Josh C. Toll

Josh Toll is responsible for leading the firm's pro bono program across all offices, and is the Chair of the firmwide Pro Bono Committee. Josh has led the pro bono program since 2013 and has overseen a significant increase in pro bono hours across all offices and practice groups. Under his leadership, the firm's lawyers have achieved many successes for their pro bono clients, and the program has grown into new areas, with a focus on taking on cutting-edge, challenging matters and assisting the most vulnerable members of our society. Under Josh's leadership, the firm has built strong relationships with local and national legal service organizations, and has also increased its international pro bono practice.

During Josh's tenure as Pro Bono Partner, the firm's pro bono program and its individual lawyers have received awards from a variety of organizations, including Volunteer Legal Advocates, the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, the Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice, the Georgia Asylum and Immigration Network, the Human Trafficking Legal Center, the Inner City Law Center, Her Justice, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, the Campaign for Fair Sentencing of Youth, and the Appleseed Foundation, among others.

Josh also maintains an active pro bono practice, with a focus on civil rights and prisoner rights, civil litigation, and immigration matters. Some representative matters include the release and exoneration of a wrongly convicted Georgia man who served over two decades in prison for a double murder that he did not commit; a Supreme Court reversal of the denial of a habeas petition on behalf of a woman whose original trial was marred by improperly admitted gender bias evidence; and a landmark settlement in a major federal lawsuit in California that succeeded in significantly improving the conditions at the Santa Barbara County Jail. He has also achieved asylum for a substantial number of clients, as well as won clemencies for a significant number of clients, including a client on federal death row.

Prior to joining the firm, Josh was a trial attorney with the Office of the Public Defender of Maryland from November 2002 through June 2006, where he took more than 75 cases to trial in various Maryland state courts. In that role, he successfully litigated constitutional and state criminal law issues, and developed expertise in negotiating favorable outcomes for clients with difficult, complicated cases.

Josh is also a member of the Board of the Association of Pro Bono Counsel, where he works to lower barriers to access to justice.