The Scales of Justice Awards Celebration at Dorsey & Whitney LLP honored three individual attorneys and three teams of attorneys and business professionals who provided impactful pro bono assistance to those in need. Outgoing Managing Partner Bill Stoeri provided opening remarks, and incoming Managing Partner Peter Nelson provided closing remarks.

Dorsey’s commitment to community is real and long-standing. In 2024, Dorsey provided the equivalent of 3.68% of its billable hours to pro bono work. Dorsey has met the Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge at the 3% level every year since signing on as a charter signatory in 1993.

Individual Attorneys Honored

Brittany Garza, Kate Johnson, and Kirk Schuler each received a Scales of Justice Award.  

Brittany Garza, Intellectual Property Litigation Associate in Denver, joined Dorsey in August 2023 and immediately got involved in pro bono work. Brittany has sought out work in areas including immigration clinics, prisoner rights, and the prevention of domestic violence. “Brittany’s award is something of a zealous rookie award,” said Co-Pro Bono Partner Alissa Smith.

Kathryn (Kate) Johnson, Construction & Design Trial Partner in Minneapolis, has a long-standing commitment to pro bono work. “She embodies Dorsey’s pro bono program, its commitment to the down-trodden, and to people who are underprivileged; she commits with everything she has; she pours her heart and soul into the work,” said Co-Pro Bono Partner RJ Zayed. Kate often assists with capital crime cases, which are long and difficult, often with disappointing outcomes. Kate always makes Dorsey’s clients know that somebody cares. 

Kirk Schuler, Commercial Litigation Partner in Des Moines, serves as the pro bono office lead in Dorsey’s Des Moines office. “His passion, energy, creativity, and positivity are both inspiring and a joy to be around,” said Co-Pro Bono Partner Alissa Smith. Kirk plans annual service events for the annual Mark S. Cady Day of Public Service, and he coordinates fun events in his office throughout the year to inspire and celebrate pro bono work.

Teams Honored

Dorsey’s Arizona Justice Project Case Review Team, Housing Team, and Veterans Rights Team, each received a Scales of Justice Award.

Arizona Justice Project Case Review Team
The Arizona Justice Project Case Review project was referred through Dorsey Attorney Isaac Gabriel, a board member and volunteer for the Arizona Justice Project (AJP). The AJP is an organization seeking justice for the innocent, the wrongfully imprisoned, and those who have suffered manifest injustice under Arizona’s criminal justice system. The AJP conducted a review of three state prosecutors who were disciplined and/or disbarred for prosecutorial misconduct in multiple death penalty cases they handled. Their disbarment and the misconduct called into question many of the convictions that were obtained during their careers. The AJP conducted reviews of these prosecutors’ case files for instances of misconduct during the life of the case (pre-trial and at trial) that could open the door for them to assist wrongfully convicted inmates. Dorsey’s work involved 53 case reviews from 44 Dorsey attorneys across 14 offices.  

Gabe Hartsell led this project, which was staffed by Ali Beardslee, Julie Berger, Ashley Bradley, Alissa Brice Castaneda, Mackenzie Cannon, Greg Collins, Jaycie Cruz, Cathy Dahl, Angela Dralle, JB Evans, Christian Ferrin, Brittany Gilbertson, Julie Ibrahim, Xinyu (Sia) Jiang, Cale Johnson, Anthony Jones, John Jorgenson, Saifuddin Kalolwala, Sue Kjelvik, Frannie LaBudda, Branden Lankford, Margot Laporte, Juliana Lauria, Alex Li, Eric Lopez Schnabel, Marina Lyons, Lynnda A. McGlinn, Michele Myer, Austen Paulsen, Karen Peterson, Karan Randhawa, Shaina Silverman, Jia Song, Nicole Stanton Shaun Stienstra, Mark Sullivan, Kathleen Thompson, Joice Varughese, Chris Wade, Kayla Weiser-Burton, Cynthia Zhang, and Chen Yu Zhao.

Housing Team 
The Housing Team award honored long-standing volunteers who staff housing legal clinics and accept housing matters from partnering organizations, highlighting a few specific housing matters that were multi-year projects that culminated in the last year.

  • Homeowners Association Matter 
    Dorsey assisted a group of homeowners in a 5-year dispute against their homeowners’ association (HOA) to stop discriminatory practices involving foreclosures. The housing development was built because of a redlining settlement and was intended to deconcentrate family public housing and address racial disparities. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was discovered that the HOA was engaging in lien and foreclosure proceedings, as well as other governance practices, in a discriminatory manner. It was a precarious dispute because many of the avenues of enforcement would result in increased HOA fees, which would come back to harm the homeowners who were already being discriminated against. The multi-year dispute has resulted in returned fees; improved governance documents and practices in the HOA; revised and clarified rules, timeframes, and notification procedures for alleged violations; minimum amounts of fees/fines before foreclosure actions; and improvements in state laws to better protect homeowners from rogue homeowners’ associations. This HOA matter was led by Erin Bryan, and the team included LaBreonna Bland, Laura Goforth, Kimberly Haley, Mike Stinson, Natasha Wells, and Courina Yulisa.  
  • Class Action Matter 
    Dorsey assisted tenants who were being treated unethically by a housing management company. The management company was wrongfully retaining damage deposits, charging impermissibly high fees, and conditioning the return of damage deposits on illegal requirements.  Many of the tenants participated in federal assistance programs that only assist with damage deposit funds on a one-time basis, so the unethical practices of this management company resulted in the tenants losing both their current housing and their ability to secure future housing. The owner of the management company was using shell companies to hide assets in multiple states. After multiple years of research and negotiations, the Dorsey team successfully secured the return of all fees and deposits for the tenants. The team working on this matter included Micayla Bitz, Amanda Cappelle, Skip Durocher, Johnette Johnson, Charles Pults, Jan Rivers, Mike Stinson, Spencer Tauchen, and Daniel Wassim.
  • Other Housing Work  
    The award also honored other important housing work that is happening across the firm and being staffed by Jennifer Arcand, Ali Beardslee, Brian Bell, Micayla Bitz, Shannon Bjorklund, Anna Boyle, Jennifer Coates, David Dittmann, Skip Durocher, Jason Eickhoff, Courtney Ellis, Brock Huebner, Johnette Johnson, Ben Kappelman, Steele Kowalczyk, Frannie LaBudda, James Langdon, Sarani Millican, David Olshanski, Charles Pults, Mike Stinson, Spencer Tauchen, Henok Tenaye, Natasha Wells, Alexandra Wood, Ian Wright, and Courina Yulisa.

Veterans Rights Team
According to the Deputy Executive Director of The Veterans Consortium (TVC), over 30 Dorsey attorneys have represented veterans in over 25 cases, with an 85% success rate. TVC serves as a clearinghouse for veteran’s benefits appeals cases, and Dorsey has proudly partnered with TVC for the last decade in handling these cases. Co-Pro Bono Partner RJ Zayed discussed the importance of honoring the sacrifices that veterans made through their service by helping them receive what is owed to them for their service. Dorsey attorneys Joe Lynyak, Alex Hontos, and Nate Ebnet shared why this work is important to them and the importance of veterans having good lawyers supporting them during this complicated process of applying for benefits. Dorsey’s Veterans Rights Team also includes Chris Ainscough, Tricia Archuleta, Sam Audley, Andrew Brantingham, Christopher DeLong, Noah Eckberg, Ben Greenberg, J Jackson, Ben Kappelman, Erin Kolter, Steele Kowalczyk, Carolyn Larson, Scott Mah, Mark Miller, Jonathan Montcalm, Sarah Niemczycki, Charles Pults, Pavlina Rafter, Kirk Schuler, Steven Smith, Jack Sullivan, Joice Varughese, Alexandra Wood, and Walter Wu.

Powerhouse Pro Bono Office

Dorsey also annually awards the Powerhouse Pro Bono award to its offices where a significant portion of the office’s attorneys substantially contribute to the pro bono program. This year’s Powerhouse Pro Bono offices were Anchorage, Missoula, and Southern California.