On Memorial Day weekend, Sarah Murnaghan was dying in a bed in the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia awaiting a lung transplant. Her parents, Fran and Janet Murnaghan, had just begun a public campaign to overturn lung transplant rules that prevented children under the age of 12 from being placed on the adult transplant list. With time running short, her aunt, Sharon Ruddock, worked with family friends in a desperate search for help. They turned to the Philadelphia legal community.
Virtually every major firm in the city has a page on its website touting its pro bono program. On Sunday morning of that weekend, Ruddock emailed each firm’s pro bono coordinator in an email titled “Time Sensitive: Injunctive relief needed for Sarah Murnaghan.” Family friends also reached out. Their outreach was a desperate and essential cry for help that could only be answered by the proverbial Philadelphia lawyer. Pepper Hamilton stepped up.