M. Buck Dixon of Troutman Sanders has won asylum for a 14-year-old boy who fled his village in rural Guatemala to escape gang members who’d beaten him, set fire to his home and threatened to kill him after he refused to join and sell drugs.
It is the first asylum approval for the new Atlanta office of Kids in Need of Defense, which is housed at Troutman. Dixon, a second-year associate, took the case pro bono in February 2016, just after KIND opened. The group said Atlanta lawyers have opened more than 100 cases pro bono since then.
