Morrill is an associate at the Chicago office of Jones Day and O'Connor is an associate at the Chicago office of Paul Hastings.

NIJC: You started working on a pro bono case together while at Jones Day. What was the draw for you to get involved with an asylum case and did you receive any encouragement from the firm?

Morrill: Jones Day was very supportive of pro bono work, and really encouraged us to get involved. I also felt like it was my responsibility as an attorney to give back through pro bono work.

O'Connor: I had been doing some transactional pro bono work already and wanted to get involved with some other types of pro bono efforts. Both Paul Hastings and Jones Day are great about encouraging attorneys to get involved with pro bono work. The firms encourage the work because they believe in it, not because they have to.

NIJC: Let's talk about the case that you both worked on together for a young man from Kosovo who is ethnic Albanian. This was really a marathon case for you both - you first took it on in April 2001 and just obtained a victory this summer. You said you learned a lot about completing asylum applications with clients.

Morrill: Yes, our client's initial application, which had been prepared by his prior counsel, was too long and too detailed. There was language and detail in there that he couldn't possibly remember in court, which would hurt his credibility. When we first took the case, we worked on filing an amended application to clear up some of the things we thought would  eventually become issues in court.

O'Connor: We also learned how difficult it is for an asylum seeker to navigate the asylum process as the current system is rather complex. Our client, who had fled when he was forced to watch the execution of his father and mother, made his way through Europe, Canada, and ultimately to the United States. He had just one year to turn around and get together all his documents and witnesses, complete his application, and be prepared to defend himself in court.

Morrill: We also started working with Heartland Alliance's Marjorie Kovler Center for the Treatment of Survivors of Torture. They were great about providing psychological counseling and other services to our client, and then those physicians, physical therapists, and psychiatrists later served as our witnesses. They helped us win this case.  We also learned that someone who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder is often incapable of putting even life-changing events in chronological order, which helped us address inconsistencies in the way our client related his story to us, and helped us prepare him for his hearing. Through it all, we learned how to talk to our client in the most effective way. We spent hours and hours in the office with him just listening.

NIJC: Did this case help you in your everyday work at your firms?

O'Connor: It really helps put things in perspective when you deal with a case involving life and death like this. It's easy to get caught up in the work you do sometimes at a firm and forget some of your motivations for getting into the legal field.

NIJC: After six years, a couple of appeals, and some really jaw-dropping decisions and comments from the government, you won your case.

Morrill: It made me feel like my entire law career was worthwhile.

O'Connor: That was definitely the best moment of my legal career.

NIJC: What do you say to new attorneys mulling a decision to do pro bono work?

Morrill: I say that I would definitely recommend it for the personal satisfaction and the practical experience, especially in the courtroom. And they couldn't work with a better organization than NIJC.

O'Connor: It's such a rewarding experience. And there are so many cases like the one we took.

Find out how you can help save lives by supporting the National Immigrant Justice Center and becoming an NIJC pro bono partner.