Devon Galloway Receives NYSBA President’s Pro Bono Service Young Lawyer Award

Zuckerman Spaeder LLP is pleased to announce that Devon Galloway has been awarded the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) President’s Pro Bono Service Young Lawyer Award. In honoring Mr. Galloway, the NYSBA praised his dedication to obtaining the compassionate release of numerous elderly or ill individuals from prison, to the great relief of his clients and their families. 

Mr. Galloway has been a pioneer in the use of the First Step Act, which allows incarcerated individuals to request sentence reductions based on compassion, and he has used it to seek release for several vulnerable, non-violent inmates. In one such case last year, he represented a terminally-ill client with a 12-month life expectancy. After the Bureau of Prisons denied his client’s request for a sentence reduction, Mr. Galloway took on the case and worked tirelessly to secure his release. Counsel for the Compassionate Release Clearinghouse, which refers clients to Zuckerman Spaeder, described the court ruling in this case as a “dream opinion that I am already sending around to others in the Clearinghouse with pending cases.” 

Not only has Mr. Galloway taken on more compassionate release cases than most private practice attorneys during this time, he also promotes, trains, and mentors other attorneys to handle these cases and assists other lawyers with difficult cases. Mr. Galloway has recruited attorneys within Zuckerman Spaeder and appeared in a video that the Clearinghouse uses to recruit attorneys. In an effort to gain more support and attract others to the cause, he has presented on compassionate release topics through the Clearinghouse, D.C. Bar, Florida Bar Association, and Pro Bono Institute.

Mr. Galloway, an associate in Zuckerman Spaeder’s New York office, has done all of this while working full-time on other high-stakes matters, including, perhaps most visibly, for a national pharmacy chain in the nationwide opioid litigation. Before joining the firm, he served as a law clerk to Magistrate Judge Gregory J. Kelly of United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida. Following graduation from Columbia University and Columbia Law School, Mr. Galloway was an associate in the Orlando office of a national law firm. 

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Katie Munroe
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