The D.C. Bar named Crowell & Moring partner and Catholic Law alumnus John McCarthy '89 the 2024 Laura N. Rinaldi Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year. The award is presented to a lawyer for “their excellence, achievement, and commitment to providing legal services to the District’s low-income and/or disadvantaged individuals and/or organizations serving such individuals.”

McCarthy has made representing low-income individuals an integral part of his legal career. Over the past 15 years, he has dedicated more than 100 pro bono hours each year to representing low income clients on child custody, eviction defense, asylum, domestic violence, and veterans’ benefits matters. His pro bono efforts are focused on impacting one individual at a time, helping them with compassion, enthusiasm, and caring at a difficult time in their lives.

McCarthy has made significant contributions to Crowell’s pro bono program and to the larger D.C. community through his willingness to handle the most difficult clients and cases, his mentoring and encouragement of associates and counsel, the hands-on supervision and trial opportunities that he provides to young attorneys through custody and eviction defense cases, his leadership on the firm’s Public Service Committee, and his service on legal services provider boards, such as Catholic Charities Legal Network and the Legal Aid Society.

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