Blog

A new partnership has emerged between Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, a global legal powerhouse based in San Francisco and Americans for Safe Access. Orrick will now be contributing, pro bono, its services to our Patients’ Rights Project, thanks to the work of ASA’s Board Member Bianca Green.

For more than 14 years, ASA’s Patients’ Rights Project has supported patients navigating the legal system, and it has helped tens of thousands of patients in areas such as employment discrimination, access to health care, housing, and parental rights. This new partnership will enable us to expand and improve our services, which are particularly important to low-income patients.

With access to legal medical cannabis expanding nationwide, more and more patients will find themselves in need of legal support as they try to navigate these complex laws and regulations. Every law is unique and patients often find it challenging to understand the specifics of the laws, which leaves them vulnerable to arrest, prosecution, and incarceration.

As part of the project, Orrick and ASA will be creating and distributing legal manuals for patients in each of the states, as well as creating guides for public defenders who are defending medical cannabis patients. In addition, we will be working with Orrick to coordinate attorneys to support the ASA legal hotline.

The hotline will not only serve individual patients but help monitor implementation of state medical cannabis programs. Data collected by the project will help us inform lawmakers and regulators, better understand patients’ needs, and support impact litigation – lawsuits that change laws and protect everyone who uses medical cannabis.

For more information on our Patient Rights Project please visit: http://www.safeaccessnow.org/patients_rights_project

Background on Orrick

Founded in San Francisco a century and a half ago, Orrick today is named by Law360 as one of the “Global 20” leading firms. Their platform offers clients a distinctive combination of local insight and global reach across 25 offices. Orrick is also well known for its sustained pro bono commitment. Their pro bono program has been praised for the dedication of its lawyers to supporting diverse causes with tangible results—including high-profile immigration disputes, civil rights litigation, advocacy to solve systemic problems and grassroots global development through an innovative impact finance initiative. The firm’s commitment to serving its communities worldwide is underscored by the full participation of lawyers around the firm on important matters for low-income clients.