BOSTON, June 7, 2006 — Goodwin Procter LLP, one of the nation's leading law firms with offices in Boston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Washington, DC, today announced that it will receive the Washington Lawyers Committee Award. The firm will be honored at an award luncheon on Tuesday, June 13.
The Washington Lawyers Committee Award recognizes the firm for its successful pro bono representation of a Congolese citizen of Congolese/Rwandan ethnicity and her application for asylum. The client left the Congo in 2004 and asked for asylum in the United States because, due to regional ethnic clashes, she and other Congolese citizens of Rwandan heritage had been tortured and imprisoned in the Congo.
Goodwin Procter has a well-developed pro bono program which, in fiscal year 2005, provided more than 47,700 hours of pro bono legal assistance to charitable organizations and individuals who could not otherwise afford legal assistance.