Legal matters ripped from the headlines contributed to lawyers at U.S. firms taking on more pro bono work in 2017 than they did the prior year, with Trump administration policies and actions inspiring lawyers and providing an outlet for the civic-minded.

“The 2016 election acted as a kind of catalyst as it awakened in many of our lawyers a sense of engagement in public service matters generally,” says Alan Pemberton, senior counsel in Washington, D.C., and pro bono director at Covington & Burling. He identifies a number of pro bono areas that were busy in 2017 that are directly related to the change in administration, such as legal challenges to changes in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, the travel ban applying to people from Muslim-majority countries and the ban on transgender individuals serving in the U.S. military.