Mary-Christine Sungaila of Haynes and Boone LLP has received the California Lawyer of the Year Award (CLAY) for her work on a Ninth Circuit asylum appeal for a transgender woman.
Ms. Sungaila argued an immigration appeal seeking to overturn a Board of Immigration Appeals’ (BIA) decision to refuse her client’s claim for legal protection in the United States due to alleged past and future persecution and torture. The case was one of three brought by the Public Law Center, in collaboration with pro bono counsel from three separate law firms, on behalf of transgender asylum seekers.
This is Ms. Sungaila’s second consecutive CLAY award. In 2015, she was awarded for her work on the precedent-setting franchisor vicarious liability case she argued before the California Supreme Court, Patterson v. Domino's Pizza, which was also named by the Franchise Times as the number one franchise court decision nationwide in 2015.
An ALI member since 2010, Ms. Sungaila currently serves on the Members Consultative Group for several projects, including Restatement of the Law Third, Torts: Intentional Torts to Persons, Restatement of the Law, Charitable Nonprofit Organizations, Restatement of the Law Third, Torts: Liability for Economic Harm, Model Penal Code: Sexual Assault and Related Offenses, and Principles of the Law, Data Privacy.
Read the full press release from Haynes and Boone.