Alumni Spotlight: Kathryn Anderson B.A. ’03, J.D. ‘06
A Real Pro (Bono)
Kathryn Anderson was fresh out of law school and a brand new associate at Baker & Daniels LLP in South Bend when she found herself in charge of a big pro bono case in addition to her regular business litigation caseload. The firm had just begun a new initiative with the National Immigrant Justice Center in Chicago, and Kathryn responded to an e-mail offering training to anyone at the firm interested in participating in the initiative, excited that her interest in immigration and human rights issues (fostered by her year spent in the London Law Programme) was about to be satisfied in her practice at a firm: “I wasn’t sure I could do this as a new associate—I had been at the firm for just one month—but I had a lot of support from my supervisor, and it all worked out well.”
Her case involved a 24-year-old Zimbabwean man whose mother, father, and younger brother had already been granted asylum in the United States, but whose own asylum status was challenged on procedural grounds. Anderson spent almost seven months interviewing the client, briefing his case, and then representing the client at a hearing in front of the immigration judge, including presenting opening and closing arguments and conducting direct examinations: practices typically reserved for more experienced associates. “He was ultimately granted asylum last summer,” says Anderson, who was awarded the firm’s first annual Charles L. Whistler Pro Bono Award for her efforts.
Through the National Center for Refugee and Immigrant Children based in Washington D.C., Anderson recently began working on two more pro bono immigration cases involving El Salvadoran teens seeking asylum in the United States. “This will be a more integrated effort, as I’ll be working with a team of lawyers from Baker & Daniels, many of them from the Indianapolis office” says Anderson. “In fact, we now have a firm-wide pro bono coordinator to help us organize and prioritize our efforts.”
Anderson says that the stress of the extra workload has not felt like a burden to her: “Community service was really fostered at Notre Dame in both my undergraduate and legal studies. It is a responsibility that I enjoy – neither an option nor a burden.”
