O'Melveny's 2018-2019 Pro Bono Review

O’MELVENY PRO BONO PROGRAM REVIEW 2018- 2019 35 project to build a platform for the organization to raise funds and provide services to the low-income residents of the southeast area of the city. The neighborhood is gentrifying, bringing more people with resources into the region, but longtime residents may be left behind. O’Melveny is helping Peckham Cart with various business and governance matters so that the organization can buy produce from local suppliers to feed residents in need. Food boxes are delivered by bicycle-powered carts, offsetting the carbon emissions created in sourcing the food. Peckham Cart promotes and donates goods and funds to other local social projects and charities as well. O’Melveny has stayed active in the project by advising organizers about ongoing compliance and licensing issues. This impactful and creative approach to community development has been enhanced by the strong work of our London-based pro bono team. Helping Obtain Asylum in the US From Across the Pond O’Melveny attorneys in offices outside the US often work on pro bono cases remotely, making a huge impact on the lives of pro bono clients around the world. In one case, a London attorney worked with Public Counsel, an organization in California, on an asylum brief for a teenager who was persecuted by MS-13, a criminal gang operating in El Salvador. MS-13 gang members tried to force her to join them and made death threats against her and her family. Her family was subjected to extortion by When Hiroko Nihei, counsel in the Tokyo office, joined O’Melveny a decade ago, she was unfamiliar with pro bono work. “O’Melveny’s culture is different from other firms in Japan,” Hiroko says. “Recently, Japanese firms have started to take on pro bono cases, but O’Melveny’s Tokyo office was already very active.” In Japan, O’Melveny was particularly involved in representing refugees from Iraq and Colombia when they appeared before the immigration authority. Once she learned about these pro bono efforts, Hiroko knew she wanted to help. With its global operation, O’Melveny is well positioned to assist international nonprofit organizations. Hiroko recently advised LinguaHiroshima, a Japan-based website that provides a comprehensive bibliographic database of atomic PRO BONO SPOTLIGHT Hiroko Nihei bomb–related literature in 75 languages. “I found this project fascinating,” says Hiroko, who, like all children in Japanese schools, studied the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki extensively. As LinguaHiroshima worked on its database, Hiroko helped the company understand the relevant copyright implications and how to deal with them. Together with Steven Xie, an associate from the Los Angeles office, Hiroko wrote a memorandum summarizing relevant copyright issues from both Japanese and American legal perspectives. Among her other pro bono matters, Hiroko, along with her colleagues in Japan and California, has also assisted Liberty in North Korea, a nonprofit organization that provides support to refugees from North Korea. Hiroko encourages lawyers who are interested in pro bono work to become involved by advising nonprofit or non-governmental organizations with missions they find compelling. That has been Hiroko’s approach and it has allowed her, as she says, “to develop my legal skills while doing good for the community.” With help from O’Melveny’s London team, a young woman fleeing gang violence was able to obtain asylum and remain in the US.