2023 Frank Wheat Memorial Award Nominees

Individual Nominees

Neil Fogel (Dallas)

Neil Fogel, a corporate associate in Dallas, is a shining example of a corporate attorney diving headfirst into pro bono work, and he is an inspiration to the rest of the office. This year, Neil helped a family of six apply for asylum in the United States. The entire family was associated with the previous Afghan government, before its fall to the Taliban in 2021. One sister had particularly close ties to the previous government and the U.S. mission in Afghanistan: she courageously served in the Afghan military as part of the Female Tactical Platoon (“FTP”). The FTP was an all-women security forces unit that fought alongside U.S. and Afghan special forces. These courageous women played a critical role in the fight against the Taliban, ISIS, and other extremist forces. They regularly joined high-stakes missions to gather information from women who would not have been able to speak with other soldiers due to cultural norms or language barriers. Of course, the women’s involvement in this unit would have put them at the top of the Taliban’s kill list, so they were forced to keep their involvement secret from everyone, including friends and family. Unfortunately, the Taliban seized government offices with records of the Female Tactical Platoon program, putting the women at extreme risk of Taliban reprisals. With help from U.S. soldiers who served alongside them, the women were able to evacuate to the United States. Neil has devoted approximately 75 hours to asylum applications on behalf of this family. More recently, Neil has worked to fight antisemitism and Islamophobia, and has worked with a nonprofit dedicated to assisting victims of sexual or gender-based violence.

Daniela Tapia Devia (Los Angeles)

Daniela Tapia Devia, a corporate associate in the Los Angeles office, has been actively involved in pro bono work since starting at the Firm. An immigrant herself, Daniela is deeply committed to defending the rights of immigrants and helping them navigate the intricacies of the U.S. immigration system. This year, Daniela has worked on approximately 20 different immigration matters, including participating in limited-scope legal clinics, representing immigrants fleeing persecution, representing immigrant children seeking immigration relief, and helping asylees obtain permanent residence in the United States. Daniela brings exceptional interpersonal skills, cultural sensitivity, and immigration law experience to every case. She has worked on more than a dozen immigration cases (including several successful asylum applications) on behalf of clients from Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Venezuela, and other countries across Latin America as part of the Firm’s LGBTQ+ Asylum Initiative. In one incredibly fast-moving case this year, Daniela and a team of New York associates helped a bisexual woman from Colombia obtain asylum (despite operating under an extraordinarily compressed timeline) and now are helping her obtain critical benefits as she begins to build a new life in the United States. In another case, she currently is helping a family that faced persecution in Venezuela due to their membership in the opposition party and participation in protests against President Maduro. In all her cases, Daniela’s ability to connect with her clients (many of whom have experienced significant hardships and find it difficult to open up) and deep familiarity with immigration law help make an otherwise daunting immigration system significantly more accessible to her clients—setting them up for the greatest likelihood of success.

Tessa Gellerson (Washington, D.C.)

Washington DC litigation associate Tessa Gellerson recently secured a life-altering grant of asylum for a longtime pro bono client, “Ms. X.” As a teenager, Ms. X fled gang- and gender-based violence in El Salvador because her family was staunchly opposed to a prominent gang’s control of their community. Ms. X’s family paid a steep price for their opposition (including one cousin’s brutal murder) and Ms. X narrowly escaped after bravely confronting the gang to negotiate an end to her family’s torment. Nonetheless, attorneys from the nonprofit organization that referred the case described Ms. X’s chances of success as no better than a coin toss. Undaunted by this assessment, Tessa joined the team only weeks after joining the Firm. Within six months, she was the lead associate on the matter. She developed the theory for asylum that would win the day in court, hired expert witnesses to bolster that theory, and spent countless hours with Ms. X (ultimately leading Ms. X to make share extraordinarily difficult information that formed key parts of the narrative at trial). After Ms. X’s case was shuffled between three different judges and set for trial four different times, the day of her hearing finally arrived. Tessa conducted two-and-a-half hours of direct-examination testimony, followed by twenty minutes of cross-examination. DHS then stipulated to refrain from challenging Ms. X’s experts’ testimony and—notably—her application for asylum. The court entered an oral grant of asylum from the bench, and DHS waived its right to appeal.

Team Nominees

K.A. Team (Dallas)

When the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in 2021, many Gibson Dunn attorneys and staff members had close personal connections to the unfolding humanitarian crisis. For example, one Dallas associate who served in Afghanistan as a U.S. Army officer worked closely with an Afghan interpreter named K.A. during his deployment to Afghanistan. K.A. bravely served alongside U.S. forces in Afghanistan, facing more combat than virtually any American servicemember since at least the Second World War. He came to the United States and became a U.S. citizen, and he has built a thriving business here in the United States. Unfortunately, K.A.’s family remained in Afghanistan and quickly got caught in the Taliban’s crosshairs: the Taliban (falsely) suspects that his siblings are connected to an anti-Taliban resistance organization. K.A.’s siblings have been forced into hiding, and the Taliban already has tortured his brother due to his perceived connection to the resistance. A team of Dallas attorneys came together to help K.A. and his family. The team petitioned USCIS to grant humanitarian parole for K.A.’s siblings, which would allow them to travel to the United States. After being admitted to the United States, they would be able to apply for asylum and, hopefully, remain here permanently. The Dallas team, which is vigorously fighting for K.A.’s siblings’ applications to be granted, includes Christine Demana, Bryan Sohn, Claire Piepenburg, and Katie Rose Talley.

Domestic Violence Team (Los Angeles)

This year, the Los Angeles office expanded its longstanding commitment to representing survivors of domestic violence through partnerships with the Los Angeles Center for Law & Justice (“LACLJ”), the Domestic Violence Project (“DVP”) of the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Counsel for Justice, and the Family Violence Appellate Project (“FVAP”). Gibson Dunn attorneys billed more than 1,500 hours across these three projects in 2023.

In one recent LACLJ case, a team obtained a two-year domestic violence restraining order in favor of a low-income mother of a developmentally delayed child, who suffered years of physical, psychological, and financial abuse from her husband. After a contested evidentiary hearing, the court awarded our client sole legal and physical custody of their child, exclusive use of the residence, and immediate return of her vehicle. Thanks to the team’s continued advocacy, the client also secured orders for $1,700 per month in child and spousal support. In another case, a team successfully negotiated the dismissal of a temporary restraining order against their client, an immigrant who was subjected to abuse throughout her marriage. She separated from her husband, but he maliciously obtained a temporary restraining order against her that only allowed her monitored visits with her son. Our team helped her reach a stipulation dissolving the restraining order against her and granting her joint legal custody and regular unmonitored visitation time with her child. In yet another case involving a novel legal argument, a team obtained a five-year restraining order and sole legal and physical custody for their client.

In parallel, a group of Gibson Dunn lawyers supported the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s DVP. Over the past year, DVP served almost 2,000 self-represented litigants, most of them low-income; 80% of the litigants were women, about 40% were people of color, and one-third were non-English speakers. Gibson Dunn volunteers made up 10% of the overall attorney volunteer hours. Finally, another Los Angeles team recently won a significant appellate victory on behalf of a domestic violence survivor who had been engaged in an ongoing custody dispute with her child’s father. The California Court of Appeal largely adopted the arguments and reasoning from our briefing and reversed and remanded with instructions that the trial court determine custody of the child after applying a rebuttable presumption against granting joint custody to the child’s father, who had perpetrated domestic violence against our client.

The following attorneys worked on pro bono matters on behalf of domestic violence survivors referred by LACLJ and the DVP, as well as the FVP appeal, in 2023:

E.H. Team (Washington DC)

For over seven years, attorneys in Gibson Dunn’s Washington, D.C. office represented E.H., a young man who fled gang violence in El Salvador as a minor and sought asylum in the United States. After dedicating more than 1,180 hours to the case, the Gibson Dunn team achieved a complete victory in February 2023, when the Immigration Judge issued a written decision granting E.H. asylum. For the team’s efforts, the Northern Virginia office of non-profit partner Kids In Need of Defense (“KIND”) named the Gibson Dunn team of Audi Syarief, Connie Lee, Victoria Granda, and Joe West its “Pro Bono Attorneys of the Year” for 2023.

E.H. grew up in El Salvador and became a target of the notorious gang MS-13 after his half- brother defected from the gang and led four other members to defect as well. Armed MS-13 members threatened E.H.’s life and intimidated him in public on multiple occasions because of his family ties to his half-brother. With no options for safety in his home country, E.H. fled to the United States in 2014, when he was 15 years old. Gibson Dunn first took on E.H.’s case in October 2015 through a referral from KIND. USCIS denied the initial asylum application, but set an Individual Hearing for 2019 (later postponed to 2022) where E.H. could argue his case in immigration court. The merits hearing was contentious, with government counsel refusing to agree to stipulations, opposing the team’s ability to put on an expert witness, attempting to continue the hearing to allow the government to put on an opposing expert, and subjecting E.H. to a lengthy and aggressive cross-examination with several attempts at impeachment. But the team’s efforts paid off: after E.H. testified in detail about the threats he faced in El Salvador, the Immigration Judge decided that the remainder of E.H.’s case (including the expected expert testimony) would be unnecessary. After the government presented its case and closing argument, the Immigration Judge granted E.H. asylum. Although government counsel reserved the right to appeal, they ultimately chose not to do so. E.H. is thrilled with the outcome of his case and the opportunity he has to continue building a successful life in the United States. He graduated from high school and has worked multiple jobs (including on nights and weekends) to support himself and his family. After winning his asylum case, he was able to enroll in his local police academy and is on his way to fulfilling his lifelong dream of joining the police force to keep civilians safe from bad actors like those who persecuted him in El Salvador.

J.R. Team (New York)

This year, a New York team including David Kusnetz, Eric Hornbeck, Andrew Freire, and Ina Kosova secured a six-figure settlement on behalf of J.R., a wheelchair-bound former prison inmate who was beaten by prison guards and systematically denied access to accommodations for his physical disabilities. In 2008, J.R. walked into prison a healthy man. Nearly a decade later, he was rolled out of prison in a wheelchair, severely disabled and in constant pain. In the intervening years, he received two botched back surgeries that relegated him to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. After the surgeries, his repeated, desperate pleas for medical care and disability accommodations were routinely denied, his complaints met by indifference and violence. While in prison, J.R. filed a pro se complaint against the prison guards and the prison’s medical director pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging excessive use of force and deficient medical care claims under the Eighth Amendment. After the Court dismissed J.R.’s medical care claim against the medical director, the Chief Counsel of the S.D.N.Y. Office of Pro Se Litigation asked Gibson Dunn to take the case pro bono.

Our team convinced the Court to reopen discovery, then filed a motion for leave to amend the complaint to reassert J.R.’s dismissed deficient medical care claim, and to bring a new Eighth Amendment inhumane conditions of confinement claim and new Americans with Disabilities Act and Rehabilitation Act claims. The government vigorously opposed the motion, but the Court issued a 19-page decision granting the motion for leave to amend in its entirety. The team then pursued additional discovery and successfully moved to compel the disclosure of internal prison documents, winning the motion during oral argument. The team deposed several witnesses, including the prison guards and medical directors, and retained a renowned orthopedic surgeon as an expert witness. In lieu of filing a responsive expert report, the Government requested that the parties enter settlement negotiations. After several settlement conferences, the team obtained a six-figure settlement for J.R. To ensure he retains his disability and government benefits after receiving the settlement proceeds, the team worked with trusts and estate attorneys to create a supplemental needs trust.

L.I. Team (Cross-Office)

Through a series of targeted and considered letters, a cross-office team—including Prerak Shah, Liz Kiernan, Nick Venable, and Brian Sanders, supervised by Allyson Ho—persuaded the City of Beverly Hills to withdraw its notice of violation against a Rabbi who had been simply hosting family and friends for prayer in the comforts of his own home. The team was able to do so without ever having to file suit. Our client, Rabbi L.I., moved into his home in 2022 and, since then, has hosted a variety of intimate religious gatherings to meet the religious needs of his family and friends. For example, he hosts weekly Shabbat dinner, celebrations for Passover, and prayers to mourn the loss of loved ones. During his religious gatherings, Rabbi L.I. strives to be respectful of the community and the City’s law. For months, he hosted intimate religious gatherings without incident. But that changed in early February 2023, when the City received a complaint from a private citizen regarding Rabbi L.I. inviting family and friends to his home to pray. After spending nearly a month investigating the complaints, the City initially (and correctly) concluded that the alleged violations were unfounded and closed its case.

The hiatus was short-lived, however, with the City reopening its investigation in late March after a disgruntled resident complained again. Instead of disregarding what it had already found to be unfounded complaints by a handful of hostile residents, the City renewed its investigation by engaging in multiple stakeouts of Rabbi L.I.’s home, photographing his guests, and threatening to confiscate his property. In June 2023, the City issued a Notice of Violation, threatening civil and criminal proceedings if Rabbi L.I. did not “terminate all religious activities” in his home. Over the next four months, our team sent several communications to the City documenting its harassment of the Rabbi and detailing his right to engage in religious exercise at his home under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. We demanded that the City withdraw its Notice of Violation and cease all harassment, making clear that we were prepared to sue the City if needed. In November, the City informed us that they were withdrawing the Notice of Violation in full.