphic has a robust pro bono program. But, as Evelyn explained, the program is tailored more to pairing with and supporting community organizations. It’s difficult for an individual lawyer to take on a specialized public service matter. Partnering with Jenner & Block offered the team all the resources a law firm could provide, from paralegals down to the courier service. “At my company, that wouldn’t have been possible,” Evelyn said. “Without the support of Jenner, the case would not have moved so swiftly.”

For Evelyn, the partnership was “nice way of harnessing the strengths of each organization.”

“For me, I’ve done asylum work. I speak Spanish fluently. Jenner provided me the benefit of partnering with a partner who could review our writing. We both gain from that relationship,” she said.

Asylum cases are just one type of matter that Jenner & Block supports. The firm partners with clients and organizations on a range of matters, from litigation to transactional. In Los Angeles, for example, a team partnered with the Public Counsel’s Consumer Law Project to help a defrauded homeowner regain title to her home. In New York, a team partnered with Bank of Montreal to host a half-day immigration screening clinic. In London, the firm’s Data Privacy and Cybersecurity team has worked on various data protection matters for charities and NGOs in the UK and the US.

“I would say to any other organization thinking about partnering, definitely just jump in with both feet and do it,” Stephanie said.

Partnership with Exelon helps Obtain Post-Conviction Sentence Reduction and Eventual Release for Client

Since 2015, Jenner & Block has been working with Tracy Hannan, in-house counsel at Exelon, to obtain post-conviction re-sentencing for our client James Swansey, who was originally sentenced by a Cook County judge to life in prison as a juvenile. 

In light of the US Supreme Court’s ruling in Miller v. Alabama, Mr. Swansey’s request for post-conviction re-sentencing relief was granted in 2015. At that time, former partner Thalia Myrianthopoulos (now assistant general counsel at Northwestern University) partnered with Ms. Hannan at Exelon to take up Mr. Swansey’s case. 

After investigation and motion practice before a hostile judge presiding over the re-sentencing, the team presented a number of witnesses on his behalf at the re-sentencing hearing, at which the State sought an 80-year total sentence for his crimes. At the time of the hearing, the Jenner & Block team was led by former partner and now Magistrate Judge Gabe Fuentes and Partner Andrew Vail, along with former associate Bill Strom.

At the hearing, the team demonstrated, among other compelling points, that Mr. Swansey had been a model prisoner during his incarceration and made significant contributions to the prison community through his work and leadership. Prison correctional officers and staff also testified in his support at the hearing. 

Despite the evidence presented and legal arguments made, the Cook County judge (on the record) stated that the science on juvenile culpability should not be considered, along with other bases for appeal.

However, the team initiated an appeal of that re-sentencing decision on Mr. Swansey’s behalf. Partner Cliff Berlow assisted. After filing their opening appellate brief, the team was able to successfully negotiate with the State’s attorney on a new aggregate sentence of 60 years imprisonment in June of 2019. 

While this was a significant reduction in his sentence, it was not the end for Mr. Swansey or his legal team. To continue to pursue an earlier release for Mr. Swansey, the team, now joined by Associate Sara Stappert, prepared and submitted a clemency application to Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker in May of 2020. After submitting the clemency petition, the team continued to lobby the Office of the Cook County State’s Attorney and succeeded in securing from the Office an official position of non-opposition before the Governor’s clemency board.

On December 4, the Illinois Governor’s Office informed the team that Governor Pritzker would commute part of Mr. Swansey’s sentence, which effectively made him eligible for immediate release. And on December 9, Mr. Swansey was released from prison after serving more than 25 years.

partnering case study: jean b

Jean B., a high school history and geography teacher in the Republic of Congo, was part of the leadership of a teacher’s union in the country. After several interrogations, beatings, and threats to his life from the Congolese government, Mr. B. fled to the United States. The National Immigrant Justice Center referred his asylum case to a team from Jenner & Block and the McDonald’s Corporation.

Firm Hosts Immigration
Clinic with BMO

Before the start of the pandemic, Jenner & Block partnered with firm client BMO Harris Bank (BMO) to host a half-day immigration screening clinic. The clinic was organized with help from Legal Services NYC (LSNYC) and included seven Jenner & Block lawyers, five BMO legal and regulatory compliance professionals, and firm and LSNYC staff. The lawyers attended an hour-long training on how to interview domestic violence victims for potential immigration relief. Following the training, Jenner & Block and BMO lawyers paired up to conduct one- to two-hour interviews with clinic participants to learn about their cases. LSNYC will use the resulting notes from those interviews to assess the participants’ cases and help them potentially pursue relief.