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 About the CenterOur VolunteersAlston & Bird
About Alston + BirdPro Bono work and community service remain a cornerstone of Alston & Bird, as they continue to dedicate time and resources to support worthwhile endeavors. Their dedication arises not from an institutional mandate but from the firm’s culture, which from the beginning has encouraged service to others and involvement in the communities that support their lives and livelihood. Alston & Bird attorneys are increasing their efforts at volunteering to represent immigrant and refugee children in their asylum proceedings under the auspices of the National Center for Refugee & Immigrant Children (Center), and the Atlanta Bar Asylum Project (“ABAP”). Brian Stimson and Cheryl Naja are board members of ABAP, an organization which began in early 2005 to match volunteer attorneys from various Atlanta law firms with asylum seekers who often face the immigration system alone and without representation. With the assistance of ABAP, the Center has matched 7 children with Alston & Bird attorneys who are representing children from Honduras, Guatemala, Haiti and El Salvador.
Escaping Gang Violence in HondurasCurrently, a team of lawyers and paralegals from Alston & Bird’s Atlanta and Charlotte offices is involved in representing a family of four young children from Honduras who fled to the United States in order to escape violent persecution by local gang members in Honduras. The children’s father and mother fled to the United States after several members of the notorious Mara Salvatrucha gang threatened and victimized the family, breaking into their home and stealing all of their possessions. After being left to live with their grandmother, the children, ages 4, 6, 11 and 13, left Honduras in order to reunify with their parents. Upon entering the country, the children were apprehended by immigration authorities but later released to live with their parents while they fight the conclusion of their immigration proceedings. While the children are attending school and trying to reshape their new life here, attorneys at Alston & Bird are tirelessly working to help these four siblings to successfully pursue full and secure lives in the United States In addition, several other Alston & Bird lawyers have volunteered to help young immigrant children. Greg Mauldin is representing a 16-year-old Guatemalan girl who fled severe long-term abuse, neglect and poverty in her native country. This girl has endured great hardship in her young life, as she was also forced to leave school at age ten in order to work to support her nine siblings and ailing mother. After a harrowing journey to the U.S., she is currently living in Georgia with an uncle while Mr. Mauldin works on her case. Naeemah Clark is representing an 11-year-old Haitian boy, who had been living with a physically abusive and neglectful family in Port-au-Prince since the boy’s parents died several years ago. In addition to enduring serious maltreatment at home, this young boy sought to escape the violent civil unrest that had enveloped the streets of Haiti’s capital city, where he feared attending school after being caught in the middle of local gunfights. Representing Those in Need
Samantha Hill and former Alston & Bird attorney Liz Day represented a 17-year-old girl from El Salvador who fled to the U.S. after being specifically targeted by Mara Salvatrucha gang members who sent her multiple threats of rape and death. Although this girl had contacted local authorities about the threats, gang members became increasingly hostile toward her, and the girl’s family decided that she would be safer leaving El Salvador to live with family in the U.S. Make a difference in a child's life by volunteering with the Atlanta Bar Asylum Project. Please contact abap.mailbox@alston.com for more information |
