Moez M. Kaba

In an important, closely-watched pro bono First Amendment case, Kaba won a preliminary injunction on behalf of Freedom for Immigrants, a nonprofit seeking to abolish immigration detention, after federal authorities shut down its national immigration detention hotline. The group opened the hotline in 2013 to enable immigrants in more than 200 U.S. detention facilities to contact it to report abuse, find resources and contact their families. It received 600 to 14,500 calls each month and saw an increase after President Trump's election, Kaba's lawsuit said. Freedom for Immigrants v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2:190cv-10424 (C.D. Cal., filed Dec. 10, 2019).

In 2019 Freedom for Immigrants partnered with the Netflix show "Orange is the New Black" to help portray the plight of persons detained in ICE facilities and to increase public knowledge of the work it does. Media attention to the series focused on immigrant storylines and FFI's operations. After first restricting the hotline to certain facilities in Florida, ICE completely shut it down within two weeks of the start of the show's seventh season.

"We established through a timeline of conduct that there had been a series of events where FFI would engage in advocacy and the government would react in response," Kaba said. "The government pointed out there was no right to a hotline. We countered by citing First Amendment retaliation law. Now, the hotline is back up and running."

Kaba said the case was especially important to him. "As the son of immigrant parents, it was personal. It is essential that people be treated with dignity and respect, and our client is engaged in validating immigrants' humanity. Also, it's always challenging to go up against the government."

In another major case, Kaba won a motion to dismiss a False Claims Act suit against client Bausch Health Co. Inc., formerly known as Valeant Pharmaceuticals. The alleged whistleblower was New York patent attorney Zachary Silbersher, who alleged that because he had invalidated a patent against the defendant, the price of the patent was artificially inflated. Silbersher v. Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc., 3:18-cv-10496 (N.D. Cal., filed March 8, 2018).

U.S. District Judge James Donato of San Francisco said False Claims Act plaintiffs are expected to be inside employees with access to nonpublic evidence of fraud, which didn't apply to Silbersher. "He'd have created a new cottage industry for plaintiff lawyers if he'd prevailed," Kaba said. "I'm proud my firm is ready to take on new complicated issues for clients."

-- John Roemer