Jayne Fleming’s trip to Haiti about six weeks after its devastating January 2010 earthquake led to a humanitarian relocation project at Reed Smith that made a big push during 2014.

During the trip, Fleming, who is pro bono counsel at Reed Smith, along with a medical and legal team learned of rapes occurring in displacement camps and in the streets.

“What we discovered was a population of vulnerable individuals who needed protection,” Fleming said.

So Fleming helped create a mobile clinic to help rape survivors. For some, they sought humanitarian parole to the United States. For others, they did the legal work necessary to secure refugee status in Canada.

“The project essentially formed itself,” she said.

From January through November 2014, Reed Smith lawyers spent 1,272 pro bono hours on the humanitarian parole project. To date, the Reed Smith team and several partner organizations have evacuated 60 women and child survivors of violence to safety. Of those, nine have been granted permanent asylum in the United States and 40 have been granted similar protection in Canada.

Download the PDF to read more!