The DC Volunteer Lawyers Project honored Crowell & Moring as the 2024 Pro Bono Partner of the Year and Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) as the 2024 Champion of Justice at their annual spring benefit.
The awards were presented at DCVLP’s annual spring benefit, Safe Homes Build Safe Communities. The Spring Benefit focused on a complex and urgent issue—the deadly intersection of gun violence and domestic violence. According to statistics from the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, access to firearms increases the risk of intimate partner homicide by 500 percent. Both Crowell and Senator Klobuchar were recognized as important partners in DCVLP’s work to address this deadly issue, whose efforts are helping to keep guns out of the hands of the abusers.
The Crowell & Moring Foundation currently sponsors DCVLP’s Equal Justice Works fellow, Tara Branine, in her project to represent survivors who have suffered or been threatened by gun violence and has hosted multiple trainings on the District of Columbia’s Extreme Risk Protection Orders. Provisions from Senator Klobuchar’s bill with Representative Debbie Dingell (D-MI) close the ‘boyfriend loophole’ and prevent abusive dating partners from buying or owning firearms were included in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act signed into law by President Biden.
In accepting the award on Crowell & Moring’s behalf, Susan M. Hoffman, the firm’s pro bono partner, pointed to statistics that two thirds of mass shootings in the U.S. involve the killing of at least one dating partner or family member or are carried out by a shooter with a history of domestic violence. This tragic fact has served as an impetus for the firm’s pro bono focus in addressing the intersection of domestic and gun violence. As part of those efforts, Crowell authored an amicus brief earlier this year on behalf of nearly 60 domestic violence advocacy organizations in U.S. v. Rahimi asking the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold federal law banning abusers under a domestic violence protective order from owning a gun.
DCVLP recognized Crowell’s steadfast dedication to justice, which has offered invaluable pro bono legal aid to ensure access to both safety and justice for survivors. Crowell was honored for its work assisting domestic violence survivors through the Civil Protection Assistance Project and the firm’s work building pro bono partnerships with corporate partners.
DCVLP provides comprehensive legal services to victims of domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, sexual assault, and other forms of gender-based violence, and to vulnerable children living in dangerous situations. For more information on DCVLP and their work, please visit here. The awards program recording is available here.
About Crowell & Moring LLP
Crowell & Moring is an international law firm with operations in the United States, Europe, MENA, and Asia. Drawing on significant government, business, industry and legal experience, the firm helps clients capitalize on opportunities and provides creative solutions to complex litigation and arbitration, regulatory and policy, and corporate and transactional issues. The firm is consistently recognized for its commitment to pro bono service as well as its programs and initiatives to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion.
