Having a criminal record can hold someone back from new opportunities – even if they were never convicted and regardless of their accomplishments. Legal Aid DC’s Reentry Justice Project helps clients lighten the burden of a criminal record, especially by helping clients navigate DC’s complicated record sealing process.  

Through criminal record sealing, clients like Rosie Martin have been able to move forward with their lives and careers without an arrest or conviction hanging over them. Legal Aid had 226 intakes for record sealing matters over the last year. 

In 2024, Legal Aid began working on a new area of relief for people with criminal records, focusing on a federal pardon for minor marijuana offenses. In October 2022, President Biden issued a presidential proclamation that pardoned federal and DC simple marijuana possession offenses. In December 2023, he expanded the pardon to include offenses of attempted simple possession and use of marijuana, benefiting thousands of people across the country. But to fully benefit from the pardon, those eligible must apply for an official certificate.

In response to a call to action from the White House Counsel’s Office, Legal Aid organized a clinic to help people apply for the pardon in partnership with pro bono counsel from Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.  

“This clinic is helping individuals who have been living under the cloud of their prior convictions access this pardon, but more importantly, what the pardon opens up to them: access to opportunities for housing, for employment, and for education,” White House Counsel Ed Siskel said at Legal Aid shortly before the clinic opened.

At the clinic, Simpson Thacher attorneys worked with more than a dozen clients to complete and submit their application and supporting documents. Many of the applicants have already received their proof of pardon certificates.  

2025 will bring changes to DC’s record sealing law that will make the process easier and applicable to a wider range of offenses, and non-convictions will be automatically sealed starting in 2027. Legal Aid’s reentry team will be working to inform our client community about these changes and helping those eligible to get relief from the collateral consequences of a criminal record.