Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, today welcomed Alexandra S. McCown to its pro bono practice, resident in the New York office. McCown will focus exclusively on pro bono, including supporting full-time Pro Bono Director Sirena Castillo and full-time Pro Bono Administrator Gisella Soto. Her arrival underscores Manatt’s commitment to and investment in building the pro bono practice of the future with a focus on being a leader in the fight to ensure that everyone retains the liberties and protections to which they are legally entitled.
Bringing extensive experience working with at-risk immigrants, particularly children, with strong legal claims to stay in the United States, McCown will focus her practice on representing clients in a variety of immigration matters, including affirmative and defensive asylum matters; T visa, U visa, Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) and Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) matters; and federal court actions. She will also work with our partner legal services organizations to draft and file amicus briefs In litigation matters that will have a meaningful and positive impact on the immigrant community.
In this role, McCown will also work with Castillo and Soto to support Manatt professionals as they seek to undertake work they deeply believe in that may lie outside their normal practices. These efforts not only mirror the firm’s cutting-edge approach to client services and redefine what pro bono looks like, but will also allow Manatt to make a larger impact in advancing equity and due process for at-risk members of the communities in which the firm’s professionals live and work. The addition of McCown allows the firm to continue to expand its pro bono practice, which includes the entire Manatt community of lawyers, consultants and business professionals.
Prior to joining Manatt, McCown was a senior staff attorney at Safe Passage Project, a nonprofit legal services organization that provides free legal representation to refugee and immigrant children in the New York City area who face deportation. There she helped more than 50 young persons navigate immigration matters, with a focus on removal defense. McCown’s engagement with pro bono immigration work extends to her time at New York University Law School, where she worked at the university’s Immigrant Defense Clinic as a student advocate. Before working with Safe Passage Project, McCown was a senior litigation associate at an international law firm whose pro bono practice included several immigration matters.
The growth of the firm’s pro bono practice through the addition of McCown is part of its broader strategic growth strategy across the nation. Other recent arrivals include Manatt Health Senior Advisor Amy Salerno, entertainment litigation Counsel Sarah E. Moses, health care and civil litigation Partner Megan Thibert-Ind, antitrust and litigation Partner Steve Libowsky, former New York State Department of Health Director Tracy F. Raleigh, former CEO and COO of New York Health + Hospitals/Harlem Eboné M. Carrington, former CFPB regulator Bryan Schneider, former Massachusetts prosecutor Karin Bell, accomplished New York real estate Partner Ted Hunter, nationally recognized trial attorney Naeun Rim, D.C.-based health care professionals Linda Elam and Blair M. Cantfil, and Manatt Digital and Technology Partners Thomas W. Michael and Rustin M. Brown in LA and D.C., respectively.
McCown earned her J.D. at New York University Law School. She also holds an M.S. from Georgetown University and an A.B. from Stanford University.