One client of Labaton Sucharow LLP who was persecuted in Uganda because of his sexual orientation escaped an attack one night, while his boyfriend and brother were killed. Another client was attacked on multiple occasions because of her sexual orientation and her work with the LGBT community in Uganda.

Both individuals managed to escape persecution in the East African country before encountering a new challenge: trying to obtain asylum in the United States during the Trump administration.

Those Ugandans, along with asylum hopefuls of other backgrounds detained at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility in New Jersey, have received free legal assistance in recent months from the firm.

The Ugandan man was granted asylum in October 2018, while the woman was granted asylum in September, according to Labaton Sucharow, which is currently working on a third asylum case involving a Ugandan woman.

Despite undergoing beatings at her home and at her restaurant because of her sexual orientation and because of her political affiliations, the woman — whom the firm declined to identify — still provided food, shelter and financial assistance to others in similar situations, said Greg Asciolla, co-chair of the firm's antitrust and competition litigation practice.

"She went out of her way to help these people, even though she was being severely persecuted herself," Asciolla said. "It just shows how good people can be, even in the face of such adversity."

With Labaton Sucharow concentrating its day-to-day work on assisting institutional investors and business clients who are the victims of fraud, the firm has increasingly looked at immigration as another way to make a real impact in the lives of the people it represents, said Asciolla, who coordinates the pro bono program.

"It's an opportunity for us to really give new life to persecuted individuals," Asciolla said. "It also allows us to provide valuable training and experience to junior attorneys."

Anna Menkova, an associate at Labaton Sucharow who focuses her practice on securities fraud litigation, said she has worked on two asylum cases in recent months. The attorney, who received her law degree in June 2017, was particularly struck by her work in writing declarations for those cases, which are drafted in the first person.

Menkova said that while she cannot begin to relate to the difficult ordeals depicted in them, to write as though it were something that had happened to her was personally transformative.

"It is eye-opening to see what goes on throughout the world, how things are much less progressive elsewhere," she said. "The rights of people everywhere in the world are being stepped on."

Labaton Sucharow is referred to the immigration cases it handles by the Immigration Justice Campaign, a joint initiative of the American Immigration Council, the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the American Immigrant Representation Project.

While attorneys who work on the pro bono cases may be accomplished in their own practices, many are unfamiliar with the complicated inner workings of the nation's immigration system, said Ilana Etkin Greenstein, senior technical assistant attorney with the campaign.

Greenstein provides mentoring services for the attorneys, who also review mock asylum hearings, go over draft versions of documents they will need to submit, and meet every couple of weeks via video conference with a mentor and three to four other lawyers also going through the process at approximately the same time, she said.

Thus far in 2019, the Immigration Justice Campaign has placed 454 cases nationwide, of which approximately 100 have been asylum cases, Greenstein said.

In the federal detention court in New Jersey where the Labaton Sucharow teams have worked on cases, the grant rate for the pro bono cases has been approximately 83 percent, compared with that court's average grant rate of 46.4 percent, she said.

"In the immigration context, that's tremendous," Greenstein said. "The Labaton team has just been outstanding."

Some of the cases handled by Labaton touch on Uganda's particularly difficult history with LGBT rights. The country in 2014 enacted a law that called for either prison time or the death penalty for those who are gay or who are supportive of gay people.

Under international pressure, including from then-President Barack Obama, the country rolled back the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Act, but Ugandan government officials in recent weeks have spoken openly about whether to revive it and at least three members of the LGBT community have been killed in Uganda by the government or by groups of individuals, according to Human Rights Watch.

Menkova said winning asylum for those fleeing such persecution can mean the difference between life and death, given what detainees may face should they be forced to return to their countries of origin. She encourages other attorneys to lend their expertise to performing the pro bono work.

"It gives you a sense of purpose, you feel that you're doing the right thing," Menkova said. "You know that you're fighting for someone's life."

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--Editing by Rebecca Flanagan.