Children’s Wellbeing Assistance
Children’s Wellbeing Assistance
Helping Secure a Forever Home for Kids
In 2023, our team dedicated more than 150 hours to helping secure safe, loving homes for formerly abused or neglected children in the foster care system. Working alongside our colleagues at Amazon Studios, DWT attorneys represented multiple families seeking to complete foster care adoptions.
Public Counsel provided a substantive training that prepared volunteers to meet with the prospective parents, handle the extensive adoption paperwork, and work to secure government benefits for the adoptive parents. DWT attorneys also had the opportunity to attend the adoption hearings.
“These kids have gone through a lot,” said DWT attorney Conrad Wilton, who volunteers as the firm’s coordinator for the adoption work. “We’re helping people do the right thing in a very difficult circumstance.” Conrad’s clients included a schoolteacher who adopted two of her students. “The kids had really been abandoned by their folks,” he says. “They were placed in the teacher’s home for foster care, and she just fell in love with them, really. She helped them through a tough situation and gave them a close family unit.”
Most commonly, blood relatives are the adopting parents. DWT’s Anastasia Alen represented a single mother with three biological daughters who wanted to adopt her four-year-old niece. “The child was born with toxins in the blood,” said Anastasia, “and there were challenges that go along with that, in addition to the hard work already required of her as a working single mother. Even so, this woman was above and beyond excited to take on another daughter. That was really admirable to me.”
Helping Secure a Forever Home for Kids
In 2023, our team dedicated more than 150 hours to helping secure safe, loving homes for formerly abused or neglected children in the foster care system. Working alongside our colleagues at Amazon Studios, DWT attorneys represented multiple families seeking to complete foster care adoptions.
Public Counsel provided a substantive training that prepared volunteers to meet with the prospective parents, handle the extensive adoption paperwork, and work to secure government benefits for the adoptive parents. DWT attorneys also had the opportunity to attend the adoption hearings.
“These kids have gone through a lot,” said DWT attorney Conrad Wilton, who volunteers as the firm’s coordinator for the adoption work. “We’re helping people do the right thing in a very difficult circumstance.” Conrad’s clients included a schoolteacher who adopted two of her students. “The kids had really been abandoned by their folks,” he says. “They were placed in the teacher’s home for foster care, and she just fell in love with them, really. She helped them through a tough situation and gave them a close family unit.”
Most commonly, blood relatives are the adopting parents. DWT’s Anastasia Alen represented a single mother with three biological daughters who wanted to adopt her four-year-old niece. “The child was born with toxins in the blood,” said Anastasia, “and there were challenges that go along with that, in addition to the hard work already required of her as a working single mother. Even so, this woman was above and beyond excited to take on another daughter. That was really admirable to me.”
Teaching Consent
The U.K.-based Schools Consent Project (SCP) was founded on the belief that early education is the best way to prevent sexually abusive behavior. Through workshops presented to students, SCP provides a legal toolkit intended to drive down the rates of sexual offenses.
In 2023, SCP brought the program to New York City and DWT hosted a training at our office. Laura Sack, a lawyer in labor and employment law, who’s experienced in presenting workplace training on numerous topics, including anti-harassment, was the first NY-based lawyer to deliver the SCP workshop to students in the U.S. She led a session in summer 2023 for high school participants in the East Harlem-based Concrete Safaris Outdoor Leadership Academy. More recently, Laura led a session at a Brooklyn high school, and she is scheduled to lead several more in early 2024. “Through a series of fun, interactive games and exercises, the workshop aims to challenge students’ misconceptions and unearth toxic attitudes and behaviors,” said Laura.
Based in part on her pro bono work and commitment to community service, Laura was named to the Crain’s New York Business 2023 Notable Women in Law. The list honors 100 women across all practice areas who are “at the pinnacle of their profession” and “whose impact radiates well beyond the clients they serve.”
Preparing Future Leaders to Champion Justice
Giving back to in-need communities is an essential part of DWT’s culture. Wherever and whenever our attorneys and staff come together, we look for ways to uphold that commitment and use our resources for good.
Preparing Future Leaders to Champion Justice
Giving back to in-need communities is an essential part of DWT’s culture. Wherever and whenever our attorneys and staff come together, we look for ways to uphold that commitment and use our resources for good.
Future Leaders
In 2023, we brought together two dozen attorneys from across the firm who’ve distinguished themselves as future leaders for a Seattle retreat. As part of the meet-up, the team prepared 90 “sweet cases,” filled with blankets, coloring books, hygiene kits, and other materials and delivered them to Treehouse, a nonprofit serving youth in foster care.
Future Leaders
In 2023, we brought together two dozen attorneys from across the firm who’ve distinguished themselves as future leaders for a Seattle retreat. As part of the meet-up, the team prepared 90 “sweet cases,” filled with blankets, coloring books, hygiene kits, and other materials and delivered them to Treehouse, a nonprofit serving youth in foster care.
First-Year Associates Giving Back
We launched our first-year associate program with a team-building event in which these new attorneys collected items for charity by working together to navigate an indoor obstacle course. They then put together 12 backpacks with school supplies for the Children’s Home Society of Washington.
First-Year Associates Giving Back
We launched our first-year associate program with a team-building event in which these new attorneys collected items for charity by working together to navigate an indoor obstacle course. They then put together 12 backpacks with school supplies for the Children’s Home Society of Washington.
Team: Brook Dormaier, Chris Martinez, Mary Brazeau, Hiroko Peraza, Mariah Watson, Alex Cadena, Moiz Bharmal, Amy Ocean, David Rund, Flynn O'Neill, Nicholas Traver, Edlira Kuka, and LaFonda Willis.
Team: Brook Dormaier, Chris Martinez, Mary Brazeau, Hiroko Peraza, Mariah Watson, Alex Cadena, Moiz Bharmal, Amy Ocean, David Rund, Flynn O'Neill, Nicholas Traver, Edlira Kuka, and LaFonda Willis.
Domestic Violence Response
Addressing Homelessness
Addressing Homelessness
Domestic Violence Response
DAVIS WRIGHT TREMAINE LLP
Ability, integrity, and service to others – these are the three pillars on which Davis Wright Tremaine was built. As our founding partner once famously said, “…unless we are serving mankind to the top extent of our ability and putting our best talent into that service, what good is life?”
Learn More at DWT.COM/PRO-BONO
DAVIS WRIGHT TREMAINE LLP
Ability, integrity, and service to others – these are the three pillars on which Davis Wright Tremaine was built. As our founding partner once famously said, “…unless we are serving mankind to the top extent of our ability and putting our best talent into that service, what good is life?”
Learn More at DWT.COM/PRO-BONO
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