Top 7 Best Practices for Representing Transgender and Nonbinary Pro Bono Clients

Published on 21 September 2021 by Erin Meyer A guide on the best practices to follow when representing transgender and nonbinary pro bono clients.

Transgender and nonbinary individuals are often among the most marginalized communities we serve as pro bono lawyers. In the US and abroad, transgender and nonbinary people have faced a history of discrimination in employment and housing, unequal access to healthcare, and violence. Indeed, as the Human Rights Campaign has reported, 2020 was the deadliest year on record for transgender and gender non-conforming people – and especially for transgender women of color, dozens of whom were violently killed. The rates of suicide attempts, particularly among transgender and nonbinary youth, are similarly alarming.

To ensure our lawyers and staff are providing client-centered and trauma-informed representation to our transgender and nonbinary pro bono clients, Proskauer welcomed Dru Levasseur, the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the National LGBTQ+ Bar Association, to speak on a panel alongside Associate Ren Morris and Pro Bono Counsel Erin Meyer. This panel was the third in a series of trainings coordinated by Proskauer’s Diversity & Inclusion team, at which Dru addressed the topic of LGBTQ+ cultural competency in the workplace.

Erin M. Meyer (she/her) is the Pro Bono Counsel at Cooley LLP, where she manages the firm’s pro bono practice. Prior to joining Cooley, Erin was the Pro Bono Counsel at Proskauer Rose LLP and, before that, she was a Senior Litigation Associate at Hogan Lovells US LLP. Erin is a graduate of Columbia College, where she majored in Women’s & Gender Studies, and Columbia Law School, where she was an editor of Columbia’s Journal of Gender & Law and a legal intern with Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund. Her passion for Immigration Equality’s life-saving work began when she won her first pro bono LGBTQ asylum case as a law student in Columbia’s Sexuality & Gender Law Clinic. After graduating law school, Erin was an Affiliated Attorney with Lambda Legal’s Transgender Rights Project, where she worked on matters advancing equal access to healthcare for transgender people. Erin currently serves on the board of the Jim Collins Foundation, a nonprofit that funds gender-affirming surgeries for transgender people who need them, and mentors pro bono lawyers handling dozens of Immigration Equality asylum case.