In an interview with Ross Todd of The Am Law Litigation Daily, Boies Schiller Flexner partner Kenya Davis discusses bringing a labor trafficking case to trial for five Guatemalan migrant farmworkers, which resulted in securing a $550,000 jury verdict for the plaintiffs, including $450,000 in punitive damages under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act.
When asked why it was important for BSF to get involved in this case, Kenya responded, “You need a firm that, for one, is not afraid to go to trial and not afraid to fully expose these things. One of the reasons that trafficking has been able to fester in our country is because people don’t know what it looks like. They don’t know that it’s happening. They don’t know that they are part of that supply chain” when they buy asparagus that was shipped from Michigan. “The second reason why it’s important for us to be involved is that the ethos for the firm is: We try to illuminate injustices.”