“I quickly realized that this was a challenging case of real importance and impact, and that our support needed to go far further.”
JACQUELYN MACLENNAN
PRO BONO PRACTICE HEAD

Law is constantly changing and, at the Firm, we’re proud to be playing an active part in pushing the boundaries for the benefit of human rights and access to justice. This track record for innovation earned us recent recognition at the FT Innovative Lawyers Europe 2018, where we won six Standout rankings across four categories.

The highlight was receiving first place in the Rule of Law and Access to Justice category for our work alongside Romanian NGO ACCEPT in protecting the rights of same-sex spouses and enabling them to move freely in Europe.

EMEA Competition–Anti-Trust partner and global Pro Bono Practice head Jacquelyn MacLennan was also named among the Top 10 Innovative Lawyers of the year, partly for her work on this landmark case.

The Coman Case saw us support Romanian national Adrian Coman who married his American husband Robert Claibourn Hamilton in Belgium as they fought a decision of the Romanian immigration authorities not to grant Clai residence rights normally granted to the spouse of an EU national. This was because Romania does not allow same sex marriage or recognize same-sex marriages contracted abroad.

Unwilling to accept this decision, the couple requested judicial review in Romania. The case was finally referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union, where the argument was made that the refusal of residence rights breached Mr Coman’s right to free movement under EU law and constituted discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation, contrary to the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Jacquelyn explains: “We first got involved with the case when a Romanian lawyer working in our DC office, Andrei Popovici, heard about the case and approached ACCEPT to see if there was any way we could help.

“They initially asked if we could help with judicial profiling ahead of the case. When the idea was raised with Global Pro Bono Manager Patrick Rickerfor in New York and he contacted me, I quickly realized that this was a challenging case of real importance and impact, and that our support needed to go far further.”

With just six weeks to go until the hearing date, the Firm provided extensive pro bono expertise and resources involving lawyers in Brussels and six other offices. Their work began with judicial profiling and research, helping the ACCEPT lawyers to define the approach and strategy in EU legal terms and drafting and translating pleadings for the Oral Hearing before the CJEU. Jacqui then joined Iustina Ionescu and Romanita Iordache as Counsel of Record and actively participated in the hearing before the full court of 15 judges.

White & Case lawyers who worked on the case also included Pierre Pecheux, Florence Humblet, Sankalp Labroo, Adrien Dumoulin-Smith, Ioanna Gaga, Adam Gao and Julio Martinez-Rivas. Romanian language skills came in particularly handy as we helped the couple win their case.

“I’m so proud of our role in winning this landmark case, which established the right of EU citizens to move and reside freely within the EU, accompanied by their spouses, irrespective of sexual orientation.”

Jacqui says: “I’m so proud of our role in winning this landmark case, which established the right of EU citizens to move and reside freely within the EU, accompanied by their spouses, irrespective of sexual orientation.

“This is an example of how White & Case can change the law to improve human rights, with a profound positive impact on the lives of Adrian Coman and his spouse and other same-sex couples in their situation.

“We put together an amazing team to complete a huge amount of work in a very short period of time and, thanks to everyone who worked far into the night, we had a great result.”

We continued to contribute to the case with ‘amicus curia’ briefs to ensure that the outcomes of this judgement are fully implemented in Romania.

The Financial Times award to White & Case and ACCEPT was made only days ahead of a Romanian referendum that could have made same-sex marriage un-constitutional; the award was given wide publicity by them, and the result of the referendum was not to change the constitution.

Jacqui also hopes the Coman case will provide further proof to White & Case lawyers that they can play a role in making the world a better place.

She says: “Every lawyer in the Firm can look for opportunities where they can use their skills and the strengths of the Firm, such as our global network, to improve access to justice and to strengthen human rights.

“I’m passionate about improving access to justice to all and demystifying law for the general public and also for business people.”

“Our people should feel confident that if they identify an opportunity for impactful pro bono work, we can quickly create a high-quality team of partners and associates to help.

“I’m passionate about improving access to justice to all and demystifying law for the general public and also for business people. I’m very proud of the work we do to foster respect for human rights.”