Mark Melton

Maddy Dwertman

The American Bar Association this August will honor a lawyer from Baker Botts LLP, a partner from Holland & Knight LLP and the law firms Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC for pro bono work ranging from tenant advocacy to refugee assistance, the organization announced Wednesday.

Two Texas attorneys will be this year's recipients of the annual Pro Bono Publico Award — Mark Melton, a partner at Holland & Knight LLP in Dallas, and Maddy Dwertman, a senior associate at Baker Botts LLP in Austin.

Melton, according to a release on Wednesday, recruited more than 250 lawyers in Dallas to help tenants who were facing eviction with a pro bono project that eventually turned into a nonprofit called the Dallas Eviction Advocacy Center. The Center, staffed with a team of full-time lawyers and staff, has now helped more than 10,000 tenants in Dallas, the release said.

Meanwhile, Dwertman volunteered for American Gateways, a central Texas nonprofit aimed at helping refugees and survivors of persecution, torture, conflict and human trafficking. The ABA said that in her nomination papers, Dwertman was described as "a tireless pro bono advocate … (who) has had immense positive impact on the low-income communities that American Gateways serves."

Melton offered more than 2,500 hours of his own pro bono work to his eviction project and Dwertman donated more than 865 hours, the ABA said.

The firms who will be rewarded for their pro bono efforts include Akin Gump, which built a remote clinic to serve Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program applicants in 2020 and then modified it in 2021 to help Afghans applying for humanitarian parole, which allows for applicants to overcome legal barriers and obtain temporary admission to the U.S. The firm is also working to help migrants at the United States and Mexico border.

The ABA noted that this was not the first time that Akin Gump has been a recipient of this award, having won it in 2012 for work with Walmart's legal department in creating the first ever corporate counsel medical-legal partnership in the U.S. in which Walmart's in-house attorneys offer patients and their families free legal services.

Stroock is also being recognized this year for its Public Service Project. The firm in 2021, created the Afghanistan Refugee Assistance Task Force, training a team to help with evacuation, immigration and resettlement efforts. The firm also worked through the pandemic to help small business owners and nonprofits, and lent a hand in combating racial, social and economic injustice, the ABA said.

Wilson Sonsini won the award this year in part for its ongoing assistance towards Ukrainian and Afghan refugees. It also led one of the largest classes of Medicare beneficiaries to a trial victory and won a $12 million verdict against a former Colombian paramilitary warlord on behalf of family members of an assassinated community activist.

--Editing by Alex Hubbard.