Eversheds Sutherland is pleased to announce that Harmony Jones has joined the firm as US Pro Bono Counsel in the Washington DC office. Ms. Jones’s arrival is part of the firm’s larger growth and evolution of its pro bono practice, building on its century-long tradition of work for the public interest.
Ms. Jones brings nearly 20 years of diverse pro bono experience, with a focus on increasing access to justice by providing legal services to low-income individuals and charitable organizations. She has represented clients in a range of civil rights and public benefits matters, particularly in the areas of housing and family law, racial justice and criminal justice reform.
“I am thrilled to welcome Harmony as our new pro bono counsel. Her career-long dedication to providing legal services to people in need is consistent with our core value of serving our communities,” said Mark D. Wasserman, Co-CEO of Eversheds Sutherland. “As we mark the firm’s 100th anniversary in the US, we are proud to continue our investment in and commitment to the pro bono and public service work that has been an integral part of our legacy.”
Since the firm opened its first US office in Atlanta in 1924, followed by its Washington DC office in 1937, it has established a steadfast and precedent-setting record of pro bono work. Starting in the 1930s, the firm was involved in three seminal civil liberties cases, including the landmark Supreme Court case Johnson v. Zerbst, one of the leading right-to-counsel cases and one of the most cited cases in constitutional law. Maintaining a robust pro bono practice since those formative years, the firm has more recently achieved pro bono client successes for asylum seekers, veterans seeking discharge upgrades, innocence clients and many others, including three death penalty reversals.
Ms. Jones will continue her pro bono legal practice, engaging the firm’s attorneys. She will help manage the firm’s large-scale pro bono projects, with a focus on advancing and supporting impact litigation matters and the continued expansion of our pro bono work with firm alumni and commercial clients.
“We are very excited to welcome Harmony to the team,” said Aileen Crowson, US Chief Responsible Business and Pro Bono Practice Officer. “Harmony is a known community leader with a deep understanding of what lack of access to the justice system means to the most vulnerable in our society. She will help take our access to justice work to the next level. She will also help roll out several new initiatives across the US, and globally in collaboration with our international colleagues.”
As a further development, Partner Brian Rubin has been appointed as the new Partner Chair of the firm’s US Pro Bono Committee. As Co-Head of the firm’s Securities Enforcement Practice, Mr. Rubin is an accomplished litigator who also maintains an active pro bono practice with a strong focus on asylum cases. Mr. Rubin has led Eversheds Sutherland teams to multiple victories on behalf of asylum-seeking clients, many of which have involved matters of unsettled law. This April, for example, an immigration judge ruled from the bench, finding that a father and his eight-year-old daughter who fled from Guatemala qualified for asylum.
“Pro bono work has long been a valued and enriching part of my legal career and as incoming Chair, I’m thrilled to be working with Aileen, Harmony and the full pro bono committee to continue championing underrepresented individuals and communities,” Mr. Rubin said.
As a global law firm, Eversheds Sutherland’s pro bono leadership and participating attorneys regularly collaborate across its 70-plus offices in more than 30 countries to identify cross-jurisdictional pro bono matters for multinational and global engagement.
Prior to joining Eversheds Sutherland, Ms. Jones was most recently Pro Bono Counsel at a large international law firm. Earlier in her career, Ms. Jones was a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society and Neighborhood Legal Services Program, based in Washington DC. She also worked with an international law firm as a pro bono fellow, where she represented clients in civil rights, criminal defense, and federal habeas corpus cases at the trial and appellate levels. She also served as counsel for amici clients before the US Supreme Court. In addition to her pro bono work, Ms. Jones has represented commercial clients in a wide range of complex commercial litigation cases.
Ms. Jones is also active in professional trade groups, including as a board member for the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project and the Quality Defense Alliance. She also served as co-chair of the DC Pro Bono Week Committee as part of the Washington Council of Lawyers.
In 2024, Ms. Jones was selected for the Presidential Leadership Scholars 2024 class, whose members are chosen based on their leadership growth potential and the strength of their personal leadership projects aimed at improving civic engagement or social good.
