O'Melveny's 2018-2019 Pro Bono Review

O’MELVENY PRO BONO PROGRAM REVIEW 2018- 2019 20 take effect, Life Legal Defense Foundation (LLDF) filed suit, challenging the law’s constitutionality. LLDF argued that the EOLOA had been improperly enacted during a special session convened to address healthcare issues. The court agreed and enjoined the California Attorney General from recognizing the EOLOA as an exception to the state penal code. Enter O’Melveny, which represented three California citizens—Joan Nelson, Dr. Catherine Forest, and Matthew Fairchild—who had been harmed by the judgment and injunction. Nelson was dying of cancer and had obtained a prescription for aid-in-dying medication; Forest was a family physician who treated terminally ill patients; and Fairchild also was seriously ill with cancer. O’Melveny’s motion to vacate the judgment was denied, but that denial perfected appellate standing for Nelson, Forest, and Fairchild. The court of appeal granted a request for an immediate stay and ordered briefing on the writ petition. This ruling meant that the EOLOA was reinstated pending further rulings from the court. Said Kevin Diaz, national director of legal advocacy for Compassion & Choices, “Without the amazing litigation team at O’Melveny, terminally ill Californians, their families and physicians would be facing agonizing treatment decisions. The peace of mind that the restoration of the law has afforded suffering Californians is immeasurable.” For many O’Melveny lawyers, pro bono work is often about helping clients preserve their dignity as they start new lives in new places, but for John Kappos, a partner in the firm’s Newport Beach office, pro bono work is often about helping clients preserve their dignity as they seek to avoid suffering at the end of their lives. John has collaborated with Compassion & Choices, an organization devoted to aid in dying, on several cases. Says John, whose practice at O’Melveny focuses on patent litigation, “These cases are very emotionally charged.” In one case, John led an O’Melveny team that represented three Californians—Matthew Fairchild, Catherine Forest, and Joan Nelson—in opposing a challenge to a state law that gave terminally ill Californians the option to peacefully end their suffering by access to medical aid in dying. Fairchild was terminally ill with cancer, Nelson was dying of cancer and had obtained a prescription for aid-in-dying medication, PRO BONO SPOTLIGHT John Kappos and Forest was a family physician who treated terminally ill patients. O’Melveny filed a motion to vacate a judgment finding California’s End of Life Option Act (EOLOA) unconstitutional. O’Melveny’s motion was denied, but that denial perfected appellate standing for Fairchild, Nelson, and Forest. O’Melveny’s clients appealed and immediately sought to stay the lower court’s judgment in order to reinstate the EOLOA. The court of appeal granted the request for an immediate stay and ordered briefing on the writ petition. John has been involved with California’s End of Life Option Act since before it was signed in 2015. At every challenge to the law, John has been there, sometimes as an amicus and eventually representing Compassion & Choices in an appeal. In November 2018, after John’s oral argument, the appellate court vacated and remanded the trial court’s ruling that had suspended the law, giving terminally ill patients autonomy in end-of-life choices. John advises young lawyers to follow their passions when it comes to pro bono work. He credits his mentor in noting that “lawyers tend to get this notion that there’s so much to do and they have so little time to do it, so they just do nothing.” Instead, “try to find somewhere you can have an impact.”