Roberta Ritvo, the senior pro bono counsel in DLA Piper's Washington, DC office, assists the pro bono team with its programs and overseeing the operations of these programs in Atlanta, Baltimore, Northern Virginia, Raleigh, Tampa, Washington, DC, and Wilmington.

Ms. Ritvo focuses her pro bono practice on immigration, Social Security disability appeals, international and election issues. She has successfully represented several clients seeking T and U Visas or applying for immigration benefits under the Violence Against Women Act. She also has helped many clients secure disability benefits from the Social Security Administration after their initial applications were denied. She assisted International Justice Mission with writing a field guide on the application of succession law to the new land registration program in Rwanda. She taught a class to law school students in Mexico City as part of the firm's New Perimeter program that focuses on helping to strengthen the pro bono culture in Mexico City in partnership with Mexico Appleseed. She previously worked on two other New Perimeter teams, assisting The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the Southern Africa Litigation Centre.

As senior pro bono counsel, Ms. Ritvo assists attorneys with finding interesting and meaningful pro bono opportunities, and mentors associates in their pro bono cases. She led the development of signature projects in Northern Virginia and Atlanta assisting domestic violence survivors. Ms. Ritvo also is involved actively in the development of pro bono partnerships with the firm's corporate clients across the country.

Ms. Ritvo helps lead DLA Piper's participation in Election Protection, the largest nonpartisan voter rights coalition in the United States. Election Protection was formed to ensure that all voters have an equal opportunity to participate in the political process. Her work on behalf of the coalition began in 2004, when she spent two weeks serving as the Legal Command Center Coordinator with the Ohio Voter Protection Coalition. In 2008, and again in 2010, the firm played an integral role in EP, with over 200 attorneys and staff members participating in the efforts and hosting EP operations in a number of offices.

Although she concentrates on the above issues, Ms. Ritvo has advised and represented clients in a number of other areas: custody, adoption, homeless issues and disaster relief. She led DLA Piper's work representing victims of Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi who were trying to secure their FEMA benefits or grants from the Mississippi Development Authority. She drafted part of the amicus curiae brief DLA Piper filed in the United States Supreme Court in the University of Michigan affirmative action case. For more than two years, she taught classes at the Washington, DC jail addressing issues of sexual harassment in the workplace, as part of the follow-up to a large-scale case handled by DLA Piper.

Ms. Ritvo joined the firm as an associate in the International Litigation practice group, where she was instrumental in several large cases, including litigation surrounding a popular prescription drug and arbitration on behalf of the government of an African nation. She also represented a retail pharmacy chain before a Congressional committee and in responding to a federal agency special order.

Ms. Ritvo is a board member and secretary of Jews United for Justice, a grassroots organization that builds relationships and mobilizes the Jewish community to demand and win meaningful change for all DC-area residents through educational forums, programs and advocacy campaigns.

After graduating from Smith College, Ms. Ritvo ran the nonprofit organization Summerbridge Houston (now Breakthrough Houston); taught sixth grade with Teach for America in Houston and served on TFA Houston’s board; and served on the board of the local chapter of The NAMES Project: AIDS Memorial Quilt. While earning her J.D. and Master of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, Ms. Ritvo completed internships at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania, the Texas Civil Rights Project and the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Ms. Ritvo annually works with her father as a volunteer at major figure skating competitions.