Justice Is Served: Highlights From Big Law's Year of Impactful Pro Bono
Evan Gibbs, a partner in Troutman Pepper's Labor + Employment Practice Group, was mentioned in the July 11, 2023 The American Lawyer article, " Justice Is Served: Highlights From Big Law's Year of Impactful Pro Bono."
Troutman Pepper litigator Evan Gibbs typically works with corporate disputes, but secured a pro bono win before the Supreme Court of Georgia earlier this year. Gibbs began representing Ryan Duke after he fired his public defender and retained pro bono counsel. The trial court held that Duke was not entitled to state funding to retain experts or an investigator, declining to extend the benefits available under Georgia's Indigent Defense Act to cases in which private pro bono counsel had been retained. However, Gibbs and the defense team challenged this, and the Georgia Supreme Court held that indigent defendants who retain private pro bono counsel do not lose the other benefits provided under the Indigent Defense Act. After these benefits were secured, Duke was acquitted on his charges of murder, assault and burglary. This result came thanks to Gibbs stepping into an unusual new role.