Stinson Receives 2025 Law Firm Pro Bono Award from The Advocates for Human Rights

06.25.2025

Stinson LLP and its Deinard Legal Clinic have been named the recipient of the 2025 Law Firm Pro Bono Award by The Advocates for Human Rights (The Advocates). The award was presented at The Advocates’ annual Human Rights Awards Dinner on June 24 and honors the firm’s decades-long dedication to providing high-quality pro bono legal services to underserved communities.

In 2024, the Deinard Legal Clinic, which is the nation's oldest law firm-led medical-legal partnership, responded to a sharp increase in individuals from Guinea and Liberia in urgent need of completing asylum applications. In response, Stinson hosted monthly clinics in collaboration with The Advocates, University of Minnesota Community-University Health Care Center (CUHCC) staff and providers, and interpreters and translators. This innovative and collaborative response helped prepare more than 100 pro se asylum applications.

Since 1993, Stinson has provided a wide array of legal services to CUHCC patients through the Deinard Legal Clinic. Many CUHCC patients represented by the firm face barriers to accessing legal assistance, thus affecting their physical and mental health and diminishing their long-term health outcomes. Services provided span numerous areas of the law, including immigration law, family law, landlord/tenant law, social security appeals and guardianships, among many others.

Stinson remains committed to providing responsive legal support as the needs of immigrant communities evolve within a rapidly shifting immigration landscape. The 2025 Law Firm Pro Bono Award reflects not only the clinic’s impact over the past year, but also its longstanding role as a leader in advancing justice and human rights through pro bono service.

The firm's pro bono practice is spearheaded by the firm's pro bono committee and implemented by Pro Bono Counsel Katie Cronin, along with Pro Bono Attorney Tim Sanders Szabo and Pro Bono Specialist David Gottfried.