WilmerHale Team Secures Parole for Incarcerated Survivors

At this year’s Above & Beyond Awards, Sanctuary is honoring a team from WilmerHale for their tireless, inspired, and compassionate work helping Sanctuary for Family’s incarcerated clients obtain parole and live a new life full of hope for the future.

At this year’s Above & Beyond Awards, Sanctuary for Families is thrilled to honor Susan Schroeder, Kyrie Graziosi, and Meghan Wingert of WilmerHale LLP for their tireless, inspired, and compassionate work helping Sanctuary for Family’s incarcerated clients obtain parole and live a new life full of hope for the future.

The WilmerHale team first represented one of Sanctuary for Families’ incarcerated clients in connection with her successful parole hearing in March 2023. After that inspiring experience, they went on to help two other Sanctuary clients obtain parole in October 2023 and April 2024. Though each client’s situation was unique, all are survivors of severe gender-based violence. Their parole hearings were the first step toward a new future for each client.

Susan, Kyrie, and Meghan worked closely under the guidance and mentorship of Ross Kramer, Isabelle Demenge, and Kayla Abrams of Sanctuary to prepare each client. Since counsel cannot be present at the parole hearing, the goal of the team was to help each client become an effective self-advocate before the parole board. Isabelle noted that the WilmerHale team was patient, honest, and friendly with the clients from the outset, and quickly formed a relationship of trust with each of their clients. The clients in turn were open and engaged with the process since they trusted their legal team, which enabled Susan, Kyrie, and Meghan to really delve into the facts and circumstances of the underlying crimes, the work that each woman had done on herself during her incarceration, and their attempts to help others despite personal challenges.

Once the WilmerHale team got to know each client, the team worked collaboratively with them to prepare an individualized parole packet for submission to the parole commissioners. A parole packet typically includes things like advocacy letters; a personal statement from the client; apology letters to the victims; support letters from the client’s friends, family, and community; and evidence of the client’s accomplishments during incarceration.  In one client’s case, for example, the team spoke at length with the client’s sponsor and friends from the AA community to ensure that the client’s continuing recovery and sobriety would be addressed after her release. The team spoke to over twenty individuals to ensure that just the right letters were included in the client’s packet.

Susan, Kyrie, and Meghan also worked tirelessly to help each client prepare for the rigors of the hearing by holding in-person mock hearings and helping the client think about and craft the best possible answers to the questions she could be asked at the hearing. The WilmerHale team was in constant contact with their clients, speaking to each at least once every week in the months leading up to the parole hearings. Kyrie noted that this close client contact was one of the most rewarding aspects of the case.

The WilmerHale team went “above and beyond” in every sense. The team felt a tremendous sense of responsibility towards their clients, who have survived severe violence, abuse, and trauma. The team understood they were entrusted with helping these women gain their freedom. Parole is granted in New York state in less than 28% of all cases that go before a parole board. Sanctuary for Families and their pro bono attorneys have had a remarkable 94% success rate (one case has an appeal pending), including the WilmerHale team’s 100% success rate.

Each of the cases the WilmerHale team worked on had their own unique challenges. For example, one of the clients had already been denied parole twice; another client’s sentence was considered to be too short to typically be granted parole. Most important, however, the team focused on helping each client build her self-confidence and giving her hope for a better future by believing in the client. Susan, Kyrie, and Meghan formed a strong bond with each client, and because of their unwavering belief in her, each client began to internalize their message: that she was not defined by her crime, that she could use her experience to help others, that she was intelligent, strong, resilient and capable, and that together they could succeed in winning her freedom. Even more critical, they impressed on each client that she deserved the chance to start her life again and could live a full, happy and meaningful life going forward.

Through their trauma-informed, compassionate, and skillful work, the team made a tremendous impact in each client’s life that will echo far into her future and that of her community.  The WilmerHale legal team, in turn, feels that as a result of their work with these clients, they have gained new insight and a fresh perspective on keeping an open mind and listening closely to a client which have made them better lawyers and people. They encourage other pro bono lawyers to take on cases like these even if it is outside of the scope of their day-to-day work, as it is such a rewarding experience.

A key aspect of Sanctuary’s parole assistance program is that it does not end once the client is released. Re-entry after release is challenging and therefore Sanctuary continues to provide services, such as counseling, guiding clients to apply for the benefits they are entitled to, and participating in Sanctuary’s Economic Empowerment Program, which provides job training for clients to gain employment and succeed in the workplace. The WilmerHale team and the Sanctuary team keep in close contact with their clients after release. With the love of their family and friends, Sanctuary’s support services, and the caring work of their legal teams, each of the clients is now thriving and looking forward to a future full of dignity, happiness, and the opportunity to give back to her community. One of the clients has settled at home, and has opened her own barbershop in Rochester. Another client is completing a paralegal certification and plans to attend law school and give back to others as a lawyer. WilmerHale’s third client was only recently released, and is enjoying time with her family and has already secured employment.

We thank Susan, Kyrie and Meghan and are pleased to honor them for their dedication and generosity in volunteering their time and talents to such tireless, empowering and trauma-informed representation of Sanctuary’s clients.

Join us at our Above & Beyond Awards Ceremony on October 8, 2024, as we honor WilmerHale’s outstanding pro bono work.

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Tushna Gamadia is a partner in the Real Estate Group at Morrison & Foerster LLP, works with Sanctuary for Families’ clients on pro bono cases, and is a member of Sanctuary for Families’ Pro Bono Council.