Faegre Drinker Announces 2023 Pro Bono Award Recipients

Faegre Drinker's Executive Leadership Team is pleased to announce the recipients of the firm's 2023 Pro Bono Awards and Pro Bono Service Moment of the Year Awards.

In addition to a commemorative award, each individual recipient had the opportunity to direct a $1,000 charitable contribution from the Faegre Drinker Foundation to a partner nonprofit organization.

2023 Faegre Drinker Pro Bono Award Recipients 

The Faegre Drinker Pro Bono Award recognizes individuals and teams for providing or supporting exceptional pro bono legal services. 

Towing Rights Team: For work led by Hannah Anderson, a product liability and mass torts associate in the Minneapolis office, and supported by David Johnson, a government and regulatory partner in Minneapolis, and Christine Kain a product liability and mass torts partner in Minneapolis, the team is honored for their work drafting and successfully advocating for the passage of legislation in Minnesota that created compensatory relief for indigent Minnesotans who were wrongfully denied access to the contents of their towed vehicles.

Afghan Crisis Response Teams: The teams are honored for quickly and effectively responding to an international human rights crisis with the fall of Afghanistan. More than 120 attorneys, paralegals and other legal professionals from 14 offices sought asylum, special immigrant visas and humanitarian parole relief for vulnerable and traumatized clients seeking safety in the U.S. from persecution by the Taliban. John Mandler, Minneapolis-based product liability and mass torts partner, and Sari Long a labor and employment partner in the Denver office, led the overall project. 

Renée Dudek, Associate, Business Litigation, Philadelphia: Dudek is honored for her significant leadership, skill, dedication and extraordinary time commitment representing an incarcerated client on a civil rights matter. Dudek is also recognized for her considerable pro bono contributions since joining the firm.   

James Ellis-Rees, Associate, Corporate, London: Ellis-Rees is honored for his leadership in cultivating a strong pro bono culture in London by implementing new pro bono partnerships with local legal service organizations, connecting London attorneys with pro bono opportunities and personally maintaining an active pro bono practice.  

Megan Farooqui, Senior Attorney, Business Litigation, Boulder: Farooqui is honored for her commitment to clients and leadership on pro bono at the firm, including a diverse pro bono practice, as well as a dedication to veteran clients as a major contributor to our Justice for Veterans Team.  

Candice Holcomb, Paralegal, Corporate, Indianapolis: Holcomb is honored for her role as primary paralegal for our Indianapolis guardianship representation, as well as work on immigration matters.  

Robin Sampson, Counsel, Corporate, Philadelphia: Sampson is honored for her dedication and expertise as a mainstay attorney on corporate and nonprofit pro bono matters, as well as work outside her practice area volunteering at legal clinics and other projects.  

Jane Dall Wilson, Partner, Business Litigation, Indianapolis: Wilson is honored for her excellence as a pro bono leader and volunteer in Indiana, including development of a state appellate project and leading a groundbreaking team that successfully brought the first case under a new statute to support trafficking survivors.

2023 Pro Bono Service Moment of the Year Recipients 

The Pro Bono Service Moment of the Year Award honors acts of kindness, generosity and selfless service that often happen behind the scenes and under the radar but exemplify the firm's core value of service to others and fuels our pro bono program. 

Deborah Cairns, Senior Paralegal, Intellectual Property, Indianapolis: Cairns is honored for her over and above service to clients and the firm by stepping in day-of as coordinator of a wills clinic, providing numerous invaluable services ensuring the clinic was a success.  

Meaghan Geatens, Associate, Business Litigation, Philadelphia, and Jenna Wilson, Associate, Insurance, Philadelphia: Geatens and Wilson are honored for their compassionate representation of a young client in a social media defamation case.