Jane Fonda
William O. Douglas Award
Jane Fonda is a two-time Academy Award-winning actor (Best Actress in 1971 for Klute and in 1978 for Coming Home), producer, author, activist, and fitness guru. Her career has spanned over 50 years, accumulating a body of film work that includes more than 50 films and significant contributions to political causes such as women’s rights, Native Americans’ rights, and environmental protection. She is a seven-time Golden Globe® winner and was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2021. She accepted The Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival. In April of 2024, Fonda accepted the TIME Magazine Earth Award. She is also set to receive the SAG Lifetime Achievement Award in February 2025.
2023 was a banner year for Jane, with four films released. Most recently, she lent her voice to ‘Grandmama’ in DreamWorks’ animated film Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken. Before that, Fonda reunited with Diane Keaton, Mary Steenburgen, and Candice Bergen for Focus Features’ Book Club 2. She also starred in the highly anticipated 80 For Brady opposite Lily Tomlin, Sally Field, and Rita Moreno, released by Paramount Pictures. Then there was Moving On by Paul Weitz for Roadside Attractions, in which Fonda starred opposite her longtime friend and colleague, Lily Tomlin. Other notable credits include Grace & Frankie, Netflix’s longest-running original series. For her work on the series, she received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 2017. She also released Jane Fonda in Five Acts, a documentary for HBO chronicling her life and activism.
Fonda continues to lead the charge on the climate emergency via Fire Drill Fridays, the national movement to protest government inaction on climate change, which she started in October 2019 in partnership with Greenpeace USA. In 2022, she launched the Jane Fonda Climate PAC, focused on defeating political allies of the fossil fuel industry. Her latest book, “What Can I Do? My Path From Climate Despair to Action,” details her personal journey with the movement and provides solutions for communities to combat the climate crisis. Notably, Jane celebrated her 85th birthday by raising $1 million for her nonprofit, the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power & Potential (GCAPP).
Molly Munger & Stephen R. English
Audrey Irmas Social Justice Impact Award
Molly Munger
After starting out as a business litigation lawyer at a small firm, Molly served as a federal prosecutor with the United States Attorney’s office for five years, then returned to private practice to co-found an all-woman litigation firm with two fellow Assistant US Attorneys, Lourdes Baird and Deanne Meyers. In 1989, with both Lourdes and Deanne launched on judicial careers, Molly became a partner in the Los Angeles office of Fried, Frank, Harris Shriver & Jacobson.
Molly had gone to John Muir High School in Pasadena, Jackie Robinson’s high school. Most of the 1980’s had found her living near Muir on the outskirts of Pasadena’s African American community. At Fried, Frank, Molly mostly worked on aerospace litigation but found her pro bono home working on cases with the local office of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF).
In 1994, stirred by the revelations surrounding the Rodney King beating in 1991 and the riots that followed, Molly had a fateful lunch with Bill Lann Lee, who ran LDF’s LA office. “It sounds like you want to change your life,” he said, crystallizing what had been swirling in her mind. Molly moved to LDF as Western Regional Counsel and there formed what would become a life-long alliance and friendship with fellow civil rights lawyer, Connie Rice.
Together with Molly’s husband, Steve English, and another LDF veteran, Penda Hair, Connie and Molly went on to found a civil rights advocacy group, Advancement Project, with offices in California (LA and Sacramento) and Washington D.C. Molly is now retired and focuses on philanthropic support to others, but AP’s civil rights work, now undertaken under the name Catalyst California, is still keeping Connie and Steve busy.
Molly is a graduate of Radcliffe College ‘70 and Harvard Law School ‘74. Over the past twenty years she has served on the boards of The James Irvine Foundation, Children Now, Occidental College, the Westridge School for Girls, California First 5 California Commission, and the board of Southern California Public Radio.
Stephen R. English
After 20 years as a business litigation partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, Steve and his wife Molly Munger embarked on another career — spanning two more decades (and counting) — in public interest law and advocacy. This new career was mostly centered around the Advancement Project, which he co-founded with Molly and civil rights lawyers Connie Rice and Penda Hair in 1999. Rooted in the civil rights movement, and devoted to empowering disadvantaged communities, Advancement Project’s work is now divided between two successor organizations, a California-centered entity (Catalyst California) and a Washington DC-based entity (Advancement Project Education Fund) each with about 50 staff members. Steve currently serves on the Board of Directors of both. Also, before retiring from the State Bar in 2018, he was a partner in the firm of English, Munger & Rice, a public interest litigation firm.
While he was active in the bar, Steve served stints as Chair of the Los Angeles County Litigation Section, and on the LACBA’s Board of Trustees.
Committed to the provision of legal services to the poor, Steve also chaired the boards of Public Counsel, the Inner-City Law Center, the Los Angeles County Bar Foundation, and the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles. Also committed to the promotion of equity and effectiveness in our state and local systems for funding school facilities, he served for years as the Chair of the LAUSD Citizens Bond Oversight Committee, and as an advocate in Sacramento for more equal state funding for school facilities in low-wealth school districts.
Mr. English is a graduate of UCLA ’71, and the Harvard Law School ‘75.
Morrison & Foerster LLP
Law Firm Pro Bono Award
Commitment to service is a core value at Morrison Foerster, and every year lawyers in MoFo offices all around the world put that commitment into practice by providing thousands of hours of pro bono service on hundreds of matters each year.
Our lawyers engage with pro bono clients in many ways, from history-making class action representation and transactional work that strengthens organizations to impactful individual cases and unique partnerships with innovative nonprofits and social enterprises. Our lawyers have worked tirelessly to support reproductive rights, litigating cases in Texas and Tennessee to enforce medically necessary exceptions to state abortion bans. The firm has a proud legacy of advocacy for LGBTQ+ rights, including marriage equality. We are dedicated to protecting immigrants’ rights, representing individuals from around the world who are seeking asylum after facing persecution in their home countries. MoFo has also provided millions of dollars in pro bono legal services to projects addressing climate change, a testament to the firm’s commitment to advancing environmental stewardship.
MoFo’s pro bono work transcends borders. Global pro bono initiatives require cross-border collaboration across practice areas and functions to succeed as one—another shared value that defines our culture. By joining forces with the best community partners, public interest legal organizations, and legal service providers, we drive immense value for our pro bono clients.
We believe that pro bono service is an essential part of our firm’s professional responsibility. MoFo lawyers are given the opportunity to work on an array of pro bono projects that complement their strengths, passions, and experience, bringing together partners and associates at all levels. The outcome is mutually beneficial; through our pro bono matters, not only do we change our clients’ lives, we also change our lawyers’ lives.
