Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Awards Shortlists Arnold & Porter for Pro Bono Work in Federal Prison Abuse Case
Arnold & Porter has been shortlisted for the “Innovative Lawyers in Pro Bono” category at the 2025 Financial Times Innovative Lawyers North America Awards. The team was recognized for their work in California Coalition for Women Prisoners v. U.S. Bureau of Prisons in which they achieved a civil rights victory for incarcerated individuals in a federal women’s prison in California. The Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Awards celebrate the “innovative ways lawyers are delivering value for clients and driving positive change in the profession.”
Arnold & Porter and its co-counsel reached a landmark settlement agreement on December 6, 2024, in a class action lawsuit against the U.S. Bureau of Prisons (BOP) filed following years of systemic staff sexual abuse, retaliation, and medical neglect at the now-closed Federal Correctional Institute (“FCI”) Dublin, located east of Oakland, California. The BOP has agreed to be subject to a Consent Decree to safeguard the rights of hundreds of class members now incarcerated at more than a dozen federal women’s prisons nationwide. BOP will remain under court oversight for two years and will be legally required to provide extensive remedies related to preventing sexual abuse and retaliation, ensuring access to competent medical and community-based care, limiting the use of solitary confinement, and ending abuses related to arbitrary denial of early release.
The class action lawsuit was filed in August 2023 by eight survivors and the California Coalition for Women Prisoners on behalf of all those incarcerated at FCI Dublin at the time. In March 2024, Arnold & Porter and its co-counsel won entry of a preliminary injunction and class certification following a weeklong evidentiary hearing in which dozens of incarcerated individuals and BOP officials testified. The Court also appointed a special master to oversee the implementation of court-ordered reforms at the prison, the first time BOP has been subject to such oversight. Shortly after the monitor began its work, BOP abruptly closed FCI Dublin and transferred hundreds of class members to other prisons across the country in inhumane conditions. Arnold & Porter and its co-counsel successfully defeated BOP’s attempts to dismiss the case as moot and continued to highlight the ongoing constitutional abuses experienced by class members at dozens of other BOP facilities.
The Arnold & Porter pro bono team was led by partner Stephen Cha-Kim and senior associate Carson Anderson, and included associates Brooke D'Amore Bradley, Mark Raftrey, and Natalie Steiert.
