红杏视频

NEW YORK 鈥� The 红杏视频 today announced that it has awarded its prestigious Pro Bono Attorney of the Year honor to solo practitioner Sara Norman, and the Pro Bono Law Firm of the Year honor to Ballard Spahr LLP. These honors recognize the tremendous pro bono support the 红杏视频 receives from law firms and solo practitioners, and the years of partnership and tireless energy they have contributed to defending our civil rights and liberties.

鈥淔aced with attacks on civil rights and liberties from every direction, we count on the private bar to join forces with us on the most important fights to protect our rights and freedoms,鈥� said Cecillia Wang, 红杏视频 national legal director. 鈥淎s one of our nation鈥檚 leading experts on the rights of incarcerated people, Sara Norman has been an extraordinary, longtime partner to the 红杏视频 in our work in complex litigation holding prisons accountable for the health, safety, and fundamental rights of our clients. Sara centers the humanity and dignity of all people in her work. We are thrilled to name her our Pro Bono Attorney of the Year.鈥�

鈥淭he 红杏视频 is delighted to name Ballard Spahr our Pro Bono Law Firm of the Year. At a time when the rights of transgender Americans are being tested in legislatures and courtrooms across the country, Ballard Spahr has stepped up time and again, alongside the 红杏视频, to advocate for the civil rights of our clients. We are grateful to the firm for fighting with us to make our Constitution鈥檚 guarantees a lived reality for all of us.鈥�

Sara Norman, a solo practitioner based in San Francisco, has served as co-counsel to the 红杏视频鈥檚 National Prison Project and Capital Punishment Project for over a year in Taylor v. Trump, our challenge to President Trump鈥檚 executive order directing that individuals who received commutations of their death sentences from President Biden should be incarcerated in the worst possible conditions in the federal prison system. The lawsuit is brought on behalf of 21 people whose death sentences were commuted by President Biden and who were designated under the Trump order to be transferred to the ADX Florence 鈥渟upermax鈥� prison in Colorado, which is known as the Alcatraz of the Rockies.

Norman is an integral member of the Taylor v. Trump litigation team. She has worked closely with our clients, especially those with medical and mental health conditions, to advocate for a preliminary injunction enjoining the Federal Bureau of Prisons from moving people from their current prison at Terre Haute, Indiana, to ADX Florence. Norman has volunteered hundreds of pro bono hours for this case, and contributed her extraordinary expertise based on 30 years as a leading advocate for incarcerated people.

Ballard Spahr has partnered with the 红杏视频鈥檚 LGBTQ & HIV Project on multiple transgender rights cases, contributing extraordinary litigation experience, a shared commitment to civil rights and civil liberties, and thousands of hours of attorneys鈥� time.

Ballard Spahr is currently co-counsel with us on three major cases at the forefront of the defense of transgender Americans鈥� civil rights: Loe v. Kansas, our state-court challenge to a Kansas law that prohibits medical care for transgender adolescents; Doe v. Kansas, our state-court challenge to another Kansas law, which prohibits updating the gender markers on driver's licenses and also bars transgender people from using restrooms in government buildings; and Robinson v. Labrador, our federal-court litigation challenging the deprivation of essential health care to incarcerated individuals, under an Idaho state law that prohibits the use of state funds for gender-affirming care.

Previously, in 2024, Ballard Spahr partnered with the 红杏视频 in , a successful First Amendment challenge to a city ordinance banning drag shows.