2025 Frank Wheat Memorial Awards

Individual Award Winners

Alison Pereira Martins (Paris)

Alison Pereira Martins, an associate in the Paris office and a member of the Mergers & Acquisitions and Private Equity practice groups, has helped set the standard for pro bono excellence among Gibson Dunn’s European attorneys. Upon joining the Firm, Alison immediately got involved in pro bono work. In particular, she has played a key role in the Firm’s partnership with Safe Passage France. Through this partnership, which was the Paris office’s most significant pro bono project in 2025, the Firm has helped Afghan refugees in France reunify with family members they had been forced to leave behind in Afghanistan. 

Alison worked with Mr. R, a young man who fled Afghanistan when he was only 14 years old after facing threats from the Taliban. Mr. R resettled in France and was granted asylum there in 2022. Even as Mr. R began building a new life for himself in France, his parents and seven siblings remained at risk of Taliban reprisals. For their safety, they were forced to relocate to Islamabad, Pakistan, while they attempted to reunify with Mr. R. A Gibson Dunn team, led by Alison, helped the family apply for family reunification in France. The process included several months of painstaking work, and our team encountered significant delays and was forced to submit several appeals to move the process forward timely. Despite these challenges, and thanks to Alison’s diligent efforts, the applications were ultimately approved and the family reunited in Paris in September 2025. Alison stood by the family’s side throughout this process and, ultimately, was at the airport to meet them as they began the next phase of their lives together in France.

Laura Sturges (Denver)

Laura Sturges, Of Counsel in the Firm’s Denver office, has always maintained an active pro bono practice. In 2025, she has led some of the most significant matters of the year, including serving as the lead attorney on Amica Center v. DOJ and CLSEPA v. HHS. 

In Amica Center, the Firm represents several nonprofit organizations that, since the early 2000s, have received federal funding to provide legal orientation programs and other legal access programs for immigrants in detention and/or in removal proceedings. When the government moved to terminate these programs in early 2025, the Firm immediately filed suit on the nonprofits’ behalf, seeking to reinstate access to basic legal information services and “Know Your Rights” presentations for immigrants facing deportation. The case is pending before the D.C. Circuit. Similarly, in CLSEPA, the Firm represents a group of nonprofit organizations that provide legal representation to unaccompanied immigrant children who are navigating the immigration system without their parents. In March 2025, the government abruptly cut funding for legal representation, leaving more than 26,000 children to face the immigration system alone. Our team secured a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction ensuring unaccompanied children continue receiving legal representation as required by law, and the case is currently on appeal to the Ninth Circuit. 

In both these cases, it is impossible to overstate Laura’s value to the teams. She has led the briefing teams, played an integral role in case strategy, handled all Amica Center court appearances, and served as the primary point of contact for co-counsel, clients, and opposing counsel. Laura’s work on these matters demonstrates her excellent written and oral advocacy skills, her absolute dedication to securing the best possible outcome for her clients, and her exceptional leadership abilities to hold teams together while navigating extraordinarily challenging briefing and hearing schedules. In addition to her incredible substantive contributions, Laura also has been an unparalleled mentor to the more junior attorneys on her teams, creating a non-hierarchical environment where all team members, no matter their seniority or experience, are empowered to take on leadership roles while receiving the necessary support to continue growing as lawyers. Laura’s mentorship and guidance leave her team members better writers and more effective advocates than when they first began, setting them up for success in their future pro bono and chargeable work.

These are only a few examples of Laura’s immeasurable pro bono contributions. In addition to these matters, in recent years she has also taken on pro bono work defending academic freedom, protecting the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals, representing individuals as they pursue immigration relief, and preserving a Denver nonprofit organization’s ability to carry out its mission serving homeless individuals.

Team Award Winners

Peter Sean Brown Team

In partnership with the ACLU and Americans for Immigrant Justice, a Gibson Dunn team recently obtained a favorable settlement for Peter Sean Brown, a U.S. citizen who was improperly detained by the Monroe County Sherriff’s Office (“MCSO”) in 2018 after being misidentified as a deportable Jamaican immigrant. Mr. Brown, who was born in Philadelphia and had lived in Florida for more than 15 years at the time of his detention, has no ties to Jamaica. Nonetheless, the MCSO ignored Mr. Brown’s repeated attempts to provide evidence of the misidentification, opting instead to detain him for weeks. Finally, after weeks of emotional trauma and uncertainty, Mr. Brown was released upon review of his birth certificate.

We filed suit in December 2018, arguing that MCSO Sheriff Richard Ramsay violated Mr. Brown’s Fourth Amendment rights. After years of litigation, a federal court in the Southern District of Florida agreed. In June 2025, the court granted Mr. Brown’s motion for partial summary judgment and ruled that his Fourth Amendment rights were violated. The court explained that there was no probable cause to issue the detainer in the first place, and that MCSO could not “abdicate its legal responsibility and turn a blind eye” to the obvious evidence that Mr. Brown was a citizen. In the wake of this positive decision, our team negotiated a favorable settlement for Mr. Brown, ensuring he is compensated justly for the trauma and lost wages he suffered.

The team included Jonathan Soleimani, Jennifer Bracht, Jason Kim, Luke Dougherty, Sarah Kushner, Alisha Gill, Sameera Ripley, Isabella Sayyah, Gillian Miller, Jeremy Weese, and Morgan Wendlandt, and was supervised by Heather Richardson.

Gabriel Olivier Team

Earlier this year, a Gibson Dunn team convinced the U.S. Supreme Court to grant certiorari and set argument in Olivier v. City of Brandon, a case that presents an important civil-rights issue lying at the intersection of religious liberty, criminal law, and the scope of § 1983. 

Gabriel Olivier is a Christian who feels compelled to share the gospel with his fellow citizens by preaching in public areas. But after Mr. Olivier shared his faith on public sidewalks near an amphitheater in Brandon, Mississippi, the city enacted an ordinance restricting “protests” and “demonstrations” to a designated area away from pedestrian traffic during the hours surrounding events at the amphitheater. That area was too isolated for Mr. Olivier to reach his audience, so he decided to preach in the same place that he had before. That prompted the city to bring a criminal charge against him for violating the ordinance.

After Mr. Olivier pleaded no contest to the charge, he sued the city in federal court under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 to enjoin it from violating his First Amendment rights in the future. The district court, however, held that his lawsuit was barred under Heck v. Humphrey—a decision holding that federal habeas is the sole means for persons to bring a collateral challenge to their existing criminal convictions. This despite the fact that Mr. Olivier was seeking only prospective relief, and was ineligible for federal habeas relief following his conviction. A panel of the Fifth Circuit affirmed that decision, and the full court narrowly denied rehearing en banc over several dissents.

Mr. Olivier then retained Gibson Dunn, who carefully crafted a petition for writ of certiorari to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to accept the case. The Gibson Dunn team argued that the Heck doctrine, which has been used to place extremely broad limitations on the ability of convicted individuals to make legal claims relating to their convictions, must be clarified. The team argued that Heck does not apply either when a convicted person’s claim seeks only prospective relief against the enforcement of an unconstitutional law or when a plaintiff never had access to federal habeas relief. 

The Court granted the petition for certiorari in July and oral argument, with Allyson Ho arguing on behalf of Mr. Olivier, was heard on December 3. Success in this important civil-rights case will help all persons—including those most likely to be prosecuted under unconstitutional state laws—access federal court to vindicate their rights. The United States and 16 other amici of all political stripes have filed briefs supporting vacatur or reversal of the judgment below.

The team includes Allyson Ho (who argued the case before the Supreme Court), David Casazza, Patrick Fuster, Aaron Smith, Savannah Silver, Aly Cox, Andrew Ebrahem, John Reed, and Giuliana Cipollone.

Staff Award Winners

Dora Moran Dora Moran has demonstrated a commitment to the Firm’s pro bono practice that goes above and beyond her day-to-day responsibilities as Supervisor of Office Services in Orange County. Dora takes great pride in her work and is eager to contribute to Gibson Dunn’s pro bono practice in whatever way she can, from preparing binders for trial teams to serving as a point of contact for Spanish-speaking clients and everything in between. In one significant civil rights case, for example, Dora tirelessly prepared countless binders and other materials ahead of trial, enabling the team to focus on trial preparations with peace of mind knowing that everything had been prepared properly by Dora and her team. She was always a friendly face and source of support and encouragement to the team, and her work was a key to the team’s success. In other cases, Dora volunteers as an interpreter for Spanish-speaking clients, helping bridge the language gap and ensure the Firm’s clients receive the support they need. She always has the clients’ best interests at heart and helps ensure they feel seen and heard throughout our representations.

Candie Trainor Candie Trainor, a Legal Executive Assistant in Los Angeles, has been an enthusiastic and generous contributor to pro bono work across Gibson Dunn’s California offices. Each year, the Firm takes on hundreds of new pro bono clients and matters. Each of these matters goes through a long and detailed onboarding and approval process. Candie recognized the need for careful administrative assistance on these matters and quickly became the go-to person shepherding California-based pro bono matters through the onboarding process, from confirming client and matter details to ensuring all required paperwork was accurately and timely submitted. Despite the seemingly unglamorous nature of this work, Candie always approached it with enthusiasm and joy. Her consistent help and strong expertise in this area made the process of bringing in new pro bono matters less daunting to her colleagues and provided comfort that this important work was being done properly. Ultimately, her contributions made it possible for the Firm’s California offices to onboard hundreds of new pro bono matters.