Fish Principal Whitney Reichel Receives PAIR 2014 "Outstanding Pro Bono Service" Award

Boston, MA, June 16, 2014 - Fish & Richardson is proud to announce that Whitney Reichel, a principal in the firm's Boston office, has received the 2014 "Outstanding Pro Bono Service" Award from the Political Asylum/Immigration Representation Project (PAIR). Reichel accepted her award at the PAIR Gala in Boston on June 11, 2014.

"Whitney Reichel's consistent willingness to take on new clients with complex cases, and her excellent legal representation of each one, embodies the finest traditions of pro bono service in the legal community," said Sarah Ignatius, Esq., executive director of the PAIR Project. "We are extremely grateful for Whitney's exceptional legal work, generous spirit, and deeply caring attitude."

The award recognizes Reichel's work with PAIR clients over the last six years. In one recent example, Reichel helped a client who was fleeing persecution in Uganda obtain political asylum in the United States in 2012. In 2013, Reichel helped the woman apply for derivative asylum so that her husband and three daughters, whom she was forced to leave behind in Uganda, could be reunited with her in the U.S.

Fish & Richardson has a long-standing commitment to the representation of individuals seeking political asylum in the U.S. Since 2008, the firm has represented over 50 clients - from countries including Bhutan, Congo, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Cameroon, Armenia, Iran, Guatemala, Somalia, El Salvador, Peru, and Honduras - seeking political asylum or special immigrant juvenile status in this country.

"Fish makes pro bono work an integral part of our professional culture," said Lawrence Kolodney, pro bono committee chair at the firm. "We provide our attorneys with full hours credit for approved pro bono matters, and have a principal-level attorney coordinating pro bono opportunities in each of our 11 U.S. offices. More importantly, we make a substantial positive impact on the lives of others and in our communities."

At Fish, Reichel focuses her practice on patent litigation in the area of electrical engineering and computer technologies. She received her J.D., cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School in 2005 and her B.S. in electrical engineering from Brown University in 2002.

Celebrating its 25th year, the Political Asylum/Immigration Representation Project (PAIR) is a nationally recognized pro bono model that works to secure safety and freedom for asylum-seekers who have fled from persecution throughout the world and to promote the rights of immigrants unjustly detained. PAIR provides hope and a new beginning to asylum-seekers, torture survivors and immigration detainees. As the core provider of pro bono legal services to low-income asylum-seekers and immigration detainees in Massachusetts, PAIR has over a 95 percent successful outcome in its asylum cases.