LGBTQ+
Willkie has a long history of supporting the LGBTQ+ community through pro bono work and community outreach. In recent years, Willkie’s pro bono efforts have focused on supporting the transgender community in particular as set forth below.
Willkie has represented LGBTQ+ individuals from over a dozen countries seeking asylum after fleeing physical abuse, sexual assault and/or death threats due to their sexual orientation and gender identity.
Healthcare Coverage
Willkie is dedicated to ensuring access to healthcare coverage for transgender individuals across the nation. This work began with Cruz v. Zucker in the Southern District of New York. Willkie was co-counsel to the Legal Aid Society and the Sylvia Rivera Law Project in this federal class action on behalf of transgender Medicaid patients diagnosed with gender dysphoria (GD). The team achieved a complete victory, resulting in the amendment of the challenged regulation which now provides coverage for treatment for many low-income people with GD. The team also obtained an order resulting in New York State removing restrictions on medically necessary healthcare for transgender Medicaid recipients under the age of 18.
Willkie secured another important outcome in the class action, in Toomey v. State of Arizona, when the firm and co-counsel the ACLU of Arizona secured a settlement and permanent consent decree requiring the state of Arizona to permanently cover gender-affirming surgery for its state employees, reversing the state’s longstanding exclusion of those procedures from its health plan.
Recent Recognition for LGBTQ+ Advocacy
Firm Awards:
- Bloomberg Law 2023 Pro Bono Innovators award.
- The Legal Aid Society’s Pro Bono Publico Award and the Sylvia Rivera Law Project’s Attorneys and Advocate Award.
Individual Awards:
- Willkie partner was the recipient of the New York State Bar Association’s 2024 LGBTQ+ Vanguard Award.
- Willkie partners were named Litigator of the Week First Runners-Up by AmLaw Litigation Daily (October 2023).
- Willkie partner was “Highly Commended” among the finalists for Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year for the Chambers Diversity & Inclusion Awards, USA 2023.