Cleary Gottlieb Lawyer Guy MacInnes-Manby Wins 2017 Wig and Pen Prize

Cleary Gottlieb London associate Guy MacInnes-Manby has been selected as the winner of the 2017 Wig and Pen Prize, awarded by the City of London Law Society (CLLS).

Guy has been recognized for his outstanding dedication to pro bono representation of individuals fleeing violence and persecution through the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) at the Urban Justice Center.

IRAP works with some of the most vulnerable refugees across the globe. In most cases, these individuals have no other form of protection, having fled their homes due to a fear of arrest or harm based on a protected characteristic. Once IRAP refers a case, volunteers interview the individual, conduct research and prepare applications to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to grant the clients legal refugee status and, in some cases, resettle these individuals to third countries where they can live without such fear.

Since establishing this project in Cleary’s London office as a trainee solicitor in early 2016, Guy has participated in work on 14 applications. Among these, Guy has helped successfully represent a refugee who fled Iraq for fear of arrest and persecution on grounds of political affiliation and had subsequently been subjected to illegal detention and torture at the hands of a local militia group in Lebanon. He has also helped represent an LGBTI couple who were violently attacked and detained by their own families in Iraq before fleeing to Turkey.

The success of these applications has enabled Cleary’s work with IRAP to develop into one of the firm’s largest international pro bono projects. Guy now coordinates teams of lawyers volunteering across our London, Paris, Brussels, Frankfurt, Abu Dhabi and Hong Kong offices, harnessing our firm’s capabilities to assist refugees who would otherwise be unrepresented.

The Wig and Pen Prize is awarded to solicitors with up to five years’ post-qualifying experience practicing in the CLLS catchment area who have made an outstanding contribution to broadening access to justice in their communities.