At this year’s Above & Beyond Awards, Sanctuary for Families is honoring an outstanding collaboration between Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and Bloomberg Philanthropies for their tireless work on behalf of two survivors of labor trafficking. The team includes, from Wilson Sonsini, Tonia Ouellette Klausner, Jiayue “Angelina” He, and Manveer Martinson, and from Bloomberg, Cristina Cahn-Speyer and Steven Haber.
This case involves two women who each were lured to move from their home country to provide domestic help in the U.S., with promises of fair pay and good working conditions. But when the women arrived in the U.S., they were exploited for years. Their passports were confiscated, they were paid far less than promised, forced to work long hours, subjected to verbal abuse and mistreatment, unable to access healthcare services, and given no days off, holidays, or sick days. After many years of living under these conditions, the women escaped their traffickers when federal law enforcement intervened and referred the women for legal and supportive services at Sanctuary for Families.
Sanctuary enlisted Wilson Sonsini and Bloomberg’s Legal & Compliance Department’s Pro Bono team to navigate what came next. That included representing the women in interviews with federal prosecutors, helping the women get access to much needed medical care, and securing T Nonimmigrant status for both women and their family members who had remained in the home country. The team continues to work with the families, both in the US and abroad, to complete family reunification. Ultimately, the traffickers were prosecuted and sentenced. Remarkably, as part of the criminal penalties, the traffickers paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to the survivors for back pay and medical expenses they were owed.
Tonia Ouellette Klausner, Senior Pro Bono Counsel at Wilson Sonsini, explained what makes this case unique. “These women not only got their lives back. They were able to get restitution and have justice served.” She further described the amazing transformation she witnessed in representing these clients. “They have confidence again, reclaimed power over their lives, and moved on towards a better future.”
Cristina Cahn-Speyer, Licensing Counsel at Bloomberg said, “At Bloomberg, our pro bono program is about standing with people as they rebuild their lives. When survivors have access to legal, emotional, and practical support, it transforms not just their cases, but also their lives. It’s a privilege to use our professional skills to help people navigate some of the most complex challenges affecting our communities, sometimes right in our own backyards.”
Jessica-Wind Abolafia, Senior Program Director of Sanctuary’s Anti-Trafficking Initiative, underscored the importance of the team’s work: “The Wilson Sonsini – Bloomberg team worked intensively to represent the women, navigating complex victim witness and immigration matters over several years and well as supporting the survivors as they healed and accessed the justice they sought and deserved against the perpetrators of their victimization. Their client-centered, trauma-informed and compassionate approach provided a critical space for the women to regain empowerment and self-determination.”
Join us at our Above & Beyond Awards Ceremony on October 21, 2025, as we honor Wilson Sonsini’s and Bloomberg’s outstanding pro bono work.
If your firm is interested in a sponsorship opportunity, please reach out to Geny Kimbrell, Director of Special Events, by email at gkimbrell@sffny.org.
Kate Powers is counsel in the White Collar & Government Investigations practice at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, LLP. She is also a member of Sanctuary’s Pro Bono Council.