Pro Bono Spotlight: Rachel Lamorte, Partner, Mayer Brown

A Conversation with Rachel Lamorte: Voting Rights Pro Bono Work

Have you ever had a conversation that left you feeling inspired and reminded of the incredible people in the world? I recently had one of those moments when I spoke with Rachel Lamorte, an antitrust attorney and partner at Mayer Brown. Rachel’s important work around breaking down barriers to voting has had a profound impact on thousands of people and our democracy.

How It All Started

Rachel was one of those kids who always wanted to be a lawyer. She loved politics and policy from the time she was young and credits her mom with sparking this interest.

My mom encouraged me and my sisters to understand not only our world, but the world around us."

Her path, starting with this inspiration as a child, continued as she studied politics in college, and subsequently with her work as a paralegal at a legal aid organization. These experiences confirmed that law was the place for her, and Rachel went on to law school with the goal of continuing her advocacy and policy work.

Biglaw and Pro Bono

Rachel went to law school to do policy work and impact litigation and never expected to end up in Biglaw, but found her place at Mayer Brown.

I knew that if I was going to be at a law firm, I wanted to spend as much time as I could using my litigation skills to help people; and Mayer Brown is a place where that is possible,” said Rachel. “I can do really interesting commercial work, while also doing and being supported on fascinating, impactful pro bono work. I found that being at a law firm would give me the ability to make a big impact. There are resources to put behind important initiatives.”

The Importance of Mentorship

One thing that stuck out as I talked with Rachel is the importance of mentors. In addition to her mom, she’s had mentors throughout her journey, including a partner Rachel worked with as a first-year associate. Rachel noted, “I was really fortunate that the first partner I worked with had a robust pro bono practice. As soon as I started as a first- year associate, she brought me into a new litigation matter that she was working on.” Rachel shared that during the first six months of the matter, it was just her and the partner developing this new case. The case was a class action on behalf of foster care children in New York City.

This experience drove home how much she wanted to dedicate her time to impact litigation. Given her experience in larger antitrust cases, she can maximize the use of her skills in impact litigation.

Benefits of Pro Bono, Beyond Making an Impact

One of the best things about pro bono work is that you can get a lot of great experience that typically takes much longer with paid client work. As a first-year working on a pro bono matter, Rachel largely drafted the complaint, did the vast majority of the witness interviews, and on the day of filing, her and two summer associates went to the press conference to announce it. “It was just the three of us, front and center with our partners and co-counsel, announcing the case,” said Rachel. This is something that Rachel now shares with associates as she encourages them to take on pro bono matters.

It was a wonderful experience being able to use my legal skills to help people."

Voting Rights Pro Bono Work

Rachel ultimately decided to focus her pro bono efforts on voting rights and began working in this area in 2020. Rachel found that the combination of her interest in politics and democracy at large, the broad impact she’s able to make in this litigation which gets down to the core of democracy, as well as her antitrust experience, lends itself quite well to voting rights. “In a lot of voting rights litigation, statistical and economic analysis is really important, and some of that dovetails with antitrust litigation.” For instance, voting rights litigation often involves working with economists and statisticians on the analysis of large data sets to determine the impact of an election-related practice or law on people; in antitrust, it’s the impact of a particular set of decisions on consumers. The skills she has developed are helpful in both types of cases.

At Mayer Brown, the Voting Rights Pro Bono Team functions as a typical team. It has 29 individuals across all levels (paralegals, associates, counsel, and partners), spread out among seven of Mayer Brown’s offices. The team dedicates time to it as if it was a billable case. With a case in Arizona recently in trial, Rachel and an associate went to the state for several days, dedicating all of their time to prep. “The firm is incredibly supportive,” commented Rachel.

The Voting Rights work is part of Mayer Brown’s broader program, Project Equity, which was launched in 2020. Through Project Equity, the firm has been working with partner organizations to develop pro bono and community service projects for lawyers and business services staff focused on five issue areas: 1) voter rights; 2) criminal justice and policing reform; 3) housing and economic stability; 4) education equity; and 5) minority-owned small business assistance.

Law firms and lawyers can play an important role in addressing systemic racism and promoting racial and social justice.

“Project Equity was designed to help channel our resources more strategically, and we’re excited about the engagement across the firm and positive impact to the community,” said Marcia Tavares Maack.

The Firm pledged to devote 50,000 hours through 2023 to fight systemic racism and promote racial equity in the United States. The firm surpassed that goal, devoting more than 51,000 hours to Project Equity initiatives through the end of 2023. The Firm renewed its commitment to Project Equity, pledging to devote another 50,000 hours to issues of racial and social justice through the end of 2026.

Rachel’s Impact and Proudest Moment

With all of the work that Rachel has done, the thing that she is the most proud of is a case that was filed in 2022 in Arizona. The case challenged various proof of citizenship and residency requirements that were passed in 2022. The DOJ sued along with more than 12 other plaintiffs. The team went to trial in November 2023 and received a largely favorable decision leading to thousands of Americans being allowed to register to vote.

Rachel plans to continue to focus on voting rights for the “long-haul.” The firm and Rachel are always reaching out to partner organizations to see how they can help, whether leading up to an election or post-election. The election law space is dynamic, with continuous challenges and rules changes.

Beyond the US

Rachel works internationally within the antitrust area and talked about how her voting rights work is interconnected with her international work. She has always focused on U.S. politics, but the struggle and striving of democracy is global in nature. She views her international work as part of that: the importance of the rule of law and the importance of encouraging democracy and free exchange.

“What’s so interesting about antitrust work is that for so many years, the US was largely the only game in town for antitrust enforcement. Now, more and more jurisdictions are understanding how competition enforcement benefits consumers and that is an opening of economies that also is part and parcel to the same democratic openness that we’ve seen more generally,” said Rachel.

Parting Thoughts

In addition to supporting her clients and pro bono work, Rachel is also now a mentor to associates.

I want associates to know that they don’t have to pick between working at a law firm or working within policy and advocacy. You can do both.”

Stacy Zinken

Stacy brings 20 years of cross-functional marketing, business development and client success experience to her role as Chief Experience Officer at Paladin PBC. With her in-house law firm experience, as well as her subsequent experience working within legal technology companies, Stacy is uniquely positioned to connect the dots between strategic value of technology and law firm growth. She builds strategies and programs that are centered on the voice of the client.

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