Marking another pro bono victory, on December 22, 2010, international law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP successfully secured asylum for a 27-year old Kenyan man who sought refuge in the United States based on persecution he suffered in Kenya upon coming out publicly as a homosexual. The Kenyan penal code criminalizes homosexual acts with a prison sentence of up to fourteen years, and known or suspected homosexuals in Kenya are routinely subjected to violence, threats, harassment, and blackmail. The client, a committed activist for the rights of homosexual and transgender individuals in East Africa, was himself cut off from his family, brutalized by classmates, evicted from his apartment, threatened with death, and blackmailed by police after providing a rare interview on national television in which he admitted to being homosexual and talked about the plight of gay and transgender individuals.
The Weil pro bono team was led by Dallas partners Michael Saslaw and Jared Rusman and included associates Carmen Bremer, Ben Stewart and John O’Connor, with significant contributions by associate Erin Eckols and administrative staff members Bridget Robinson-Roper and Teresa Doffer.
