Pro Bono & Community Involvement

Consistent with her conviction that the practice of law is a public privilege that imposes public responsibilities, Brooke Clagett is committed to active participation in her community.

 

Providing legal advice and services on a pro bono basis to those of limited means is an important component of her practice. While at Morgan Lewis, she was the first associate appointed Vice Chair of the Pro Bono Committee for the Washington office, which the firm created in 2005 to implement its new pro bono policies and goals. As a sole practitioner, Brooke continues to do her part to increase access to quality legal services to those in need.

Some examples of Brooke’s
pro bono projects:

• Preparing Supreme Court briefs on behalf of retired judges and prosecutors as amici curiae in a highly publicized death-penalty habeas corpus case. In a rare reversal, the Supreme Court granted a stay just minutes before the scheduled execution, and ultimately reversed the decision of the court of appeals. Banks v. Dretke, 540 U.S. 668 (2004).
• Successfully appealing the Social Security Administration’s denial of disability benefits to an HIV-positive claimant, securing both future benefits and substantial retroactive benefits for the client.
• Defending, and ultimately settling, eviction suits filed against several tenants of an apartment building in the transitional D.C. neighborhood of Columbia Heights.
• Staffing limited-advice legal clinics organized by Bread for the City and the D.C. Bar.
• Preparing a petition for certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court in a case alleging the use of excessive force by police officers who shot and killed the client’s husband in his home.