Strengthening the Communities We Serve - 2025 US Pro Bono Week

Jenner provided Bright Star Community Outreach (Bright Star) with real estate counsel to purchase Tabernacle Church, located in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood, with input from the firm’s tax, environmental, and bankruptcy lawyers. With facilities spanning 26,000 square feet and a 2,000-plus seat sanctuary, the church will allow the organization to expand their efforts and serve as a hub for community service in the Bronzeville neighborhood.

Bright Star entered into an initial agreement to purchase the church in late 2023 and the transaction closed in 2024. Jenner will continue to provide legal support as the facilities are renovated and brought into operation. 

Partner Sheila Kailus and Associate Allyssa Milam assisted with real estate counseling. The team received support from Partners Gail Morse, Sarah Weiss, and Steve Siros, and Associates Daniel Robertson and Bill Williams. 

“Relying on our respective experience in environmental, bankruptcy, and real estate matters, we worked together to assist Bright Star in purchasing the historic Tabernacle Church located in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood,” said Associates Allyssa, Daniel, and Bill. “Our cross disciplinary efforts provided Bright Star the necessary support to acquire a critical piece of real estate to further its mission, as well as the rewarding opportunity to support a local non-profit whose work directly impacts the Chicago community.”

A Jenner pro bono team, led by Associate Florian Fuhrimann, worked with the City Bar Justice Center's Homeowner Stability Project (HSP) on a deed theft case in Queens, New York. The elderly clients with disabilities were victims of a scheme in which impostors forged their signatures on a deed to transfer the property. The situation was further complicated when the fraudulent deed was recorded in the City's property register.

Deed theft has become a growing concern in New York City, particularly damaging for vulnerable populations like the elderly and those with disabilities. Florian worked closely with the District Attorney's office, which successfully prosecuted the fraudsters. In December 2024, the court granted the DA's motion to void the fraudulent deed, restoring the property to its rightful owners.

“As a foreign-trained attorney new to practicing in the US, engaging in pro bono work—particularly on the deed theft case in Queens—has been both personally and professionally transformative,” said Florian. “It has allowed me to apply my international experience in a deeply local context, strengthening my connection to New York’s communities while refining my advocacy skills through meaningful interactions and collaboration with dedicated professionals. This work reminds me every day that the law’s true purpose lies in service and access to justice.”

Jenner was connected to client Ms. Y through Her Justice, an organization that provides legal support to impoverished women in New York City. For years, Ms. Y's ex-husband dodged his responsibilities—filing for divorce in 2020 and continuously lying about his income to avoid paying child support for their four children.

Jenner represented Ms. Y through the entire process and helped prepare her for trial, including by securing pro bono expert support from Jenna Voss of Forensic Risk Alliance (FRA) who used principles of forensic accounting to assess the ex-husband’s tax returns and concluded that he was seriously underrepresenting his income.

After one full day of trial in which Associate Emily Mannheimer cross-examined the ex-husband, the judge converted the trial to a settlement conference that lasted two additional days. The result: the ex-husband agreed to double the amount of child support he was paying, pay her back for her contribution to their shared property, and pay arrears for the years he avoided support after moving out. Ms. Y was incredibly satisfied with the results and her divorce was finalized in early 2024.

The Jenner team, which was led by Emily and included Partner Anne Cortina Perry, was honored with the 2025 Legal Team Award by Her Justice. This award is given to teams of pro bono attorneys who work together as an impressive unit—determined, coordinated, and ahead of the curve—to deliver wins for their clients. 

“The Jenner & Block team was humbled to work for our client, a woman who fought every day for a better life for her children and herself,” said Emily. “Through the amazing support of Her Justice, we were able to help our client get the support for her family that they deserved, laying a strong foundation for their next chapter. Her Justice provides critical legal services to women in New York who need it the most, and it was an honor to work together.”

In 2023, the Human Trafficking Legal Center referred a complex labor trafficking case to Jenner. Partner Carolyn Small and her team invested significant time assessing the survivor's needs and listening to her concerns in preparation for filing a federal civil trafficking case. Over the course of the representation, the team identified alternative remedies to benefit this traumatized survivor, exhibiting exemplary trauma-informed lawyering.

The Jenner team investigated multiple avenues to win justice for this client: an application for compensation to the California State Crime Victim Fund, applications for debt relief, investigation for tax relief, and advocacy to cancel loans fraudulently obtained in the survivor's name.

For this work, the Human Trafficking Legal Center honored Carolyn Small with its Advocate of the Year Award, which recognizes a pro bono attorney who has shown extraordinary commitment to advocacy in support of trafficking survivors' rights. The award celebrates the patient and innovative survivor-centered advocacy of Carolyn and the Jenner pro bono team: Associates Carolyn Brown, Natasha Brown Harris, Laura Koeller, Michelle Li, Tal Ratner Solovey, and Tayisiya Tkachuk, and Paralegal Luba Yartseva.

“It has been a great honor to represent and advocate for our client Ms. Kotova,” said Associates Carolyn, Natasha, Laura, Michelle, Tal, and Tayisiya. “This case presented many challenges, as we had to go through many bureaucratic obstacles and work to gain the client’s trust. This pushed our team to think outside the box and find creative solutions, and we’re grateful Ms. Kotova was able to receive compensation for what she endured. It has been really rewarding to work with Ms. Kotova and help her start the next chapter of her life.”

In a groundbreaking pro bono victory, Jenner secured the release of a client incarcerated at the now-shuttered Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Dublin—a facility so plagued by systemic sexual abuse that it came to be known as “the rape club.” This matter represents a novel legal approach: using compassionate release to obtain relief for survivors of sexual violence in federal custody.

The Jenner team successfully argued that the repeated abuse their client endured at the hands of Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) officials, combined with her serious medical conditions and caregiving responsibilities for her four children, constituted “extraordinary and compelling” circumstances under the US Sentencing Commission’s guidelines

The prosecutors stipulated to the motion and the judge ordered that our client be released and permitted to return home to her parents and four children.

The team included Partners Sam Feder and Keisha Stanford; Special Counsel Andrew Sullivan; Associate Kate Abendroth; and Paralegal Kenyon North.

"Our client survived sexual abuse in federal custody. Helping secure her release meant she could finally return home to her family," said Kate. "We worked with her, her family, and the prosecutors assigned to her case from the beginning to the end—coordinating her victim impact statement, partnering with experts to ensure her story was heard, and advocating relentlessly at every stage. The work was laborious, but it was also the most important thing we could do. When we got the call that she’d been released, I thought: she's finally going home to her family."