Pro Bono at Farella Braun + Martel

Civil Rights Cases

• Chowdury v. Northwest Airlines: As co-counsel with the ACLU, we represent a South Asian airline passenger who was initially denied boarding because of a "phonetic similarity" in his name to a name on the airline's "no fly" list, but was still not permitted to board even after his name was cleared by the FBI.

• Tungwarara v. INS: In cooperation with the San Francisco Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, we filed a civil rights and Federal Tort Act claim on behalf of an 18-year-old Zimbabwean woman who was improperly detained and mistreated at the San Francisco Airport by the INS after September 11, 2001. In April 2006, we negotiated the case and the United States Government paid our client a $65,000 settlement.

• People v. Broderick Boys: We worked with the ACLU to set aside a sweeping permanent injunction issued against alleged members of West Sacramento’s “Broderick Boys” gang. The permanent injunction covers 80% of the city, imposes a lifetime 10 p.m. curfew and affects over 350 individuals, most of whom were never provided notice of the injunction or an opportunity to oppose its imposition.

• Landavera v. INS: Our client, a young woman from El Salvador, is seeking asylum on grounds that she was continually harassed, abused and ultimately raped by her mother’s boyfriend and yet the police refused to investigate.

• Hanford Voting Rights: As co-counsel with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, we represented Latino residents of Kings and Tulare Counties in the first case involving a new California law designed to bar at-large elections that disenfranchise minority populations. This important voting rights case challenged the school district’s election system that, in the last twenty years, had not resulted in a single Latino being elected. As a result of this lawsuit the school board agreed to allow district-based elections, which will result in full empowerment for Latino voters.

• Higgs, et. al v. Danny Kolhage: Working with the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), the firm has agreed to represent plaintiffs in Florida who wish to marry their same-sex partners.

• Abrica v. Campestre Corp.: With the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights we won a substantial settlement for Latino employees against a Bay Area chain of restaurants for failure to pay wages, indentured servitude working conditions and human trafficking.

• Capitol People First v. Department of Developmental Services: Nearly five years ago, the firm began representing the California Association of State Hospital Parents Counsel for the Retarded (CASH/PCR) and the California Association for the Retarded. These groups represent parents of severely retarded children in California's Developmental Centers (DCs) and a number of individuals who live in these DCs. In 2002, Protection & Advocacy Inc. filed suit against the State, to move all developmentally disabled adults out of DCs and into community living situations. In general this is a fine objective; however, our clients felt the standard was being applied too broadly. Our clients’ children are profoundly retarded and would face severe risk if they lived in the community rather than in the safety of DCs. Plaintiffs moved to certify the case as a class action. FBM intervened and filed a motion opposing class certification on the grounds that our clients were not adequately represented and did not share the same view point as the plaintiffs. In January 2006, the court granted FBM’s motion relying on our arguments to reach its conclusion. As a result of this victory, our clients nominated FBM for the California State Bar President’s Pro Bono Service Award.