Chelsea Kehrer Wins 2024 Kathi Pugh Pro Bono Service Award

Chelsea Kehrer is the recipient of the eleventh annual Kathi Pugh Award for Professional Bono Service. 

Chelsea is a litigation affiliate within the agency’s Palo Alto workplace and has been deeply dedicated to professional bono service because the starting of her authorized profession.

Chelsea joined the Agency in October 2021 and instantly began doing professional bono work. In her personal phrases, “MoFo was a pure match for me after regulation faculty due to the Agency’s dedication to professional bono work, notably for causes that I consider in. On one in every of my first days on the Agency, I used to be staffed on a professional bono case about college students who didn’t have equal entry to training in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.” The case was Cayla J. v. State of California.

Chelsea was a useful workforce member on the Cayla J. case, which sought remediation from the State of California to assist deprived schoolchildren who suffered probably the most from pandemic-related studying loss. Earlier this 12 months, the workforce reached a historic settlement that secured at the least $2 billion to assist college students recoup educational losses and shut alternative gaps.

By all accounts, Chelsea’s contributions to the case have been extraordinary. Colleagues cite her first-rate authorized work, excellent advocacy, and limitless ardour. And when senior workforce members have been pulled in different instructions, she stepped as much as a stage of accountability that far exceeded what can be anticipated of a junior affiliate. 

Chelsea’s sustained dedication to professional bono is demonstrated within the spectacular variety of hours she has logged throughout her first three years at MoFo. When she just isn’t working, Chelsea additionally makes time to volunteer at harm-reduction organizations and advocate for folks fighting substance abuse. In all methods, Chelsea exemplifies Kathi Pugh’s legacy.

Because the 2024 winner of the Kathi Pugh Award, Chelsea could direct $10,000 to a nonprofit authorized companies group that improves entry to justice. She has chosen to separate her donation as follows: $5,000 to Public Counsel, our co-counsel within the Cayla J. case, and $5,000 to Abolitionist Regulation Middle, a public curiosity regulation agency and neighborhood organizing challenge that addresses felony justice points in Pennsylvania.

The Kathi Pugh Professional Bono Service Award was established by MoFo in 2013, when Kathi Pugh retired after 20 years of working the agency’s professional bono program. It acknowledges the values, enthusiasm, and compassion that Kathi delivered to the professional bono program and celebrates the exceptional ways in which legal professionals like Chelsea proudly perform Kathi’s professional bono legacy. Previous award winners embody Andrew Kissner, Camila Tapernoux, Chris Gloria, Tushna Gamadia, Mercedes Samavi, Adam Hunt, Christian Andreu-von Euw, Ruth Borenstein, Natalie Fleming Nolen, and Fredo Silva.