Drew DeVoogd was head bartender for five years at the now-closed Casablanca restaurant in Cambridge, where in between slinging Manhattans and gin and tonics, a new life came calling. “I got bored,” DeVoogd recalls. “I applied to Northeastern thinking that a law degree was sort of the equivalent of a graduate liberal arts degree. I expected to end up in public policy, foreign relations or politics.” But his first co-op experience — in which he worked with the Major Crimes Unit at the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts — gave him the “litigation bug.” It was the first time that DeVoogd saw a courtroom, and he thrilled to watching attorneys argue motions and try cases, one involving bank robbers caught during a botched drug deal. Ultimately, DeVoogd found his professional home at Bostonbased Mintz, where for the past dozen years, he’s been a patent and trade secret litigator and trial attorney representing technology companies, often at the US International Trade Commission. But the story doesn’t end there. At Mintz, DeVoogd met Susan Finegan, chair of the firm’s Pro Bono Committee. Impressed by the firm’s commitment to pro bono cases and Finegan’s passion for social justice, he was drawn to cases involving women and members of the LGBTQ+ community, who are among his closest friends and family members. “I’ve seen the impact of discriminatory laws and disparate treatment on the basis of things that are inherent to people’s identities, and it’s profoundly unjust,” he says. “I view it as a moral and ethical obligation to use the skills that I and other lawyers have for the good of folks who would otherwise not have access to the kind of representation that we’re able to provide.”

DeVoogd devotes about 10 percent of his workload to pro bono cases. His contributions are notable: In a landmark 2020 Supreme Court case — Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia — DeVoogd led the amicus brief team on behalf of nearly 40 law and history professors supporting Aimee Stephens, a Michigan funeral home employee D fired for being transgender. The court ruled 6–3 that workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In Braidwood v. Becerra, working with attorneys at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), DeVoogd led the amicus brief team on behalf of national HIV/AIDS advocacy groups in support of reversing a decision that may re-impose cost sharing for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). The case is pending. In another case, DeVoogd spent five years helping a Jamaican national obtain asylum in the United States after his family and others inflicted violence on him for his sexual orientation. DeVoogd also represents survivors of domestic and sexual violence in obtaining orders of protection against their abusers.

These days, DeVoogd is working to start a Mintz legal clinic at the Brockton VA Medical Center, partnering with Northeastern Law classmate Angie Vargas ’07, who is pro bono director of Veterans Legal Services. DeVoogd also remains a familiar face at Northeastern Law; since 2021, he has taught an intellectual property survey course, and he is teaching patent law this year.

DeVoogd’s commitment to social justice has not gone unnoticed. Last year, he was honored with the Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Excellence in the Law Pro Bono Award and shortlisted for Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year by The Chambers Diversity & Inclusion Awards. DeVoogd’s previous honors include the Boston Intellectual Property Law Association Pro Bono Award, the Richard Mintz Pro Bono Award and a spot on the High Honor Roll of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Standing Committee on Pro Bono Legal Services.

“It’s nice to have trophies on my desk, but they’re never individual awards,” DeVoogd says. “All of these recognitions are shared with the amazing lawyers at Mintz who I work with in my pro bono practice — and of course the clients we have the honor of representing.”

I view it as a moral and ethical obligation to use the skills that I and other lawyers have … .

— Andrew DeVoogd