Driving Systemic Change in our Community

On June 12, 2020, Boston Mayor Walsh declared racism to be a public health crisis and requested that former U.S. Attorney Wayne Budd lead a community-based task force to provide recommendations about how to best combat these issues.

At the request of Wayne Budd, a team of Choate attorneys assisted the Task Force by researching and analyzing nationwide policing trends and best practices.

The Boston Police Reform Task Force was charged with reviewing the Boston Police Department’s current policies and procedures. The Task Force focused on several main areas of review, including: Use of Force policies; Implicit Bias Training, the Body-worn Camera Program, and Strengthening the Community Ombudsman Oversight Panel (CO-OP).

In September, the Task Force made five initial recommendations to the Mayor for systemic change to Boston’s police department:

• Create an independent Office of Police Accountability and Transparency (OPAT) with full investigatory and subpoena power, i.e. the ability to call witnesses and to compel the discovery of documents, to replace the CO-OP.
• Formalize and expand the BPD’s commitment to diversity and inclusion.
• Expand the BPD’s use of the body-worn camera program where it increases police transparency and accountability, and continue to ban the use of biometrics and facial recognition software.
• Enhance the BPD’s Use of Force policies so that they articulate clear and enforceable disciplinary code of consequences for violations and infractions and hold the BPD publicly accountable for the violation of these policies.
• Adopt data and record practices that maximize accountability, transparency and public access to BPD records and data.

Choate works, on a pro bono basis, with the Lawyers’ Committee on significant impact litigation and amicus projects with the goal of advancing important civil rights, economic and social justice issues such as immigration, voting rights, school admission, law enforcement and hate crimes. In addition, through the Lawyers’ Committee, Choate attorneys advise under-represented for-profit companies, owned primarily by women and people of color, on entity formation, general business considerations, organizational goals, governance issues, immigration issues and ways to protect their business from legal risks.

By way of example, a Choate team has been working closely with the Lawyers’ Committee on significant litigation arising out of the termination of Temporary Protected Status (“TPS”) for immigrants from El Salvador, Haiti, and Honduras. TPS is a statutory protection against deportation for foreign nationals residing in the United States who are unable to return to their home countries due to armed conflict, natural disasters, or other circumstances that would prevent their safe return. TPS was enacted in 1990 with the express humanitarian purpose of protecting foreign nationals in the U.S. who would not otherwise qualify for asylum.

There are more than 400,000 TPS beneficiaries from El Salvador, Haiti and Honduras currently residing in the U.S., along with more than 270,000 U.S. citizen children of these TPS beneficiaries. The TPS program applies only to those immigrants currently residing in the U.S. when the designations are first made, such that most beneficiaries have been living and working in the U.S. for roughly twenty years. The Administration has terminated TPS for those three countries, and others. With assistance from Choate, the Lawyers’ Committee filed suit, in federal court in Boston, in February 2018 on behalf of TPS beneficiaries and local aid organizations challenging these TPS terminations.

Choate participates in PAIR’s Pro Bono Asylum Program, which represents, on a pro bono basis, indigent asylum-seekers who have fled their countries after suffering unimaginable harms. The goal of the Program is to secure safety for clients who have exercised freedoms that we may take for granted: the right to express opinions; freedom of speech and assembly; or the right to practice their religion.

By way of example, through PAIR, Choate assumed the pro bono representation of a political asylum seeker from Uganda who had suffered past prosecution and had a well-founded fear of prosecution on account of her membership in a particular social group. The client also suffered physical and emotional abusive treatment by her husband, who had strong ties to authorities in Uganda. While temporarily in the United States on a family visit, Choate’s client fled from her husband and sought asylum. After five years, Choate and PAIR were able to secure asylum for their client, enabling her to remain in this country where she now works as a nurse, is engaged in her church and has a path to citizenship.

Choate participates in the Lawyers Clearinghouse which organizes legal clinics for indigent clients seeking pro bono legal advice and follow-up representation on a broad range of issues such as Social Security disability proceedings, landlord/tenant disputes, evictions, or subsidized housing appeals, other benefit appeals or overpayment issues, and CORI sealing. Through the Lawyers Clearinghouse, Choate attorneys also advise nonprofit organizations on a pro bono basis on formation and governance issues, including internal controls and procedures, employment, tax or fundraising issues, and dispute resolution.

By way of example, Choate associates recently obtained a critical victory for a pro bono client in securing supplemental security income (SSI) benefits both going forward and retroactively for the past two years. The client met with Choate at a Lawyers Clearinghouse clinic after the Social Security Administration (SSA) denied his application for SSI benefits. The client has suffered from severe anemia, chronic kidney disease and other related physical impairments in recent years and struggles significantly with the day-to-day impact of his medical conditions. The firm represented the client in appealing the SSA’s decision, including an adversarial hearing which resulted in a fully favorable decision, reversing the SSA’s decision to deny the client benefits. The client will receive monthly SSI benefits on a going-forward basis, as well as back pay benefits dating to the time he initially became disabled. These benefits will provide critical support for the client’s day-to-day needs as he struggles to manage his disability.