“Frida” is a Swedish-trained nurse. Her son, AC, was diagnosed with ADHD at age three. After moving to Illinois in 2015, Frida took then-six-year-old AC to see a new psychiatrist to continue AC’s ADHD treatment. The psychiatrist changed AC’s medication, and the result was a parent’s worst nightmare: the new medication dramatically altered AC’s behavior, causing him to constantly harm himself and others. Frida pleaded with the psychiatrist to take her son off the medication, but the psychiatrist refused and threatened to call the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) if Frida disobeyed her orders.

Finally, afraid for AC’s life, Frida researched how to safely wean AC off the medication and did so. Once he was no longer taking the medication, AC’s behavior dramatically improved. Nonetheless, the psychiatrist called DCFS, which conducted an investigation and indicated Frida for medical neglect.  All of the sudden, Frida found herself wrapped up in a frightening system that asserted she was a neglectful mother for safely and carefully doing what she thought was best for her son.

The Family Defense Center sought McDermott’s help to defend Frida in the administrative hearing appealing the indicated finding. Despite clear evidence that Frida did not blatantly disregard her parental responsibilities, including testimony from AC’s current psychiatrist that Frida’s actions were common and appropriate, the administrative law judge upheld the indicated finding holding that Frida had an absolute obligation to follow medical advice as given to her by her son’s psychiatrist.

McDermott filed a complaint for administrative review in the Circuit Court of Cook County. After extensive briefing and oral argument, the circuit court—adopting the language argued by McDermott—reversed the indicated finding and ruled that the administrative law judge’s determination was “clearly erroneous.” In addition to vindicating Frida, this ruling will assist other families by clarifying the standards for measuring child neglect in this type of case.

Office: Chicago

In Partnership: The Family Defense Center

When the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) rejected ”Fred’s” tax return and applied late filing penalties, Fred was overwhelmed both by the possibility of controversy with the IRS and by the financial impact of the proposed assessment and penalties.  He was not sure where to turn.  Thankfully, through our Partnership with the Center for Economic Progress, McDermott was able to step in to help.

McDermott quickly assessed the case and discovered that Fred claimed his son as a dependent and attempted to file his return electronically using a low-income taxpayer clinic. The IRS rejected his return and sent him a notice of deficiency determining that tax was due and that penalties applied for negligence and late filing. Our team filed a petition with the US Tax Court contesting the penalties. After McDermott submitted a position paper with supporting documentation and held multiple calls with the IRS, the IRS conceded and agreed to remove the penalties.

In conjunction with this case, McDermott has been communicating with the IRS National Office and the American Bar Association Section of Taxation in an effort to eliminate the assertion of late-filing penalties where a tax return is electronically transmitted in a timely manner but is rejected by the IRS. “This is an extremely important issue for taxpayers who rely on low-income taxpayer clinics to assist in preparing and e-filing returns,” said McDermott partner Andrew Roberson, who is also the former chair of the American Bar Association Section of Taxation’s Pro Bono and Tax Clinics Committee. “We look forward to continuing to help both individual taxpayers and the community at large in ensuring that penalties are not imposed against those who take all proper steps to timely file their returns.”

Office: Chicago

In Partnership: The Center for Economic Progress

For the last decade, “Mr. G” has been an outspoken critic of the Ethiopian government and its policies regarding civil liberties, particularly the rights and treatment of differently abled individuals. His role as an advocate put him in the crosshairs of the government.  The Ethiopian government threatened, detained, arrested and tortured Mr. G on several occasions because of his political activism. Ultimately, fearful for his safety, he was forced to flee the country, leaving behind his wife and daughter.  Once in the US, Mr. G sought assistance from Human Rights First in applying for asylum.  Human Rights First quickly connected Mr. G with a team of McDermott lawyers. 

Mr. G’s application for asylum was recently granted. Thanks to the grant of asylum, Mr. G is now safely relocated in the United States, where he continues his activism through articles and internet radio broadcasts. His wife and daughter remain in Ethiopia and face continued harassment, but McDermott has successfully applied for derivative asylum on their behalf. “Our hope is to reunite him with his wife and young daughter as soon as possible,” said McDermott associate Macdonald A. Norman. “Mr. G has fought his entire life for disability rights and a fair Ethiopian government, and we are proud to see the tangible results of our efforts on his behalf.”

Offices: Miami; Washington, DC

In Partnership: Human Rights First

For the past five years, McDermott and the Mattachine Society of Washington, DC (the Mattachine Society) have embarked on a mission of “archive activism” to investigate and disclose historical evidence of unconstitutionally impermissible animus and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Americans. As part of the mission, McDermott’s pro bono team has filed countless Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests in an effort to uncover the often deleted political histories of LGBT Americans who faced persecution and discrimination in all branches of the Federal Government.

Their work has uncovered hundreds of pages of documents showing how homophobic feelings displayed by high-level government leaders, including FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover, became part of official government policy for over thirty (30) years.  Many of these materials formed the basis for the team to file a nationally recognized amicus brief in the Obergefell case that was submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court in March 2015. 

Post-Obergefell, the McDermott team has not let up in their continued “archive activism” efforts. Rather, the team has doggedly pursued additional FOIA requests. A portion of the historical documents McDermott sought to uncover were those related to President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Executive Order 10450 (EO 10450), which provided J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI with the legal authority and jurisdiction to purge gay and lesbian employees from the federal employment rolls, and the files of then Assistant Attorney General Warren E. Burger, who was tasked with enforcing EO 10450.

In late 2017, the team won a motion for summary judgment filed against the Department of Justice (DOJ) in the US District Court for the District of Columbia. In a 14-page opinion, US District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth found that the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s original search for documents was inadequate and “not reasonably calculated to uncover all relevant documents.” With respect to the government’s failure to produce any Warren Burger files, “[t]he Court finds it nearly impossible to believe that a search for every permutation of the name of the man who was charged with carrying out EO 10450, a robust federal mandate that built upon an established FBI initiative, yielded zero responsive documents.” Judge Lamberth ordered the parties to agree on an expanded set of search terms that will meet the Mattachine Society’s request to expose “the FBI’s systematic collection of information, specifically on homosexual employees, in the wake of EO 10450.”

“We are pleased that the Court has ordered the expansion of the DOJ’s inadequate search,” said McDermott partner Paul Thompson. “We look forward to working with the government to devise an appropriate search for documents so that we may prevent the erasure of this important period of time in LGBT history and stop future generations from repeating the mistakes of the past.”

This victory sends a powerful message that McDermott and the Mattachine Society will refuse to allow federal, state and local governments to keep important historical documents from the public. “Thousands of LGBT Americans were ruthlessly investigated, interrogated and fired because of this Order, and historians still do not know the full extent of its implementation and enforcement by such officials as then-Assistant Attorney General, Chief Justice Warren Burger,” said Charles Francis, president of the Mattachine Society. “It is time for the government to release these historic FBI and DOJ documents that launched decades of discrimination against LGBT Americans.”

Offices: New York; Washington, DC

In Partnership: The Mattachine Society of Washington, DC

In 2015, world leaders unanimously adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including the 17 sustainable development goals, which for the first time set an agenda that integrates peace and sustainable development. Each year, the UN Sustainable Development Goals Fund (UN SDG) prepares an annual report focusing on one of these goals.

McDermott was proud to collaborate with Penn Law, the UN SDG and the UN SDG’s Private Sector Advisory Group (PSAG) to create the 2017 Annual Report. The report, launched with excitement in early November at the UN, focuses on how the private sector can contribute to peace, justice and inclusive societies.

The McDermott team assisted with the research and drafting of various cases studies highlighting anti-corruption efforts around the world, working with and relying on guidance from in-country experts. Both Paloma Duran, the head of the UN SDG Fund, and Rangita de Silva, advisor to the UN SDG Fund showed appreciation for the team’s dedicated efforts during their remarks at the launch. Many members of the UN SDG Fund’s PSAG also spoke about the importance of this initiative and expressed gratitude for McDermott’s role in the creation of this impactful report. 

The Annual Report reiterates how an effective legal framework can help the private sector build trust with the public and civil society, and details the role of business in creating conditions that would improve areas such as corporate social responsibility, governance, transparency and accountability.

“This was a very exciting opportunity for McDermott lawyers to be at the forefront of a unique partnership between the UN and a wide range of private organizations working together to improve sustainability and economic development around the world” said McDermott’s Pro Bono and Community Service Partner, Elizabeth Lewis.

In partnership: Penn Law and the UN SDG Fund

In June 2017, McDermott was proud to host the 11th Annual LGBT Workplace Awareness program featuring the award-winning documentary, The Freedom to Marry. The film chronicles the history of the marriage equality movement and two of its champions—civil rights attorneys, Evan Wolfson and Mary Bonauto. Evan and Mary’s vision for marriage equality spanned decades of legal challenges. Their work culminated in the destruction of DOMA—the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which made marriage legal only between one man and one woman—in the 2013 case of US v. Windsor, and paved the way for same-sex couples to marry anywhere in the country with the 2015 victory in Obergefell v. Hodges.

The film shows the difficulties in securing civil rights for marginalized communities and memorializes this important chapter in LGBT American history. The speakers who addressed the issues raised in the Firm following the screening made the event both extraordinary and memorable. Plaintiffs Edith Windsor and Jim Obergefell made history at McDermott when they appeared and spoke publicly together for the first time. Their candor, humor and passion inspired hundreds of attorneys and staff who participated in the event in Firm offices all over the world. Partner, program organizer and creator of the Firm’s LGBT Diversity & Inclusion Committee Lisa A. Linsky notes, “The program is especially meaningful today because we lost Edie in September 2017 [when she died at the age of 88]. Edie’s legacy is a reminder that it is never too late for one person to change the world and to never postpone joy.”

In March 2017, McDermott’s flagship office in Chicago, IL moved into its new home in the iconic River Point Building. With a focus on our future, the new office space is pre-certified LEED-Gold for energy efficiency and environmental sustainability. It boasts natural light, smart and efficient design, and an ergonomic work space created to nurture collaboration and innovation.

This summer, McDermott collaborated with Swim Across America (SAA), a national nonprofit that hosts swims to raise money for cancer research and clinical trials. Several of our employees participated in five open water swim events across the country, including Boston (7/13), Chicago (7/21), New York (7/28), Baltimore (9/16) and San Francisco (9/22) to raise money to prevent, fight and beat cancer.

The "McDermott Makes Waves" teams from all five cities contributed to helping raise more than $30,000 and collectively over $2.2 million toward SAA's mission. All contributions support the great work being done at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Mass General Hospital for Children Cancer Center, Rush University Medical Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering, Children's Hospital of New York-Presbyterian, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center Johns Hopkins, and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals.

Once a month, McDermott’s local offices sponsor Denim Days, which allows employees to wear denim in exchange for contributing any amount to a local organization. Offices have collected and donated thousands of dollars for organizations, such as Children’s National Medical Center, American Heart Association, Breast Care for Washington, Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and more.

McDermott recognizes its obligation to minimize its impact on the planet and to promote a healthy, sustainable environment. As a Firm, we recycle and reduce paper consumption, invest in efficient lighting and heating systems, promote alternative forms of transportation, use technology to reduce travel and create energy efficient workspaces. We’ve partnered with Iron Mountain to analyze our sustainability efforts and provide us with the below metrics for the past year.

McDermott has achieved Mansfield Certification one year after announcing participation in the Mansfield Rule pilot program hosted by Diversity Lab. One of only 41 “trailblazing firms” to become certified, McDermott created and adopted documentation and tracking to measure its progress toward a goal of at least 30 percent of the candidate pool for key leadership and governance positions being gender or ethnically diverse.

To achieve the Mansfield Rule objectives, participating law firms had to first establish a baseline metric by which they could assess and analyze their talent pipelines. Firms were expected to record and measure their progress and identify areas for improvement. The ultimate goal of the Mansfield Rule and for McDermott is to boost the representation of diverse lawyers in law firm leadership by broadening the pool of candidates considered for these opportunities.

McDermott will also participate in Diversity Lab’s “Mansfield 2.0,” which adds consideration for LGBTQ+ lawyers and measures diversity as a factor for determining roles in client pitch meetings.

McDermott continues to champion diversity, knowing that a variety of viewpoints drives creative solutions and an inclusive atmosphere encourages collaboration in pursuit of successful client outcomes.

At McDermott, we champion diversity, equality and human rights—these values are core to who we are and who we aspire to be. Our inclusive culture fosters continued success in attracting and nurturing incredible talent from a wide range of backgrounds and we are proud to be recognized as a leader and in workplace diversity.

McDermott hosted two very important events over the past year, which supported our team members both personally and professionally.

The 2017 Racial & Ethnic Diversity Summit provided a forum to openly consider the obstacles and rewards accompanying racial and ethnic diversity. This inaugural forum, held last summer, discussed the complex topic of diversity, and participants shared which aspects of inclusion ring most important to clients. Brent Hawkins, partner and co-chair of McDermott's Racial & Ethnic Diversity Sub-Committee, affirmed the critical importance of unifying diverse participants of at all levels. “Isolationism is often an issue in large law firms, so the opportunity to create dialogue about ongoing issues and experiences is extremely important. This summit allows participants to assess what we need to do and to create action items the Firm can implement to best promote diversity and inclusion.” The 2018 Racial & Ethnic Diversity Summit will be held June 21–22.

McDermott’s second annual Women’s Summit was held during January in Miami, and welcomed female income and capital partners and senior women leaders from across the Firm—along with several of our senior male leaders. This event served the important purpose of discussing and setting goals to continue to make McDermott a positive, dynamic place for all women and colleagues. 

“Having had the privilege to attend both the first and second Women's Summits, I can attest to the fact that both have had a tremendous positive impact on female leaders across the firm. The summits have presented a unique opportunity to come together and discuss our expertise, experience, challenges and potential approaches to overcome those challenges,” noted McDermott partner, Lisa Richman. Partner and 2019 co-chair, Maureen O’Brien further stated, “I am inspired by the accountability and willingness of the Firm to put resources toward addressing the challenges female attorneys face in the workplace. So many firms just give lip service to diversity issues. Happily, as a side effect of attending the summit, I now know female attorneys in almost every firm practice and this has made it easy to cross-sell my fellow female attorneys.”

​In September 2013, McDermott represented Mr. R, a Vietnam War veteran, on a pro bono basis in his appeal to the US Court of Veterans Claims concerning a request for disability benefits that was denied by the US Department of Veterans Affairs (the VA). The client suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the effects of tonsil cancer, both of which are related to his service in Vietnam. When McDermott took Mr. R’s case, he was receiving monthly benefits for a 30 percent rating for PTSD and was receiving no benefits for tonsil cancer since the VA did not agree that it was service connected. 

The first appeal McDermott filed in 2014 arose out of the Board of Veterans Appeals rejection of the client's request for an increase in his PTSD benefits to a 50 percent rating and additional benefits for tonsil cancer which he argued was connected to Agent Orange exposure while in Vietnam. On June 30, 2014, the Court of Veterans Claims agreed that McDermott presented sufficient evidence to support a remand of both the PTSD and tonsil cancer claims to the Board of Veterans Appeals for further consideration. 

In July 2015, after considering additional evidence the team obtained and submitted in support of both claims, the Board of Veterans Appeals increased Mr. R's PTSD rating from 30 percent to 70 percent and granted service connection for tonsil cancer, but ruled that the his symptoms of tonsil cancer were not significant enough to be compensable. 

In 2016, McDermott filed a Notice of Disagreement on Mr. R’s behalf and later asked the VA to reconsider whether the veteran qualified for individual unemployability on the basis of the severity of his service-connected disabilities. On August 9, 2018, the VA ruled that the client qualified for individual unemployability retroactive to 2008, thereby entitling him to enhanced monthly benefits at a 100 percent rating and a significant lump sum payment for retroactive benefits. 

“Maria,” a transgender woman, fled from Ecuador to Italy, where she and her family hoped to escape the persecution that she faced in Ecuador. For almost 10 years, however, Maria continued to face similar persecution in Italy, so she sought asylum in the US. A team of McDermott lawyers was by her side, advocating for her through every step of the asylum process.

Maria’s intermediary relocation to Europe made her case particularly challenging since US immigration laws bar asylum if an applicant has “firmly resettled” in a third country prior to arrival in the US. In the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, if the applicant received an offer of permanent residency, citizenship or some other type of permanent resettlement in the third country, the applicant must show that they fall within an exception to the firm resettlement bar.

Undeterred by the challenge, in February 2016, McDermott successfully argued that (1) the Department of Homeland Security failed to meet its burden to show an offer of permanent residency, and that (2) the client fell squarely within an exception to firm resettlement because a person cannot be firmly resettled in a country where they continue to face the same persecution as was experienced in the country from which they originally fled. Having cleared these hurdles, the Immigration Court set the case for a full evidentiary hearing on asylum.

On October 22, 2018, following the evidentiary hearing, the judge granted Maria asylum in the US, and the government waived its right to appeal.

Since 2012, we have worked with the Mattachine Society of Washington DC (MSDC) to uncover the deleted histories of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Americans. This “archive activism” has helped to recover hundreds of documents and preserve countless stories dating back to the 1940s. Signature projects resulting from our partnership with MSDC include an amicus brief in the landmark Supreme Court marriage equality case, Obergefell v. Hodges; an award-winning documentary produced by Yahoo!News investigative journalist Michael Isikoff; and most recently, a comprehensive white paper report examining the legal and political history of conversion therapy in the United States.

The report titled, “The Pernicious Myth of Conversion Therapy: How Love In Action Perpetrated a Fraud on America,” offers a detailed look at the history of conversion therapy in the US. The report is divided into three sections. It starts with St. Elizabeths Hospital, the first federally-funded asylum for the insane, and notes the hospital’s practices of electroshock therapy and lobotomies that were performed on LGBT people. This section further examines the role of the medical community in stigmatizing LGBT Americans until 1973 when the American Psychiatric Association declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder.

Section two highlights the story of Love in Action (LIA), an ex-gay ministry that for a quarter of a century tried to convert LGBT people to heterosexuality. This section includes original research by the Firm and MSDC, and shines a light on the 2005 lawsuit brought by LIA against Tennessee state officials who tried to regulate LIA’s conversion therapy programs. The original source materials in the report consist of statements we obtained with MSDC during interviews with the Reverend John J. Smid, the former director of LIA, and documents from the lawsuit brought by the Alliance Defense Fund (now the Alliance Defending Freedom) on behalf of LIA on First Amendment religious liberties grounds. This case was one of the first to test the boundaries between religious freedoms and LGBT rights. The story of LIA was previously not widely known previously, but was recently depicted in the film Boy Erased.

Section three explores current legislative efforts to implement conversion therapy bans across the country and the resistence by those claiming to preserve religious liberties and parental rights concerning such therapies. The report also includes an extensive analysis of the status of conversion therapy bans for minors across the United States.

In October 2018, Lisa A. Linsky spoke at a National Press Club event in Washington, DC to release the report. Other panelists at the event included Boy Erased author Garrard Conley, his mother, Martha Conley, and Pate Felts from MSDC. Since its release, the report has been mentioned in numerous external media outlets such as The Advocate, The New York Review of Books, Associated Press and Washington Blade. Additionally, many of the leading LGBT rights organizations in the country have posted the report to their websites.

Offices: New York, Silicon Valley and Washington, DC

For the past 13 years, McDermott has hosted its annual LGBTQ Workplace Awareness Program as part of the Firm’s diversity and inclusion efforts. Every year, a different film is selected for screening and is followed by a 30-minute panel discussion. Past films include: To A More Perfect Union: U.S. v. Windsor, The Lavender Scare, The Case Against 8, The New Black, Call Me Kuchu and Code Breaker.

In June 2017, the program featuring the award-winning documentary, The Freedom to Marry. The film chronicles the history of the marriage equality movement and two of its champions—civil rights attorneys, Evan Wolfson and Mary Bonauto. Evan and Mary’s vision for marriage equality spanned decades of legal challenges. Their work culminated in the destruction of DOMA—the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which made marriage legal only between one man and one woman—in the 2013 case of US v. Windsor, and paved the way for same-sex couples to marry anywhere in the country with the 2015 victory in Obergefell v. Hodges. The film shows the difficulties in securing civil rights for marginalized communities and memorializes this important chapter in LGBT American history. Plaintiffs Edith Windsor and Jim Obergefell made history at McDermott when they appeared and spoke publicly together for the first time. The speakers, who addressed the issues raised in the Firm following the screening, made the event both extraordinary and memorable.

This year, McDermott will screen the documentary, The Ice King. The film chronicles the life of John Curry, one of the greatest figure skaters of all time, who was also the first openly gay Olympian—at a time when homosexuality was still widely considered immoral (and illegal). Curry's story dovetails with the experiences of a generation of LGBTQ individuals. 

At McDermott, we champion diversity, equality and human rights—these values are core to who we are and who we aspire to be. Our inclusive culture fosters continued success in attracting and nurturing incredible talent from a wide range of backgrounds and we are proud to be recognized as a leader and in workplace diversity.

Every year, McDermott hosts two important diversity to support our team members both personally and professionally.

The Racial & Ethnic Diversity Summit provides a forum to openly consider the obstacles and rewards accompanying racial and ethnic diversity. This forum visits the complex topic of diversity, as participants share which aspects of inclusion ring most important to clients. The summit allows participants to assess what we need to do and to create action items the Firm can implement to best promote diversity and inclusion.” The 2019 Racial & Ethnic Diversity Summit will be held June 13-14.

McDermott’s Women’s Summit gathers female income and capital partners and senior women leaders from across the Firm—along with several of our senior male leaders. This event served the important purpose of discussing and setting goals to continue to make McDermott a positive, dynamic place for all women and colleagues. 

McDermott provided valuable legal counsel to secure a Certificate of Need required for Breast Care for Washington (BCW) to launch its Mobile Mammography Program. The Firm maintains a long-standing pro bono relationship with BCW and is proud to support their work offering critical services to women in need, particularly those in DC’s outlying areas.

“McDermott is honored to play a role in Breast Care for Washington’s critical work bringing lifesaving health care to underserved women and families in the DC Metro area,” said Karen Sealander, McDermott partner and chairman of the Board of Directors of BCW. “It’s a thrill to see the Firm’s logo on the new vehicle as a symbol of McDermott’s commitment to giving back to the communities where we live and practice. As a Firm recognized for our work in the health care sector, it means so much to know that we have been able to play a role in addressing what has truly become a public health crisis here in Washington.”

McDermott played a vital role in helping BCW open the doors to the first and only state-of-the-art 3D technology breast-screening center east of the Anacostia River. The Firm secured a critical exemption from Certificate of Need requirements when the DC Department of Health Director determined that BCW’s services were “necessary for the declared public health purpose of expanding access to primary health care in the District of Columbia.”

Office: Washington, DC

In Partnership: Breast Care for Washington