Pro Bono Services Lead to a Second Chance

Fredrikson deeply values partnerships and collaborations. Gauri Samant partnered with her husband and lawyer, Mitch Williams, to represent a single mom of four children in a criminal expungement matter. The client made some mistakes years ago that she deeply regretted. Unfortunately, her criminal history prevented her from gaining meaningful employment to best provide for her family. To help her move forward and get a second chance, the client had taken several steps towards rehabilitation including becoming more involved with her church and family and changing her friendship circle and social habits. However, because of her criminal record, she was being turned down from numerous employment applications. After a few meetings and multiple correspondences with their client, Gauri and Mitch prepared and filed a criminal expungement petition on the client’s behalf in Morrison County, Minnesota. Mitch argued the motion before the Morrison County Judge while both the client and Gauri attended. The Court granted the expungement from the bench and followed with a written order. Gauri and Mitch will continue to assist their client with three other expungements in other counties. Needless to say, the client is very grateful for this assistance that will allow her and her family to move forward to a better, safer and more productive life.

Gauri shared,

As a lawyer in Fredrikson’s Property Tax Group, this presented a steep, but enjoyable, learning curve for both of us to learn the substantive law in order to file and to expunge a criminal record – as well as navigating the filing and service requirements in state court (a jurisdiction where neither of us have substantial experience) – both of us were happy to help this deserving client. Luckily, our friends at Volunteer Lawyers Network were extremely helpful in providing us with the resources and answering our questions to move this process along.