July 21, 2008 4:16 PM

PRO BONO 2008: McDermott Will & Emery's Food Fight

Posted by Dimitra Kessenides

The following report is one of several published in the July 2008 issue of The American Lawyer that look at some of the most intriguing and unusual pro bono cases handled by The Am Law 200.

In March, McDermott Will & Emery succeeded in a court bid to obtain halal meals for a pair of Muslim inmates at a maximum-security state prison in Walpole, Massachusetts. The firm says it's the first decision in the United States to hold that observant Muslim inmates have a right to daily halal meals. Boston federal district court judge Richard Stearns also ordered the prison to provide the inmates, who were incarcerated in a segregated unit, with access to a televised prayer service.

The suit, Hudson v. Dennehy, was one of a handful decided under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, an eight-year-old federal statute that grants religious protections to inmates beyond those in the Constitution. The McDermott partner overseeing the matter, Michael Kendall, says the decision sets a districtwide precedent that may influence similar cases around the country.

In 2004 Benjamin Goldberger, then a second-year associate at McDermott, selected the case from a list provided by the federal court's pro bono coordinator. He and a fourth-year associate, Neal Minahan, pitched it to Kendall, who agreed to oversee it. The two split briefing and trial duties; the firm spent 1,393 hours on the case over three-and-a-half years. (Goldberger joined the Boston district attorney's office in September.) During a six-day bench trial in January 2007, Goldberger and Minahan demonstrated that the inmates' religious beliefs were deeply held, and they brought in an expert on Islamic dietary laws. "The state's argument was that they were [complying with the federal statute by] providing these inmates with a vegetarian diet," says Kendall. "In reality, they were giving them mac and cheese multiple days each week."

Under the statute, once a prisoner shows that a prison policy constrains religious observance, the burden shifts to the government to prove that the policy is the least restrictive way to further a compelling government interest. And the state failed to do that: As the McDermott lawyers noted, the prison had for years provided kosher meals for observant Jewish inmates.

--Julie Triedman

PRO BONO SCORECARD 2008 McDermott Will & Emery ranked 47th on this year's Scorecard (up from 58th last year). The average number of pro bono hours per lawyer was 59.8; 57.9 percent of the firm's lawyers contributed more than 20 hours to pro bono matters last year.

Make a comment

Comments (1)
Save & Share: Facebook | Del.ic.ious | | Email |

Reprints & Permissions

Post a comment

If you have a TypeKey or TypePad account, please Sign In

You are currently signed in as (nobody). Sign Out

Name:

Email Address:(Not displayed with comment.)

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comments: