Amazon Legal | 2023 Pro Bono Report

Beyond Borders 2023

A M A ZO N L EG A L PRO BONO REPORT

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Service Beyond Borders Pro bono service is a source of great pride for Amazon’s lawyers and legal professionals.

Our approach to pro bono is global. Distance doesn’t separate us and borders don’t confine us as we dedicate our time and talents to support people in need and causes throughout the world.

It all starts with Customer Obsession, which guides everything we do.

Another of our Leadership Principles states, Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility. We take this responsibility seriously, and we lead by providing the tools, resources, and support for members of our global legal team to give back to their local communities, planet, and future generations.

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When asked what makes me most proud of my work at Amazon, I always talk about our legal department’s pro bono program. Established nearly a decade ago, the program provides our attorneys and legal professionals throughout the world a wide variety of opportunities to use their skills to help individuals and organizations that cannot otherwise afford legal representation. Our team is proud to give back to the communities where we live and work in this way.

I began my career as an assistant district attorney in the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office fighting to protect the rights of women and children experiencing abuse. My passion for this work — and my belief in the obligation of the legal profession to ensure access to justice for all — has stuck with me throughout my career. When I came to Amazon, I found like-minded attorneys and legal professionals who wanted to make sure that helping those who need it most is an essential part of our company DNA — which is why I founded our pro bono program.

David Zapolsky Senior Vice President Global Public Policy & General Counsel

Since the program’s inception in 2014, members of the legal department have devoted more than 52,000 hours of pro bono service, partnering with numerous law firms and nonprofits to provide access to justice for underserved people and communities, and support noble causes across the globe.

We take on a wide variety of cases, projects, and matters, including righting wrongful convictions, providing legal counsel to families experiencing homelessness, preserving the environment, protecting children from sexual abuse, ensuring access to vital healthcare services, championing immigrant and refugee rights, aiding military veterans, supporting LGBTQIA+ communities, and safeguarding voting rights.

I am incredibly proud of our pro bono program and the hundreds of Amazon legal team members who contribute their time and talents to this meaningful work.

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Contents

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Introduction: A Privilege and an Obligation

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Embracing Afghan Refugees

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Helping Families Move Out of Homelessness

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Assisting the People of Ukraine

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Offering Legal Aid in Los Angeles

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Safeguarding the Right to Legal Counsel

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Fostering Pro Bono Values

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Supporting Survivors of Abuse

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Accelerating Immigrant Rights Cases

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Fostering Innovation in HQ2 Communities

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Demonstrating Devotion to Pro Bono

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Encouraging the Pursuit of Pro Bono

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Righting Wrongful Convictions

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Acknowledgment

Introduction: A Privilege and an Obligation 5

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Embracing Afghan Refugees 7

Afghan refugees find advocates in Amazon Legal Coinciding with the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, Afghan nationals who either worked directly for the United States or openly opposed the Taliban found themselves in imminent danger. Some secured provisional safety in the United States, having been rushed out on military evacuation flights. Others found their own way out after Kabul fell, courageously crossing the border into Pakistan, often with their families in tow and sometimes in disguise so as to escape notice. Amazon Legal is working directly with Afghan refugees to help them start a new chapter in their lives, free of constant fear.

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Having escaped the Taliban, families in hiding seek safe passage out

The accomplished young Afghan prosecutor realized his days in his homeland were numbered. While the U.S.-backed security forces held power, he litigated counter-terrorism and money laundering cases, placing him in the bullseye of the Taliban, whose members he had sent to prison.

After the United States lost its hold, his own grip on safety grew more tenuous — for himself, his wife, and their two young children.

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He and his family fled, crossing unforgiving mountain passes into Pakistan dressed as peasants to blend in among the many other refugee families making the treacherous journey. In hiding and in danger, his money running out, he reaches out to any humanitarian who can help his family secure refuge.

Amazon Legal extends its hand. “Our client is stranded between what was a prestigious life and career, and living in a small one-bedroom apartment caring for his wife and children,” said Anna Bennett, senior corporate counsel for Amazon Health Services in Seattle. “One of the things that struck me the most is he didn’t mind where he got sent. A safe passage was more important than whatever would follow.”

Bennett is one of several Amazon Legal team members assisting Afghan refugees who find themselves in limbo in their search for safe harbor. The Amazon volunteers interview and

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get to know the refugees to better understand their plights.

They then prepare narrative applications for humanitarian visas or other legal immigration pathways so that an NGO, Jewish Humanitarian Response, can pursue them. Some of those being helped are prosecutors or judges, eminently relatable even as their life and career experiences differ greatly.

Mor Wetzler, senior corporate counsel in Luxembourg for the Business Conduct and Ethics team, volunteered to lead the Afghan refugee projects after learning the story of a female judge who narrowly escaped the Taliban. “I did a bit of research on my own to better understand their predicament,” she said, “and it was clear they needed help.”

Over three months last winter, Bennett and two Amazon Legal colleagues had multiple conversations with the young prosecutor in Pakistan via encrypted video calls and texts.

“I feel really proud of the work we did pulling together his application,” Bennett said. “We could have approached it in a very functional way, but instead we built a real relationship.

Our clients know they have friends in the U.S. whenever they need us.”

Baker Botts, the law firm that connected Amazon to the project, offers guidance and support to the volunteers. “So much of it is about establishing the clients’ trust,” said Elizabeth Broussard, a litigation associate in Washington, D.C. “We advise not to ask the clients for every detail of their lives. Some are so emotionally drained and stressed that they will want to vent about what they are experiencing. They have talked to many others to try to get out of this situation, and been rejected.

Understandably, they are frustrated.”

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Joe McCombe, corporate counsel with Amazon Web Services in the United Kingdom, is part of a team that helped an Afghan couple with four young children hiding out in Pakistan under a temporary visa that threatens to expire. The wife, a humanrights lawyer who worked on human abduction, murder, and other violence cases, had helped put powerful members of the Taliban in prison. Her husband, a civil activist, participated in demonstrations and protests that attracted the attention of the Taliban.

“When the U.S. pulled out, there was an immediate flip of the switch,” McCombe said. “The family sent us notes they had received from the Taliban that were very specific: ‘We’re going to find you. We’re going to kill you.’ Their level of desperation was quite arresting. Every day, they are dealing with the threat of being deported back to Afghanistan and

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the threat to their lives. It’s not a hypothetical threat; it’s very genuine.”

McCombe recalls receiving text messages from the family as he was enjoying himself with friends at a London pub.

“It really provides perspective,” he said. “For our part, the work we were doing was relatively straightforward. But what we did was so important to them — and because it was so important to them, it becomes so important to you.”

Bennett and her two Amazon Health Services colleagues — Jessie Culpepper, senior corporate counsel, and Erin O’Brien, program manager — have bonded over the experience helping the young prosecutor and his family, making them a stronger team at work. “It’s good for team morale and a way to focus our attentions together,” Bennett said.

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This project serves as a reminder that there are always people struggling so much more than I am.

Whatever issues I am dealing with at work are all really manageable by comparison.

Joe McCombe Corporate Counsel, Amazon Web Services Regulatory Compliance and Infrastructure (London)

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Dear Anna, Jessie and Erin,

In February, the three sent the family a gift package for the kids, ages 4 and 2, including coloring books, pencils and markers, magnetic building block toys, and fun blankets with dinosaurs and unicorns on them. The box also included puzzle books for Dad and a sketchpad and pencils for Mom, who hopes to pursue a career in fashion design once the family is settled.

The prosecutor expressed his gratitude through a text:

I don’t know how to share and express my feelings with you. During the three months that I have been in contact with you, you have made me and my family very hopeful for the future, and for now, I put aside all these problems in the hope of a better life.

Your gifts arrived for me today and I felt good when I saw it and my wife and I thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all this. I don’t know exactly if I will see you in the future or not, but I will definitely never forget your help and support.

Partners: Baker Botts LLP, Jewish Humanitarian Response

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“ We have opportunities to

save lives and give back to the global community.

Mor Wetzler Senior Corporate Counsel, Business Conduct and Ethics (Luxembourg)

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Afghans evacuated to the United States get help in seeking asylum As Kabul fell, tens of thousands of Afghan nationals who aided and allied with U.S. military and social missions boarded emergency flights that evacuated them to safety in the United States. Many remain in the country under humanitarian parole — an immigration status with an expiration date — and now seek asylum in hopes of making their residency long term.

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Amazon Legal is staffing four-part legal clinics where team members have met with 20 different asylum seekers to draft their applications. The interaction can be quite stirring, as the interviews elicit stories of fright, fight, and flight:

An Afghan man had a job detecting and disengaging mines planted to kill U.S. soldiers. When he refused to stop working with the U.S. forces, the Taliban countered by strategically planting mines and bombs that instead targeted him.

An Afghan woman who is both an ethnic and religious minority had a long history of supporting equality before working for the United States to promote women in Afghan government. She and her family made it out alive, but the brother she left behind was shot and killed during a protest against the Taliban.

An Afghan man worked as a translator to U.S. advisors and escorted those captured by U.S. forces to prison. After being evacuated to the United States with his wife and three young children, the Taliban searched his home, stole all his valuables, and beat his brother and father who were there at the time.

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“It seems like such an easy choice to volunteer and help in this situation,” said Jessie Harrison, a lawyer working as an executive assistant in the legal department. Harrison, based in Seattle, is working with a translator to cut through a language barrier that has been a significant roadblock to drafting an accurate and compelling narrative for her client, a 23-year-old woman who would face persecution due to her family affiliation if forced to return to Afghanistan. She told Harrison her plan for the future, if asylum is granted, is to attend school, learn English, and become a teacher — something she never could have done in Afghanistan.

Amazon’s involvement in the pro bono project is the result of a long-standing partnership with Gibson Dunn, which first got involved with helping Afghan refugees in the days leading up to the U.S. withdrawal in 2021.

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“One thing that quickly became clear is despite how much we all wanted to help, there were not enough lawyers to take on all the cases,” said Katie Marquart, a partner and pro bono chair for Gibson Dunn in Los Angeles. “We aligned with Human Rights First (an NGO) to set up a new model, broken down into four modules, so we could help more people, more quickly. As soon as we contemplated this, we knew Amazon would be an essential partner. Amazon always is quick to say ‘yes’ and pull together a lot of volunteers, even at the last minute.”

Partners: Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP; Human Rights First

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Helping Families Move Out of Homelessness 18

Back Home Amazon returns to providing in-person legal services for guests of Mary’s Place

If the global pandemic taught us anything, it is that nothing substitutes for face-to-face human connection and dialogue. A warm smile, an affirming nod, an empathetic gaze — when people are sitting across a table from one another, everything seems possible.

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Since 2018, Amazon lawyers and legal professionals have offered pro bono legal services to the guests of Mary’s Place, a nonprofit that provides emergency housing and other vital resources to women and families with nowhere else to go.

Mary’s Place occupies eight floors of Amazon’s corporate headquarters in Seattle, offering shelter to over 200 guests — the largest facility of its kind in the state of Washington.

The legal clinics there switched from in-person to virtual when COVID-19 hit in 2020, creating connections for families that previously had not been able to take part in the no-cost service due to logistics. But despite the wider access and a

bump in overall participation numbers, something got lost in the transition to a virtual environment.

“Legal can be scary for people who do not routinely work with lawyers, especially for people experiencing homelessness who previously may have been treated poorly by systems and those in positions of authority,” said Gleason Bowman, a program manager with Amazon Legal who operates the legal clinics in coordination with Mary’s Place. “The in-person environment for our legal clinics makes us more approachable.

It demonstrates, ‘We are here for you, and we will show up in whatever ways you need us to.’”

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The legal team helps Mary’s Place guests address and ultimately peel away the barriers that prevent them from becoming housed, such as wrongful evictions and other landlord-tenant disputes. “We offer all types of advice on a wide range of legal topics, and we are working hard to drive awareness among the guests at Mary’s Place that the legal clinic is there for them as a resource,” said Mike Williams, associate general counsel in Seattle. Other topics covered include wills/probate, bankruptcy, debt collection, personal injury, traffic violations, record expungement, employment, identity theft, and restraining orders.

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“It’s really an amazing opportunity to offer this kind of help to our guests on a consistent basis,” said Amanda Wagner, community manager for the Mary’s Place shelter at Amazon HQ and legal clinic liaison. Wagner recalled a young new mother struggling with mental challenges who the legal team helped in securing a power of attorney so her mother could help make healthcare decisions in the best interests of the newborn baby. “The young lady felt so relieved to no longer have the pressure of having to make all those types of decisions on her own,” Wagner recalled. “The minute that document was notarized, she called her mom. You could see how happy she was.”

“ Families that have lost their homes experience high levels of stress and anxiety — worrying about where they will stay, how they will keep their children safe, finding a safe place to get their feet back underneath them. Often families are forced to flee, leaving their belongings and important paperwork behind. A friendly face offering help can bring overwhelming relief. We’re so grateful to the Amazon pro bono team for the incredible gift of peace of mind they give our families.

Dominique Alex Interim CEO, Mary’s Place

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While virtual clinics will remain an option for guests of other Mary’s Place facilities, the hope is that the return to in-person at the Amazon-located shelter will increase overall participation, while heightening the level of personal support. To encourage guests to stop in, Bowman decorated a room that has been set aside for the face-to-face consultations, festooning the walls with colorful rainbows and stars, and fashioning one corner with toys to occupy children while the legal discussions take place. Instead of scary, the space is soothing.

Partners: Mary’s Place; K&L Gates LLP; King County Bar Association

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Assisting the People of Ukraine 24

Amazon volunteers commit to provide legal aid to war-torn Ukraine As the war in Ukraine entered its second year, Amazon Legal expanded its pro bono portfolio supporting the people of the battle-scarred nation.

With an eye toward Ukraine’s economic future, Amazon lawyers and legal professionals are helping the country’s fast-growing community of tech entrepreneurs start or expand their ventures in other parts of Europe and the United States. Legal volunteers from Amazon also are assisting in the fight against counterfeit medications and medical devices in Ukraine in an effort to protect the health and well-being of the country’s citizens.

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“ This project is not just about

helping Ukrainians start or expand their business in another country. It’s about helping a country rebuild its economy.

Gwenaëlle Vivier Corporate Counsel, Amazon Web Services (Paris)

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IT sector given a device to keep its momentum going All the trend lines pointed up. Ukraine’s upstart IT sector was developing rapidly with limitless potential for even greater ascent. The Russian invasion may have slowed that progress — but assuredly didn’t stop it.

More than 5,000 tech companies currently are registered in Ukraine, accounting for about 4% of the country’s GDP. Employing over 300,000 people, the IT sector has demonstrated a stirring spirit during wartime. Although international investment in Ukraine’s IT sector has fallen about 75% from pre-war levels, the industry itself has grown slightly since the war began, even as other industries have faltered badly.

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Tech innovation has become increasingly significant during the war, as the need to deliver government and other services remotely has increased and cybersecurity has grown in importance.

“The IT sector is one of the pillars of the Ukrainian Resistance,” said Nataly Veremeeva, director of TechUkraine, a consortium that launches initiatives to support the country’s tech development.

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More than 30 volunteers from Amazon Legal, working with private law firms CMS and Perkins Coie, are drafting a series of fact sheets to help the IT industry in Ukraine thrive today and into the future. The resources lay out basic rules for setting up or scaling up businesses in five other European countries and the United States, giving Ukraine’s tech entrepreneurs an easy-to-follow guide for expanding their ventures. After the fact sheets are published, Amazon volunteers will take part in a webinar where the entrepreneurs can ask direct questions of the Amazon Legal volunteers — and get direct answers.

“Ukrainian startups want to move forward by attracting international investors, but it is not always easy due to a lack of basic knowledge about how IT business is shaped in

other countries,” explained Olga Belyakova, a partner with CMS in Kyiv. “Moreover, startups often don’t have the funds to seek initial advice from foreign lawyers.”

Erin Kelly gets that. The associate contracts manager on the Amazon Web Services legal team in London is writing a section for the U.K. fact sheet on employment law — the area of expertise she researched for her college dissertation. “I have a lot of friends who have startups,” she said. “With funding and everything else involved, it can be really rough trying to get started. I like to think that I’m helping remove at least one of those barriers to entry.”

When CMS lawyers in Kyiv participated in a project kickoff call with the Amazon Legal

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volunteers, they emphasized the importance of the project to Ukraine’s long-term security and stability. “It was quite compelling,” recalled Liz Bauzá, senior corporate counsel for Amazon Web Services in London, who is serving as project lead. “Right then, I was confronted with the reality of how fortunate I am to not be working or living in a country ravaged by war.”

In response to the war, some tech companies in Ukraine have relocated members of their teams so they can continue to work on projects, while others already have opened offices in other countries to keep their business momentum going. Belyakova of CMS is convinced that growth in Ukraine’s IT sector will create new jobs for the country’s citizens, grow the nation’s GDP, increase tax

revenue for the government, and in the long run attract new investors to Ukraine.

“The IT sector’s contribution to the country’s GDP is expected to grow exponentially in coming years,” she said. “It is probably the most important economic sector for Ukraine’s future.”

Partners: TechUkraine; CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP; Perkins Coie LLP

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Facilitating access to safe medical goods during a time of need As Ukrainian cities, towns, and villages crumbled under the force of relentless bombings, local hospitals and clinics brimmed with residents and fighters in desperate need of care. To respond to the emergencies and meet the demand, the stretched Ukrainian healthcare system had little choice but to accept workarounds to the country’s outdated laws that regulate the sale and safety of medications and medical equipment. In part because of the continued disruption of legitimate supply chains, the illegal trade has proliferated throughout the duration of the war, compromising the quality of medical care that every Ukrainian deserves.

“Due to lack of control and numerous gaps in Ukrainian legislation, the black market for medical goods has been growing for decades,” explained Inna Ivanenko, executive director of Patients of Ukraine, an NGO that advocates for effective medical treatment. “With the ongoing war, this crisis is deepening further.”

Amazon Legal teamed with CMS, a law firm with an international practice, to research anti-counterfeiting practices in various B E YO N D B O R D E R S | A S S I S T I N G T H E P E O P L E O F U K R A I N E

countries so that Patients of Ukraine has the information it needs to recommend legislation and improved enforcement mechanisms to Ukraine’s government. Law firm Davis Wright Tremaine assisted with U.S.-related aspects of the research.

The pro bono team concurrently produced a report detailing Ukraine’s existing legal and regulatory gaps in protecting patients from counterfeit medical goods, then extracted

the best laws and policies from the researched jurisdictions and combined them into a first-of-its-kind framework of international best practices in the regulation of medical goods. If, as hoped, the end products result in tougher anti-counterfeiting laws and policies in Ukraine, it will protect patients by giving healthcare professionals access to only high-quality medical products obtained exclusively from reliable sources.

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When the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine happened, I would have liked to have been on the ground, providing emergency shelter, relief items, and support in general. However, the willingness to help cannot always be realized. This pro bono project has given me the opportunity to get involved at a humanitarian level.

Ana Jiménez-Clavería Esteban Corporate Counsel, Amazon (Madrid)

“It’s great to be contributing to something that will help patients directly and hopefully encourage investments in the country after the war,” said Polly Clarke, corporate counsel supporting Amazon’s consumer business in London and lead of the pro bono project.

“The hope is that this will lead to real change in the healthcare space in Ukraine.”

Borys Danevych, head of life sciences and healthcare for CMS in Kyiv, said many factors make Ukraine an attractive market for illicit traders and counterfeiters in medical goods, including insufficient control over the supply chain, outdated legislation, lack of coordination between governmental agencies, and a lack of experience in prosecuting those type of crimes. “On the other hand, in recent years law enforcement agencies launched a number of successful investigations, which demonstrated the depth of the issue,” he added.

“I strongly believe the ongoing collaboration between the patients community, industry, experts, and public stakeholders can lead to real change.”

Amazon lawyers and legal professionals based in 10 different countries researched the anticounterfeiting practices in nine jurisdictions: France, Germany, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, the U.K., and the U.S. Volunteers tended to be matched with the country where they work, giving them a good head start in deciphering and interpreting the jurisdictional laws and regulations. “I strongly believe in giving back to the community in ways that are aligned with one’s skill sets and experience to make maximum impact,” said Victor Looi, an Amazon associate corporate counsel in Singapore. “Therefore, when I learned of this opportunity to help support Patients of Ukraine, I was thrilled to be a part of it and to contribute from a Singapore law perspective.”

Partners: Patients of Ukraine; CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP; Davis Wright Tremaine LLP B E YO N D B O R D E R S | A S S I S T I N G T H E P E O P L E O F U K R A I N E

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Just days after the war broke out in February 2022, Amazon lawyers and legal professionals mobilized to determine how they could best pitch in, eventually writing a series of fact sheets that have helped scores of Ukrainian refugees resettle successfully in other European countries. That work has evolved in 2023, focusing specifically on assisting unaccompanied children who were forced to flee their homeland and leave their families.

To learn more about how Amazon Legal has assisted the people of Ukraine, please read last year’s Pro Bono Report, We Serve. (p. 19)

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Offering Legal Aid in Los Angeles 32

Empathy drives a model pro bono partnership in Los Angeles

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A nursing student on track to obtain her professional license, the young mother of two was sideswiped by an accusation she had cooperated with a fugitive — her estranged husband who had run afoul of the law. She asserted that she had no idea what he was doing or where he was. But she was prosecuted anyway, got convicted, and served time.

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Her freedom now restored and reunited with her children, her criminal record stuck around as a drain on her emotions, thwarting her desire to get back on the positive trajectory her life was headed prior to the conviction. Sujata Wiese, corporate counsel for Prime Video, sat at a desk across from the woman, peered into her eyes and — it’s fair to say — glimpsed into her soul. Wiese is one of several Amazon Legal team members who regularly participate in pro bono clinics organized through the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA).

“I remember thinking about my kids when she was telling me her story,” Wiese recalled. “She looked like she was about my age. She had children around the same age as mine. She was so easy to talk to. It’s hard not to relate.”

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Amazon lawyers and legal professionals meet with LAFLA clients who cannot afford a lawyer, listen to their stories, ask the right questions, fill out formal paperwork, and draft a narrativestyle declaration so the clients then can appear before a judge to formally request that their criminal record be expunged.

“It’s a small contribution of time compared to the size of the burden we are taking off their shoulders,” Wiese said.

Ashley Kim, corporate counsel for Prime Video, helps arrange the clinics in her role as Amazon’s pro bono liaison for LAFLA, which she calls “one of the best pro bono organizations you ever will see. You would be amazed at the array of services they provide and the number of different languages their lawyers speak in order to serve the diverse population of the Los Angeles area. You name it; they have it.”

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Kim is one of three Amazonians serving on LAFLA’s Associates Advisory Board and has become personal friends with several LAFLA lawyers. The close bond between Amazon and LAFLA sets a standard for the type of relationship that Amazon strives to achieve with all of its pro bono partners.

LAFLA collaborates regularly with an array of pro bono partners to expand the availability of the life-changing legal services it offers to residents with low incomes. Amazon Legal also has staffed LAFLA clinics that assist survivors of domestic violence, alumni of foster care who are seeking naturalization, and people facing evictions.

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Phong Wong, LAFLA’s pro bono director, said the number of expungement clinics that LAFLA offers has tripled recently “because they are so important to the population we serve. It’s difficult for people with misdemeanors or low-level felonies on their records to get student loans or licensed for a trade.

One DUI, for example, may prevent someone from gaining fruitful employment. LAFLA clients cannot afford a lawyer to help with the process, so free services from volunteers like Amazon is a game changer for them.”

Amazon lawyers and legal professionals undergo a brief training to familiarize themselves with the expungement forms and processes, and receive pointers to ensure that the

face-time they have with clients is spent productively. Lovely Hammett, a legal assistant with Amazon Web Services Sales and Marketing, recently assisted a LAFLA client seeking to clear his criminal record in order to have greater freedom of movement to visit his granddaughter and other family members. The man already was acting as caretaker of his mother. “He cared deeply about providing for his family,” recalled Hammett, who began working for Amazon in July 2022. “He seemed like the kind of guy who would give you the coat off his back if you were cold.”

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The clinic experience was Hammett’s first foray into formal pro bono work since such opportunities were not readily available at the law firm where she worked previously. “It has me very excited to do more and to lead a pro bono initiative myself,” she said. “It’s easy to take for granted how hard it can be to navigate legal forms and processes without a legal background, especially when you pile on financial, familial, and employment-related stressors. I’m grateful that we were able to lighten the load for some folks.”

Partner: Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles

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I am an IP lawyer, mostly trademarks and copyrights, and I love the work I do.

But it also feels meaningful to apply my legal skills to a matter that really affects someone’s everyday life. It’s so important for lawyers and legal professionals at Amazon to give back to the communities where we work and live.

Emily Weiss Corporate Counsel, IP Operations (Los Angeles)

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Safeguarding the Right to Legal Counsel 37

Global effort reinforces right to legal counsel for the criminally accused

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In 2012, the United Nations General Assembly enshrined the universal right to high-quality, no-cost legal representation at all stages of the criminal justice process for individuals accused of a crime but unable to afford a lawyer, and provided practical guidance to countries on how to implement that right in practice. A decade after the adoption of those principles and guidelines, however, an individual’s guarantee of access to legal aid remains wildly inconsistent depending on where that person lives.

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Amazon Legal, in partnership with law firm White & Case and leading legal aid nonprofit The International Legal Foundation (ILF), researched right-to-counsel laws in 25 countries, their enforcement mechanisms, and their overall compliance with the UN principles and guidelines. The survey will result in the production of a global guidance tool on the implementation of the right to legal aid, which the ILF will use to advocate for stronger legal aid at the international, regional, and national levels. Some initial data was shared with governments and organizations at the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in May 2023.

“It’s hard to sum up our findings in just a couple words because the results were so diverse from country to country,” said Madeleine Pieger, senior corporate counsel for Amazon Digital/Books in Munich and the lead of the pro bono project.

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“The key point is there still are a lot of gaps, particularly in enforcement. It is clear that many countries’ laws don’t yet clearly provide that all people suspected or accused of criminal offenses have the right to legal aid if they cannot afford a lawyer.”

The right to a lawyer is obligatory, not discretionary. Denial of such access not only impacts people who are economically disadvantaged, but also those who are marginalized based on their race, ethnicity, gender, beliefs, or other status or identity.

Without quality legal counsel, the criminally accused may face torture or other abuses, languish behind bars for years awaiting trial, or be wrongfully convicted. Pieger said recruiting volunteers across Amazon Legal for this pro bono project was easy because lawyers and legal professionals understand how people can suffer if deprived the right to counsel.

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“It was nerdy technical legal work that we did, but so important to improve at scale the lives of so many people around the world,” Pieger said. “As a geeky lawyer myself, I think that was the touchpoint for me.”

Jennifer Smith, executive director of ILF, said her organization already has shared survey findings with two countries. “We’ve found that countries are looking for support to draft stronger legal aid laws and policies,” she said. “By identifying problems with their existing laws and showing what a model law might look like, we can better frame for countries how they can meaningfully expand access to legal aid. This survey and analysis will be so useful.”

In all, 22 Amazon volunteers — lawyers and legal professionals from both the United States and Europe — mobilized to conduct the research in a compressed two-month time frame. “I was paired with three counsels from White & Case and conducted an analysis on Brazil,” said Nicoleta Stefanut Pestana, an EU OPS Compliance legal assistant in Luxembourg. “I feel proud to know that the global team’s efforts and findings were useful and will have a positive impact on many people’s lives.”

Partners: The International Legal Foundation, White & Case LLP

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Fostering Pro Bono Values 41

Amazon helps law students learn the value of pro bono firsthand An initiative of Amazon Legal’s Diversity Leadership Team, the Amazon Day 1 Legal Academy is an annual internship program that invites law students from underrepresented backgrounds to participate in a twoweek immersion in Amazon culture, principles, and values. Presenting a dynamic combination of legal instruction and professional networking, the academy also conveys to the interns the value of pro bono and Amazon’s focus on this meaningful work.

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“We want to give the interns an idea of what it is to work as an in-house counsel here, so pro bono naturally is embedded,” said Diana Arredondo, senior corporate counsel for the Intellectual Property team in Seattle.

During the July 2023 academy in Seattle, Amazon devoted a half-day session to pro bono, the longest time slot for any working session. The 15 interns jumped right in with a brief training before providing pro bono service to a nonprofit that aims to remove voting barriers for Floridians with felony convictions (murder and sexual crimes excluded) who have completed all terms of their sentence.

Elize Sfeir, senior corporate counsel for the Amazon Web Services Global Expansion team in Seattle, explained that although Florida recently passed the ballot initiative that allows prior felons to vote, many eligible under the law don’t exercise that right due to confusing rules that necessitate the aid of lawyers to navigate. With not enough members of the Florida Bar available to assist, the nonprofit Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, which advocates for citizens reintegrating into society after prison, seeks out help from other pro bono partners to fill the gaps.

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The academy interns, working in tandem with Amazon Legal team members and academy partners, performed research on cases for more than 50 different individuals so that Florida attorneys have the necessary background to draft timely filings that will give the released individuals a clear path to vote.

“While the research we were doing was pretty simple, there was a lot of data that all needed to be organized in the right way,” said Nathaniel Flores, a third-year law student at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

“It was impactful for me to know this was going to make a difference in someone’s ability to exercise their voting rights.” Flores, who led a teen volunteer program focused on restorative justice for minors, is interested in a career in entertainment law. “I appreciate that pro

bono allows you to pursue causes personally important to you but not necessarily aligned with your career path,” he said.

Temiloluwa Fayiga, an academy intern in her second year at the University of Texas School of Law in Austin, envisions a career in finance law. “Knowing that I’m not necessarily going to enter the legal profession in a public service-type role, it’s important for me to know that pro bono opportunities will be available where I ultimately work,” she said. “Honestly, I had no idea that in-house counsel — a company like Amazon — could engage so deeply in pro bono. One thing I’ve seen through my experience at the academy is that Amazon’s legal team members believe strongly in the pro bono projects they are working on.”

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Partner: Florida Rights Restoration Coalition

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Supporting Survivors of Abuse 46

Legal guides speak out in support of survivors of female genital mutilation

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The illegal and invasive procedure of female genital mutilation — a traditional practice among some cultures, performed for non-medical reasons — affects about 500,000 girls and women in the United States. Yet this serious threat to their overall physical, mental, and emotional well-being rarely is discussed.

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A team of 16 Amazon lawyers from across the globe is working pro bono to help break that silence, partnering with international law firm Reed Smith to draft legal guides for survivors of female genital mutilation, or FGM, in four states: Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, and Tennessee. The guides will expand the resource library of AHA Foundation, a U.S.based human rights organization that has adopted a zerotolerance policy against FGM. The World Health Organization defines FGM as the partial or total removal of external female genitalia or other injury to female genital organs, typically performed on girls between infancy and age 15 to ensure their virginity until marriage and fidelity within marriage. FGM often is done without anesthesia or antiseptics, with objects such as scissors, knives, razor blades, or sharpened glass. Health impacts are numerous and may include PTSD, childbirth complications, or even death. The United Nations has called for a worldwide ban on FGM by 2030.

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“The legal guides and similar aids will be essential until the practice of FGM is fully eradicated globally,” said Michele Hanash, director of policy and women’s programs for AHA Foundation. “The legal guides have the power to transform lives and are invaluable to us. As a small nonprofit organization founded by an FGM survivor, we rely heavily on donations for funding and a wider access to skilled professionals to champion this cause. We would not be able to provide these legal guides were it not for the immense generosity of Amazon and Reed Smith.”

The number of girls and women impacted by FGM in the United States more than tripled between 2000 and 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While some were born in countries where FGM is considered a traditional practice, most are U.S.-born children of parents from highprevalence countries.

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Laws criminalizing FGM exist in 41 of the 50 states, but they vary in remedy, making it difficult for survivors to navigate. The series of easily accessible guides produced by this pro bono partnership is an unmatched resource for survivors and their advocates, including lawyers, for understanding legal rights. Other champions of the cause also can use the guides to inform themselves of the protections and remedies of recourse afforded to survivors and those at risk.

Although the project is benefiting girls and women in the United States, the 16 Amazon volunteers — women and men — hail from Italy, Singapore, Spain, the U.K., and the U.S. “I think that’s because it is a cause that really matters to people,” said Patricia Natasha Arrieta Munduate, corporate counsel in Madrid, who is the project lead. “The reality is if something is not visible to us, not surrounding us, you don’t focus on it. But when you see the numbers — and they are shocking — it triggers you to take action.”

Partners: AHA Foundation, Reed Smith LLP

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Accelerating Immigrant Rights Cases 50

Partner: Northwest Immigrant Rights Project B E YO N D B O R D E R S | ACC E L E R AT I N G I M M I G R A N T R I G H T S C A S E S

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Fostering Innovation in HQ2 Communities 52

HQ2 legal team assists those wanting to give back

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He turned up at the Amazon-staffed legal clinic with an interesting proposal — take decommissioned Washington, D.C., Metro buses and retrofit them into mobile hygiene centers where people experiencing homelessness would have access to a clean bathroom, a hot shower, and laundry facilities.

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His vision opened the eyes of Sally St. Clair, a program manager supporting Amazon Web Services in Arlington, Va. — but she had several questions. Improvising as his muse, she advised the man on the legal requirements that would be necessary to launch such a nonprofit and also raised operational challenges that he had not fully considered, like power sources and water runoff.

St. Clair is one of a growing number of volunteers from the legal department at Amazon’s second headquarters (HQ2) who are assisting local innovators interested in serving their communities. The legal clinics, designed for wouldbe entrepreneurs wanting to start a nonprofit or a small business, are offered through the D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center, a partnership St. Clair has nurtured on behalf of Amazon

since moving her career east from the Seattle office in 2019, before HQ2 formally had taken shape.

“D.C. Bar has a checklist on the all the things needed to become a legal entity in the community,” St. Clair said. “We are there to help the clients, wherever they are in their stage of planning.”

The size of the Amazon-staffed clinics has increased as more HQ2 legal team members have gotten involved. An Amazonstaffed clinic in October 2022 served 15 clients. The next one, in June 2023, assisted twice that many.

Community members come to the clinics with a wide variety of ideas and interests. In addition to the would-be nonprofit entrepreneur wanting to retrofit the buses, other clients have

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sought to operate a food truck, open a restaurant, or offer virtual Reiki healing sessions. In the latter case, St. Clair had to apprise the client of the tax implications of providing services to patients living in different states.

“From the perspective of the volunteers, it’s always a very rewarding conversation we have with the clients,” St. Clair said. “Personally, I always feel better leaving a clinic than I do going in. It’s such a great experience for a short-term, threehour commitment of pro bono.”

Partner: D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center

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Demonstrating Devotion to Pro Bono 55

“Reconnect” summit links legal team members to pro bono opportunities

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Hundreds of lawyers and legal professionals with Amazon Web Services (AWS) gathered in June for a much-anticipated summit, allowing a widely dispersed global team to come together in person for the first time since the pandemic. The theme for the summit was “Reconnect.” A lot of introductions took place. A ton of ground got covered. The first day of the four-day summit in Seattle was devoted entirely to pro bono.

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“We do pro bono work because we feel the calling to help individuals with our talents and resources,” said Aisha Gantt, associate general counsel with AWS Sales and Marketing. “What I find especially compelling about pro bono at Amazon is that we can harness our proven track record for scaling legal services to support growing businesses to have an outsized impact in our pro bono work. Pro Bono Day was just one example of our legal department providing meaningful pro bono support at scale, and we look forward to continuing these efforts.”

Summit organizers selected the 15 clinics and trainings to benefit a diverse range of communities, including: military veterans; young people seeking to renew their DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) immigration status; unaccompanied children from Latin America who arrive at the southern border all alone; small business owners; nonprofit founders; journalists; artists; historians; college students seeking to have their criminal records expunged; and incarcerated individuals seeking early release from prison.

Summit participants had numerous chances to engage through nine direct pro bono service opportunities, as well as six trainings designed to prepare them for pro bono projects down the line.

Some opportunities stretched across the oceans, such as a training put on by a global nonprofit that wants to research how clean water and sanitation rights are recognized in case law in several different countries. AWS Legal volunteers, inspired through the Pro Bono Day of the summit, are now engaged with this nonprofit.

“Many of us logged more pro bono volunteer hours in that one day than we had all of 2022,” said Julie Lee, an AWS program manager at HQ2 in Arlington, Va. Lee was part of a global team that planned the summit. Numerous private law firms and nonprofits, domestic and global, partnered with AWS Legal on the pro bono sessions.

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Encouraging the Pursuit of Pro Bono 58

Prior pro bono work carries over for new Amazon Legal hires Passions and interests of lawyers and legal professionals persist wherever their career may take them. Amazon Legal embraces this truth by encouraging new hires to pursue the pro bono work they began while working for private law firms or other in-house counsel. Two lawyers who recently joined the team have found Amazon supportive in their continued efforts to right wrongs within the U.S. criminal justice system.

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Guin Bogusz: “It was non-negotiable” If Guin Bogusz was going to leave her private law firm to work as in-house counsel for Amazon, there was no way she was going to leave high and dry the pro bono client she was helping petition for parole from prison — a man who committed serious crimes as a juvenile but in 1995 was convicted and sentenced harshly as if he was an adult.

“Honestly, that was the hill I was going to die on,” Bogusz said.

She didn’t have to. Bogusz joined Amazon in July 2022 after her recruiters informed her that she could continue pursuing justice for her client — and her managers have helped her do just that. Prior to coming on board, she was practicing civil litigation for a Seattle law firm. Like so many, she began a period of self-reflection during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Catalyzed by the murder of George Floyd, she felt more

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compelled than ever to use her skill sets to help BIPOC and marginalized communities access justice.

She connected with The Seattle Clemency Project to assist those who wouldn’t otherwise get quality legal counsel, representing prisoners petitioning for their release in Juvenile Parole Board cases. The state created the board in 2014 after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that sentencing juveniles to exceptionally long prison terms is considered cruel and

unusual punishment under the Constitution.

“As a society, we generally assume — or at least I did growing up in a predominantly white middle-class neighborhood — that all people in prison deserve to be in prison,” said Bogusz, associate corporate counsel for delivery experience in Seattle.

“I since have learned the criminal justice system is inherently flawed and real people get caught up in those flaws.”

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Tim Wilson: “Everything here is about self-starting” While serving as a litigator for a large Washington, D.C., law firm, Tim Wilson and a colleague initiated and worked pro bono on a federal class action against the Virginia Department of Corrections that seeks to end the longstanding practice of keeping prisoners in solitary confinement with little recourse to get out. The lengths of stay among the named plaintiffs in the case range from 24 months to 24 years.

The case, filed jointly by the ACLU of Virginia and Wilson’s prior law firm, had not yet received class certification at the time Wilson moved to his new job at Amazon, where he serves as corporate counsel for the Advertising team at HQ2 in Arlington, Va. Wilson’s desire to see the case to fruition — his commitment to correct the conditions of isolation and deprivation for the prisoners — never left him. When the court granted class certification this past spring, Wilson knew he couldn’t stay on the sidelines.

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One week later, he attended a fireside chat hosted by David Zapolsky, Amazon senior vice president, global public policy & general counsel. Wilson approached Zapolsky afterward to tell him about his pro bono case in Virginia and how he wanted to jump back in while at Amazon (assuming he could demonstrate no conflicts of interest and was able to secure malpractice insurance).

“David said, ‘That’s awesome, go for it! Nothing should stand in your way, and I’m 100% supportive. Keep me posted,’”

Wilson recalled. “Well, that was like rocket fuel. Within a week, I was back on the case, working on declarations supporting summary judgment and barreling toward trial.”

Wilson said he appreciates Amazon’s streamlined “If you want to do it, do it” culture. “If you show a bias for action, you can just push forward with it and Amazon will support you,” he said. “Our general counsel is just so committed to the idea of pro bono, and that floats down. Your managers will create space for you to do the work.”

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Righting Wrongful Convictions 62

Exoneree story speaks to the human element of pro bono A CON V ER SAT ION W I T H WA LT ER LOM A X

On September 19, 1968, Walter Lomax was convicted of first-degree murder, robbery with a deadly weapon, and attempted armed robbery related to the killing of the manager of a Baltimore food market. The case against him was based wholly on eyewitness testimony.

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On December 13, 2006, while serving the 39th year of his life sentence, Lomax stood tall and walked free after his team of advocates proved unequivocally to a judge that Lomax was innocent of all crimes. Witness identification had been wrong, authorities had suppressed exculpatory evidence, and Lomax’s prior legal defense had been inadequate. The convictions nevertheless remained on his record until 2014 when, at long last, the Office of the State’s Attorney for Baltimore City fessed up to its egregious mistakes.

Today, Lomax runs the Maryland Restorative Justice Initiative, which he founded to advocate for the rights of the wrongfully convicted and support their efforts to be compensated for the wrongs perpetrated against them.

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Najib Saïl, Amazon senior corporate counsel in Paris and head of the European pro bono team, met Lomax last year after hearing him and several other exonerees tell their powerful stories during the annual awards luncheon of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, which partners with in-house counsel and private law firms to support exoneration cases of the wrongly convicted. That same afternoon, the nonprofit presented Amazon with its Defender of Innocence Award for its long-standing devotion to the cause. In accepting the award for Amazon as project lead, Saïl repeated the famous quote of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

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No one understands that better than Lomax, who accepted Amazon’s invitation to be a 2023 keynote speaker for Pro Bono Week, the annual effort to increase awareness of — and encourage participation in — pro bono activities among Amazon Legal team members from across the globe. In advance of Pro Bono Week events, Lomax took time to share his experiences and explain why having a powerful advocate outside the prison walls is so important for people who have been wrongfully convicted.

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Saïl:

Lomax:

Your story is a mix of tragedy and triumph. Can you tell us what happened that led to the overturning of convictions almost four decades old?

My story is very unique in that it happened so long ago. At that time, people just automatically assumed if you were arrested, charged, and convicted, you must have done the crime. In fact, I had that said to me by attorneys who I contacted for representation over the years. When DNA evidence got heavily involved in the investigation of crimes, more people began to realize that innocent people had been wrongly convicted. Unfortunately in my case, there was no DNA evidence. But fortunately for me, the organization that took on my case (Centurion) didn’t rely on DNA evidence. Instead, they did old-fashioned detective work to demonstrate my innocence.

Saïl:

Lomax:

Being such an old case, was it difficult to acquire new evidence to prove your innocence?

Back in 1993, I was in a work-release program when someone from Centurion first asked about me. Originally, I thought it was just another religious organization reaching out to someone who was incarcerated. I thought my mother, who was very religious, had contacted them. She hadn’t. Turns out someone had sent Centurion a box of materials about my case — anonymously. We still don’t know where it came from.

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Saïl:

Lomax:

You must have been thrilled to know you had an advocate out there fighting for your release.

Oh, definitely. A friend of mine likes to say there are two types of people doing time. One is doing time for something they actually did, and the other is doing time for a crime they didn’t commit. I had filed so many petitions over the years that had been denied. Now, I had finally found someone outside of my family and close friends who actually believed in my innocence. Once I realized that, my frame of mind began to change. I thought it actually was possible to be freed.

Saïl:

Lomax:

Amazon lawyers and legal professionals might think they aren’t qualified to help in wrongful conviction cases because their expertise isn’t in criminal law, or because they are based outside of the U.S. and have no specific knowledge about U.S. law.

What are your views on that?

Since my release and starting my organization, I have dealt with a lot of family and friends who have become strong advocates for their loved one’s release. They don’t have any background in law. They just know their loved one is innocent and collected evidence over the years to help prove it. You just need a desire to help. Those working in law already have the skills to critically think and analyze, regardless of where they are located or where they have been trained. Just start doing the work!

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Saïl:

Lomax:

What if they are apprehensive or intimidated to work with someone who is in prison?

The criminal justice system definitely changes a person, no doubt. But once my team really got to know me, they realized I wasn’t a whole lot different than their next-door neighbor, or even someone within their own household.

Saïl:

Lomax:

What do you want the audience to come away with from your keynote speech during Amazon’s Pro Bono Week?

First off, it’s so important for an organization like Amazon to be promoting and advocating on an issue like this because Amazon has a voice that is heard by other companies and organizations. People will pay attention. Secondly, I want people to understand that the only reason I am here talking to them today is that my Maryland jury brought back guilty verdicts without capital punishment. I believe if I had been convicted in Texas or Florida or Virginia, I’d be dead by now. Let that sink in for a minute.

Partner: Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project

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Amazon Legal began working with the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project in 2018. Since then, more than 150 lawyers and legal professionals — spanning five continents — have reviewed more than 50 wrongful conviction cases.

To learn more about this impactful global pro bono partnership, please read last year’s Pro Bono Report, We Serve. (p. 8)

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Since Amazon began our global pro bono program in 2014, legal team members, based in 24 different countries, have volunteered more than 52,000 pro bono hours — including more than 10,000 hours logged during the past 12 months alone.

AC K N O W L E D G M E N T

The Amazon Legal team wishes to give a special thank you to members of the Davis Wright Tremaine team for their significant time, support, and partnership in helping to create this year’s pro bono report highlighting our global efforts. Davis Wright Tremaine is also one of many great partners in Amazon’s work to provide pro bono services to people and communities in need.

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