Cooley LLP Partner-In-Charge, John Dwyer
On March 2, 2017, Cooley LLP will be presented with the Pro Bono award at NCIP’s Justice For All Awards Dinner at the Pullman Hotel in Redwood City. Cooley will be honored for its contribution of hundreds of hours of pro bono work, its superb amicus briefs on innocence issues, and its steady devotion to justice.
Cooley was one of the first law firms to provide NCIP with pro bono legal assistance. Under John Dwyer’s leadership as Partner-In-Charge, Cooley has made exceptional pro bono contributions to NCIP’s case work. In addition, Cooley attorneys have authored amicus briefs filed in the country’s and states’ highest courts on behalf of NCIP and the Innocence Network. These briefs have positively impacted not only NCIP’s cases, but advanced innocence issues throughout the country.
A particularly noteworthy example of Cooley’s tremendous work was the amicus brief they filed in the Ninth Circuit on behalf of NCIP and the Innocence Network in Lee vs. Lampert, seeking rehearing en banc. In that case, the original panel of Ninth Circuit judges held petitioners seeking habeas corpus relief who file their petitions beyond the one-year statute of limitations cannot use evidence of their innocence as an exception to the statute of limitations.
NCIP Client George Souliotes walks out of prison a free man in 2013.
NCIP and Cooley attorneys immediately recognized the potentially negative impact of this decision on innocent clients without resources to file a habeas corpus petition within that strict time period. The Ninth Circuit’s decision was also in conflict with similar cases from other federal courts. Cooley’s efforts resulted in the Ninth Circuit granting en banc review and reversing the panel’s decision pertaining to the statute of limitations.
Had the Ninth Circuit not reversed its initial decision in that case, NCIP client George Souliotes would have been procedurally barred from proving his wrongful conviction. The Lee rehearing and reversal opened the door to bring Mr. Souliotes’s case back to court and NCIP ultimately was able to exonerate him.
Cooley has also assisted NCIP in ways beyond case work and amicus work. NCIP attorneys are occasionally served with subpoenas regarding cases that we have reviewed and in several instances, Cooley has stepped in to represent NCIP so that our attorneys can focus their time working to free the innocent. Also, since 2008, Cooley has generously provided NCIP with space to host meetings with our advisory board.
NCIP is extremely thankful to Cooley LLP for its generous contributions of time, talent, resources and counsel in working to free the wrongfully convicted.
