Pro Bono

Our firm is committed to pro bono work on behalf of indigent clients. Our lawyers volunteer our legal services in a wide range of areas, with the same skill and diligence that define our representation of paying clients. Partners and associates participate, and the firm fully commits its support services and other resources.The American Lawyer has cited Spears & Imes as one of five "small sized" but "big hearted" litigation boutique firms that, despite their size, are "still making pro bono contributions." Am Law highlighted the firm's involvement in representing two Guantanamo Bay detainees in habeas corpus proceedings in federal court.

Recent pro bono matters include:

• Our representation of a convicted criminal defendant in a merits appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the Second Circuit's interpretation of the federal racketeering statute.

• Our representation in federal habeas corpus proceedings of two prisoners in military custody at the United States Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. We made numerous trips to Guantanamo to counsel our clients. Both men have now been released to their respective countries of citizenship.

• Our representation of a Columbia University graduate student who was stopped and detained by plain-clothes police officers who refused to identify themselves, and who was then indicted for multiple felonies after she tried to escape in her car. After a jury trial in Supreme Court in New York County, she was acquitted of the charges.

• Our representation of a prisoner in a Second Circuit appeal from the District Court's denial of a Section 2255 motion challenging his sentence on a Hobbs Act conviction.

• Our representation of an inmate before the New York State Division of Parole in connection with denial of his parole and any appeal of that denial to a New York State Court.