Recognition

Each year, McDermott Will & Emery honors lawyers and staff who have provided exceptional pro bono and community service by awarding them the McDermott Will & Emery Award for Outstanding Achievement and Commitment to the Community. The Firm also makes a donation to the not-for-profit organization or charity of the award recipient's choice. In addition, each year, each of our offices recognizes the pro bono and community service contributions of lawyers and staff through special events and receptions.

Please take a moment to read our Pro Bono 2010 Annual Update, which highlights the exemplary pro bono and community service work completed by our 2010 award recipients.

(Untested sexual assault kits at the Los Angeles Police Department storage facility. Photograph ©2009 Patricia Williams)
Following reports by the FBI that the conviction rate for rape has been a mere 11 percent in Illinois, McDermott partnered with Human Rights Watch (HRW) to compile ground-breaking evidence that a staggering number of rape kits languish, untested, in police storage facilities across the country. McDermott negotiated responses to hundreds of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to every city and county in Illinois as well as the private vendor to which the Illinois State Police has outsourced a number of cases.

Based on the responses, HRW issued a 42-page report in July 2010 entitled "I Used to Think the Law Would Protect Me": Illinois' Failure to Test Rape Kits, suggesting that the vast majority of DNA evidence (nearly 80 percent) collected from rape victims in Illinois cannot be confirmed as tested.

As a result of HRW's and McDermott's efforts, Illinois passed a law in 2010 making the testing of rape kits in Illinois mandatory and requiring testing of the backlog of untested rape kits.

2010 Pro Bono Award Recipients

Team Award