In April 2021, Lavelle and a firm team won a pro bono victory on behalf of low-income Pennsylvania households seeking retroactive emergency food benefits denied to them by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Working with Community Legal Services of Philadelphia (CLS), the firm had filed an action in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against the USDA challenging the department’s interpretation of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), which provided for emergency allotments of benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, commonly referred to as food stamps) during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Gilliam v. USDA, the plaintiffs alleged USDA’s misinterpretation of the FFCRA deprived nearly 40% of Pennsylvania SNAP households of emergency benefits.

After Lavelle and his team successfully obtained a preliminary injunction on behalf of the plaintiffs blocking the USDA’s interpretation, the parties reached a deal through which the USDA would provide more than $700 million in emergency food assistance to hundreds of thousands of the state’s poorest households.