Washington Lawyer - March/April 2021 - 48

THE PRO BONO EFFEC T

Reaping
the Rewards
of Paying
It Forward
By Stacy Julien

After moving from Jamaica to London to
Guyana to Trinidad and Tobago, Skinner's
family settled in the Washington, D.C., metro
area, where he currently resides. By then, he
had already obtained law degrees from the
University of the West Indies, the University of
London, and Harvard Law School. He earned
his JD at Georgetown Law, where professors
and mentors alike praised and recommended
Arnold & Porter as an outstanding firm to
launch his career. Once he dove into the firm's
history, it didn't take him long to decide where
he wanted to be.
" I really wanted my formative years as a lawyer
to be at the best training ground. The bigger
the foundation, the taller the tower, " says
Skinner, who focuses his practice on corporate
and securities matters. He earned a foot in the
door as a summer associate at Arnold & Porter,
landed his first job there, and is now a partner
with 25 years of experience at the firm.
In his day-to-day work, Skinner connects
with clients around the globe. He represents
Fortune 500 companies and sovereign clients

48 WASHINGTON LAWYER

MARCH/APRIL 2021

in the United States, Latin America, the
Caribbean, Africa, and Asia - from major real
estate financing companies to government
entities - assisting them with a range of
capital markets, mergers and acquisitions,
and business structuring and formation
transactions.
But when he's off the clock, Skinner is a helpful
resource for individuals and small businesses
right in his community that can't afford legal
services. He has been a regular volunteer with
the D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center's Small Business
Brief Advice Legal Clinic since 2013. He also has
lent his considerable skills to the Startup Legal
Clinic and Nonprofit Policies Clinic.
His pro bono work contributes to a long history
of volunteerism embedded in his firm's DNA.
Part of what made Arnold & Porter attractive
to Skinner is the firm's historic commitment to
pro bono service. In the early 1960s, Arnold &
Porter lawyers famously argued the landmark
case Gideon v. Wainwright,
Wainwright, guaranteeing a right
to counsel for criminal defendants who cannot
afford a lawyer. In 1972, as part of its pro bono

Arnold & Porter

rowing up in the West Indies and
London, England, Darren Skinner was
a kid who loved to argue. But he
discovered something else he loved:
arguing to help achieve justice for others.
program, Arnold & Porter lawyers and paralegals put in more than 43,000 hours on the
Buffalo Creek mining disaster case, helping
survivors of a flood receive a $13.5 million settlement against a coal company.
The firm earned a top 10 ranking in The
American Lawyer's
Lawyer 's 2020 Pro Bono Scorecard for
both national and international pro bono work.
Ranked firms contributed more than five
million hours of pro bono work in 2019.
Skinner fits right into Arnold & Porter's giveback culture. " For so many, hiring a lawyer is
beyond their reach. There is a huge need [for
legal help] in the transactional space for small
business. These businesses are started by lowincome residents, minorities, and nonprofit
entities " facing a myriad of legal problems,
including business formation questions, intellectual property issues, real estate challenges,
and, more recently, pandemic-related issues,
Skinner says.
His practice and pro bono service are worlds
apart in scope, but Skinner says he appreciates

Washington Lawyer - March/April 2021

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