Brian Flynn has been an attorney at Greater Boston Legal Services (GBLS) for more than 20 years. An expert in welfare and unemployment law, he has dedicated his career to advocating for low-income workers with disabilities and recipients of public benefits.

During his time at GBLS, Flynn has been a staff attorney in the Benefits Unit, a senior attorney in both the Welfare and Employment Law units, and is currently managing attorney of the Asian Outreach Employment Law Unit.

Flynn recently expanded his practice area to address wage and hour cases, resulting in several large settlements for immigrant workers who were not paid wages and legally required overtime payments. For the last two decades, Flynn has been a constant leading voice in the commonwealth for welfare and employment advocacy for some of the state's most vulnerable populations.

He has been recognized for his unique ability not only to resolve individual cases, but to also identify and resolve systemic problems in the delivery of welfare and unemployment benefits.

"We have an obligation to look at every case with the knowledge that there might be five or 10 people, or more, with a similar problem, who we're not going to see," says Flynn. "I feel strongly that's why it's very important to do systemic advocacy based upon individual cases."

To hear the honoree in his own words on the MassBar Beat, click here.

Committed to providing pro bono services on a global scale, as well as locally through its Boston office, K&L Gates works on hundreds of pro bono cases each year.

In Massachusetts, the firm has been recognized for its work with the Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) program, representing unaccompanied minors who have fled violent situations in their home countries. Attorneys help separated families navigate the state court system, establish custody and guardianship, and guide them through U.S. citizenship and immigration services.

"The reward at the end of the case for the child and for their families is just enormous," says partner Andrew Glass. "It's hard to understand how happy the families are that they can remain united and that their child can escape the kind of violence that they often face."

In addition, the firm works with the International Refugee Assistance Project to provide legal services on behalf of individuals from Iraq and Afghanistan who face persecution in light of providing service to the U.S. government during the wars in those countries.

K&L Gates also recently partnered with Veterans Legal Services to provide pro bono representation to veterans in need within the greater Boston area. Attorneys assist veterans, many of whom are homeless, with legal representation in civil cases.

"It's often difficult for lawyers to find the time to devote to pro bono causes, but when the causes are the types of projects that we work on, it's easy to find time," says partner Sean Higgins.

To hear the honorees in their own words on the MassBar Beat, click here.

A specialist in public benefits, housing and family law, Weayonnoh Nelson-Davies serves as a staff attorney with Community Legal Aid in Worcester.

Nelson-Davies oversees Community Legal Aid's medical-legal partnership with UMass Memorial Health Care, working with clinical partners and medical providers to help represent low-income clients seeking pro bono assistance with special education needs, disability and public benefits, guardianship, and housing. In this role, she trains providers on how to screen for various legal issues that contribute to an individual's overall personal health.

Throughout the last year, Davies has been instrumental in facilitating a pro bono innovation grant from Legal Services Corporation, which helps provide on-site consultation at several primary care locations in partnership with UMass Memorial Medical Center.

A graduate of Roger Williams University School of Law and Rhode Island College, Nelson-Davies is a former Bart Gordon Fellow with South Coastal Counties Legal Services. Even at the early stages of her career, she has already developed a keen understanding of what's at stake for her legal aid clients in their daily lives.

"In legal aid, as attorneys, we understand that we are sometimes the lifeline of our clients," she says. "If we cannot win an eviction case, or negotiate for more time, or secure alternative housing for our client, they could be homeless."

To hear the honoree in her own words on the MassBar Beat, click here.

Claire Valentin has always been interested in the overall immigration experience. With parents of Romanian and French descent, Valentin grew up in the U.S. with a green card and became a naturalized citizen during law school. She even put together her own naturalization application, but it ultimately got stuck in the system and was delayed. Valentin knew she wanted to help others facing similar immigration challenges.

"My own experiences and my family's experience made me want to help other immigrants who were making the transition to a new life, and to help navigate what's really a very complicated system and in a lot of ways a very unequal system," says Valentin. 

In her current role as a staff attorney at the Children's Law Center of Massachusetts, Valentin advocates for unaccompanied immigrant children from Central America who flee their home countries seeking humanitarian protections in the U.S. Since 2013 she has been instrumental in transforming the organization's Special Immigrant Juvenile Project, representing clients in state Juvenile and Probate Court, as well as in federal immigration proceedings.

A graduate of Brown University and Harvard Law School, Valentin is the recipient of Harvard's Irving R. Kaufman Fellowship. While at Harvard she worked with the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project and the Georgia Legal Services Migrant Project.

To hear the honoree in her own words on the MassBar Beat, click here.