GPM Asylum Team Receives Volunteer Award
The Advocates for Human Rights presented GPM’s asylum team with a volunteer award at its Human Rights Awards Dinner (HRAD) on June 1. The team was recognized for its important pro bono asylum work over the past few years representing clients fleeing persecution from a variety of countries, including Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Guinea, Kenya, Laos, Somalia, The Gambia, and Zimbabwe. In particular, The Advocates praised the team’s willingness to take on complex cases involving female genital mutilation, forced marriage, and levirate marriage (a widow forced to marry the brother of her deceased husband), and complimented the team on their fact-finding, documentation, and litigation expertise that “allowed them to draw out critical facts from the clients and piece together the claims in ways the court could understand.”
Award recipients consisted of the following 22 attorneys and paralegals: Joy Anderson, Ashley Bailey, Sandy Bodeau, Nancy Quattlebaum Burke, Brian Dillon, Liz Dillon, Dean Eyler, Hallie Goodman, Karli Hussey, Monica Kelley, Leah Leyendecker, Jodee Marble, Meg Martin, Tammy Mayer, Craig Miller, Brianna Mooty, Gayle Schaub, Max Schott, II, Amanda Sicoli, Nicole Strydom, Matthew Webster, and Scott Wick.
GPM attorney Dean Eyler proudly accepted the volunteer award on behalf of the team. “We’re thankful for the team’s commitment, and we’re proud to count them among our volunteer award recipients,” said Sarah Brenes, director of The Advocates’ Refugee & Immigrant Program.
In honor of GPM’s 150th anniversary, the firm's Pro Bono Committee has challenged GPM's attorneys to take on at least ten new asylum cases this year. With 12 new asylum cases, the firm is already on track to meet and exceed this goal, and the asylum team hopes to share more about these and other pro bono matters in the coming months.