The Pepper Center for Public Service is a unique organization that draws on the talents of the firm's retired partners and senior attorneys to wrestle with tough problems facing our communities. Through the Center, these attorneys study, analyze, and work to resolve problems that affect the lives of people in our communities.
The firm created and supports the Center, but it is a stand-alone organization, led by a board of Pepper Center Fellows, who are distinguished retired or senior Troutman Pepper partners and counsel.
What We Do
The Center meets with national and local leaders and experts to better understand unsolved problems, discuss potential solutions, and work to develop and staff public service projects to address unmet needs. This may involve pro bono legal assistance, consulting, providing a forum for the exchange of ideas, advocating for solutions in regulatory or legislative arenas, or a combination of activities. Areas of focus include public education, civics, and immigration.
Common to all of its work, the Center and its Fellows are committed to improving the lives of those in need in our communities.
Below are brief descriptions of current task forces and projects of the Pepper Center for Public Service.
Perhaps in no other area of the law is the need for counsel as acute and as unfilled as it is in the field of immigration. Immigration laws and regulations – and the manner in which the government chooses to enforce them – have made it difficult for even experienced counsel to assist the large number of immigrants on their paths to citizenship or permanent residence in the U.S. The small cadre of immigration attorneys is unable to serve the thousands, many in custody, who are seeking asylum or are threatened with removal from the country and with separation of parents from children. Without counsel, individual immigrants, including many young children – often poor and living in fear of gang violence or other life-threating conditions in their home countries – fail to prove that they are entitled to start over in this country. Those lucky few who can afford an attorney or manage to enlist pro bono counsel are several times more likely to find a home in the U.S. than those who are unrepresented.
Responding to the critical shortage of attorneys for indigent immigrants, Fellows in the Pepper Center, often working with Troutman Pepper associates and partners, have volunteered their time and energy to assist many seeking asylum, prevention of removal and the fracturing of families, or help with the complex process of acquiring legal status. As a result of these efforts, several clients have been released from custody, won asylum here, or successfully resisted their removal. Many others have secured legal permanent status. In representing these clients, Pepper Center Fellows have appeared in every forum where immigration litigation occurs, including Immigration Court, the Board of Immigration Appeals and several federal Courts of Appeal. Among the results have been several precedential opinions:
In addition, after consulting with experts and studying the issue, the Center concluded that the most critical shortage of attorneys available to serve individuals in the immigration system exists at the beginning of removal proceedings, when immigration judges determine whether to set bond for individuals detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement while awaiting hearings. We learned that those able to obtain and post bond were several times more likely to prevail in their hearings than those who remain in custody - yet most detainees could not afford an attorney or effectively represent themselves. We set out to change this.
Taking referrals from the Pennsylvania Immigration Resource Center (PIRC) in York, PA, we began to represent detainees at the York County Prison. During 2019, we represented detainees (and devoted more than 1,500 hours) in Immigration Court, where, in most cases, we persuaded immigration judges to set a reasonable bond amount. Almost all of these clients posted bond, and they now await their hearings – typically on asylum claims – in various locations around the U.S.
Programs
The Pepper Center welcomed three experienced practitioners to discuss United States immigration—its history, laws, and policies—and to highlight areas in which our Fellows could get involved:
Pepper Center Fellows have committed to working on projects in education. By meeting with experts, some of whom are discussed below, they are seeking to assist students, families, educators and the courts with the challenges facing public education. Currently, they are working with the Philadelphia School District and other educational experts on potential programs to assist those students most challenged in high schools.
Programs
Sarah Hemminger is CEO of Thread, a nonprofit organization in Baltimore, which works with young people, starting in 9th grade, who are in the bottom 25 percent of their class. Dr. Hemminger is a social entrepreneur, Ph.D. Johns Hopkins scientist, and ice dancer who co-founded Thread with her husband Ryan Hemminger in 2004. Based on the fundamental understanding that we all need deep interpersonal bonds to thrive, each Thread student is matched with a group of up to five volunteers, who work as an extended family that does whatever it takes to provide their student and family with completely customized support for 10 years. The results have been extraordinary: 85 percent of its students graduate from high school; 83 percent complete a post-secondary degree or certificate. The Center invited Dr. Hemminger to meet with it and Philadelphia educational leaders; since the first meeting, Center representatives and the educational leaders have continued their conversations, both in Philadelphia and Baltimore, in the hope that the Thread model can be used to benefit students in other school systems.
Center Fellows, from training and experience, deeply respect our Constitution and its form of government. The Civics Task Force works to better understand the challenges that our country faces in maintaining its system of government and to support the fundamental rights that the Constitution provides.
For example, the importance of the right and obligation to vote cannot be understated. So, too, having the tools for meaningfully exercising the right to vote—obtaining accurate information and engaging in civil discourse—are crucial. And yet, civics is, less than ever, taught in school; civil discourse is at an all-time low; discerning facts from false information more confusing; and the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment uniquely challenged. With the assistance of experts in the field, Fellows seek to make a meaningful contribution to assuring that the rights we take for granted are maintained. Whether through civics education, encouraging civil discourse, legal protection of both voting and First Amendment rights, or simply promoting voting, Fellows are committed to offering assistance in this area. Center Fellows have been working with partners such as the School District of Philadelphia and the Committee of Seventy on voting issues, and is a partner with its WeVote initiative.
Similarly, Fellows are interested in other aspects of our governmental processes that would benefit from their assistance and look forward to working in this area.
Programs
The Board of the Pepper Center for Public Service includes senior partners and counsel, and members of firm management:
* Not an attorney; never affiliated with Troutman Pepper.
The Pepper Center for Public Service and its Fellows have met with many local and national leaders on a variety of topics. They include:
Civics
Education
Poverty and Health
Immigration
Gun Violence
Press Coverage
07.27.23
Impact: Amy Ginensky
Firm Events
07.10.23
Haaland v. Brackeen and its Effect on Indian Child Welfare
Firm Events
06.08.23
Treaties & Fish: A Precious Resource, A Solemn Promise, and the Challenges of Litigation
Firm Events
05.01.23
American Indian Sovereignty: What it Means, Why it Matters, and the Supreme Court's Efforts to Limit it
Firm News
10.24.22
Law + Justice Program Featured in Philadelphia Bar Foundation Video
Articles + Publications
07.06.22
Pepper Center for Public Service Pandemic Report 2020 – May 2022
Press Coverage
05.24.22
Encore: The Pepper Center for Public Service—Our Senior Attorney's Second Act Recognized in Super Lawyers
Firm News
09.23.21
Pennsylvania Immigration Resource Center Recognizes Troutman Pepper's Pepper Center for Public Service for Pro Bono Efforts
Articles + Publications
05.28.20
Pepper Center Annual Report 2019
Firm News
10.23.18
Pepper Hamilton Recognized by HIAS-Pennsylvania