Access to Justice Fellow challenges website enabling sex trafficking

John Montgomery, who served as managing partner at Ropes & Gray for nine years before retiring as an active partner in January 2013, had recently signed on to become an Access to Justice Fellow when he participated in a series of calls with several organizations for whom the firm had done pro bono work over the years.

Montgomery was looking for a project for his Fellowship and he asked the clients about their most challenging legal issues. One client mentioned Backpage.com, a website notorious for supporting and facilitating online sex trafficking of children and for its record of evading numerous efforts by law enforcement and lawmakers to address the problem. The nature of the site and the legal challenges presented attracted Ropes to investigate the matter.

Montgomery quickly built a team at Ropes and set out to take on the website. The team has been representing three anonymous clients, Jane Does No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3, on a pro bono basis in the lawsuit filed in federal court in Boston in October. They hope the suit will establish that websites can be held responsible when the operators benefit financially from illegal trafficking of children, which they know or should know is occurring on their website, particularly where the website takes active steps to support the traffickers.

Before he retired as a partner of the firm in 2013, after a career spanning nearly 40 years, Montgomery worked on complex civil litigation at Ropes and held two different positions in the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, first as an Assistant Attorney General early in his career, and later as First Assistant Attorney General. His work on civil cases twice brought him in front of the United States Supreme Court, and he worked on a wide range of matters, including intellectual property, insurance coverage, securities, and pharmaceutical pricing cases.

“I went to law school looking for ways to make positive contributions to whatever I was involved in, and I was also looking for an intellectual challenge,” Montgomery says. “I really value what litigation can accomplish for both private and public clients.”

Since his retirement, Montgomery has remained active in pro bono cases. He says the Fellows Program has allowed him to further appreciate the many positive ways pro bono work impacts communities, while introducing him to committed lawyers working on a wide range of projects.

In December, Montgomery was one of the presenters at the monthly lunch meeting held by the Fellows Program. He walked the other Fellows through the Backpage case, providing an in-depth look at different strategies undertaken by the Ropes team as they attempt to build their case against the website. When asked about the potential for similar sites to appear in Backpage’s wake, Montgomery said he hopes this case will set a precedent, making it difficult for such websites to avoid taking steps to eliminate the exploitation of children.

This case is just one example of the ways pro bono potentially can lead to far-reaching and lasting change, and Montgomery believes that all young lawyers should make the commitment to volunteer.

“It’s a great way to broaden one’s horizons, to make a social contribution to our community, and a terrific opportunity to learn basic and important things about the practice of law,” he says.

The Access to Justice Fellows Program, a joint program of the Lawyers Clearinghouse and the Massachusetts Access to Justice Commission, was started in 2012 and recently entered its third year with the largest class of Fellows so far. Sixteen retired and transitioning lawyers have taken on a variety of pro bono projects related to veterans’ issues, child welfare, the health of vulnerable populations, civil liberties, and other access to justice matters. Click here to learn more about past and present Fellows.