Wendy Richards is a skilled commercial litigator who has worked on numerous multimillion-dollar class actions and other complex matters. As the firm's Pro Bono Counsel, she heads Miller Canfield's pro bono program, which annually provides more than 8,000 hours of pro bono legal services to individuals, nonprofits and small businesses.
Under Wendy's leadership, the firm's pro bono strategy has garnered national recognition for taking on high-profile, high-impact matters. In 2020, the firm was shortlisted as one of the nation's best pro bono programs in the Chambers Diversity & Inclusion Awards: North America. Wendy has been involved in several high-impact litigation matters, including the well-publicized Hamama v. Adducci class action, impacting over 1,400 Iraqi nationals living in the U.S., which secured an injunction to stop their removal and allow class members the time to pursue relief in immigration court.
Wendy also has extensive pro bono experience related to voting rights. In 2020, she worked with a consortium of law firms and the Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections Project to recruit lawyers to be poll workers on Election Day. She also led a nationwide effort to coordinate state-specific poll worker guides on behalf of The Brennan Center for Justice, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Association of Pro Bono Counsel, and she successfully represented the Brennan Center as amicus curiae against the challenge to Secretary of State Benson's right to mail absentee ballot applications to all Michigan voters.
In addition, to address COVID-19's devastating economic effects, Wendy established the remote COVID-19 Small Business Clinic in Detroit with Michigan Community Resources and the Lawyers for Good Government Foundation.
