Prior to joining Reed Smith, he taught as a Visiting Lecturer at Moi University School of Law in Kenya, and clerked for Judge D. Michael Fisher on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Patrick has developed an extensive pro bono practice and obtained victories for indigent clients in the following areas:
LGBTQIA Rights
Patrick has paved a path for couples to obtain recognition of their same-sex common law marriages. In 2015, Patrick litigated a case resulting in Pennsylvania’s first same-sex common law marriage. In 2016, he obtained recognition of a same-sex common law marriage dating back to 1990. In 2018, Patrick procured a federal court order that Social Security must respect same-sex common law marriages recognized by a Pennsylvania state court.
Patrick previously served as vice-chair of the firm’s Name Change Project in Pittsburgh and has successfully represented eight transgender individuals in their efforts to obtain name changes, both in Pennsylvania and Illinois. He is currently representing a transgender client on appeal of an order denying the individual’s petition for conditional release from a mental health facility.
Immigrants’ Rights
In 2016, Patrick represented the NIJC and the AILA with an amicus brief to the BIA on the meaning of “minor” for purposes of applying an exception to the INA’s one-year filing deadline for asylum. In 2017, he represented an Ethiopian citizen who had been tortured by her government, but who had been denied asylum, with a petition for writ of certiorari in the Supreme Court. Patrick is currently representing a U.S. permanent resident (and citizen of Trinidad & Tobago) in the Third Circuit on a petition for review of a removal order.
Prisoners’ Rights / Capital Punishment
In 2015, Patrick represented the ACLU of Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia Bar Association, the NAACP, Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, and the Jewish Social Policy Action Network with an amicus brief to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in support of the governor’s reprieve of a death row inmate. In 2017, he obtained a Third Circuit reversal of an order dismissing an inmate’s First Amendment retaliation claims.
Veterans’ Rights
Patrick has filed three amicus briefs in the Supreme Court of the United States on behalf of the Mason Veterans and Servicemembers Legal Clinic (formerly, CLASV) in support of veterans who wish to bring suit against the Veterans Administration under the Federal Tort Claims Act.
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In addition to litigating cases, Patrick has spoken at conferences and symposia throughout the country and abroad, and his writings have been published in the Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality, Dublin University Law Journal, Cleveland State Law Review, Duquesne Law Review, University of Baltimore Journal of International Law, U.S. Law Week, BNA, Jurist, Corporate Counsel, For The Defense, and The Legal Intelligencer.
Patrick also serves on the Newsletter Committee of the Third Circuit Bar Association, which edits and publishes the quarterly newsletter "On Appeal."
