Legal Services Corp. Counsel Joins Steptoe As Pro Bono Atty

Carolyn Perez

When Steptoe’s new pro bono counsel Carolyn Perez was growing up in Detroit, a street bordering the city and one of its wealthiest suburbs served to her as a symbol of inequality. On one side were coffee shops, beautiful homes and manicured lawns, while the other was studded with boarded-up buildings and failing schools.

“Just as a child it struck me; ‘How can you grow up on one side of the street and have access to so much, and grow up, literally, across the street, and have access to so little?'” Perez said. “It kind of sparked this lifelong drive for me to fight for justice, and I really came to understand that these disparities and appearances, they impacted jobs and housing and healthcare.”

Perez, who Steptoe announced on Monday had joined the D.C. team, has carried that experience with her, and has dedicated her legal career to pro bono work, representing individuals without access to legal services.

She said joining Steptoe as pro bono legal counsel was her “dream job,” saying she was looking forward to working in a role that will help her make a daily, tangible impact on people living with those disparities.

“Access to an attorney can make all the difference to securing basic human rights, like housing, safety and employment,” Perez said.

Perez is joining the firm from Legal Services Corporation, where she spent a little more than two years conducting oversight of legal aid providers and helping promote improvements in LSC’s pro bono representation efforts.

A University of Michigan Law School graduate, Perez started her legal career at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, where she spent about a decade as a counsel, which the firm noted included serving on Akin Gump’s pro bono committee.

She then moved to the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, where she worked with clients on shelter, housing public benefits, disability and consumer issues. It’s work Steptoe has done a considerable amount of this year, the firm said, representing more than 28 low-income tenants facing eviction.

Perez said the issue of homelessness has long been important to her. Most don’t think about unhoused people beyond the individuals we see panhandling on the street, she said, but there is a much larger contingent of homeless individuals out of the public eye.

“It’s a lot of families with children who are staying in day-to-day motels and scraping enough money to get by, or staying on a friend’s and families’ couches,” Perez said. “And so, pro bono lawyers like the lawyers here at Steptoe have the opportunity to make a lasting impact in people’s lives.”

Steptoe has long had a focus on pro bono legal work, and was one of the first major firms in D.C. to have its own pro bono program and coordinator — with Barbara Kagan leading that effort for 25 years until her retirement in 2018. Paul Lee, Steptoe’s current pro bono leader, has always worked on pro bono issues and has never worked on traditional corporate legal matters.

Lee said in a statement that public service “is at the heart of Steptoe’s history, ethos and operations.”

“I am thrilled to welcome Carolyn to Steptoe as our new pro bono counsel,” Lee said. “Her experience managing teams of attorneys in both the private and public sector, and providing legal services to those within our communities, makes her a natural fit on the team, and I am excited about the work we will undertake together.”

Perez told Law360 Pulse she wanted to join Steptoe because of its history with pro bono work, and the opportunity to work with Lee, whom she lauded as a well-known and respected pro bono lawyer.

“Steptoe has demonstrated a real and lasting commitment to social justice,” Perez said.

She added: “I’m just grateful to be a part of it and excited to be continuing on Barbara’s legacy, here.”

Steptoe noted that it’s worked on a range of pro bono issues this year, such as representing the Justice Arts Coalition, a nonprofit group providing resources to incarcerated individuals, and winning asylum for a Guatemalan woman and her two children following the death of her husband, a government whistleblower.

–Editing by Robert Rudinger.

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the scope of Perez’s responsibilities at LSC. The error has been corrected.