Simpson Thacher successfully secured asylum in the United States for 14 Afghan citizens who had been evacuated from Kabul under harrowing conditions in 2021 when the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. As part of two coalitions of law firms representing Afghan citizens, Simpson Thacher lawyers took on the representation of a reporter covering Afghanistan for The New York Times and seven of his adult family members, in addition to six female students from the Asian University for Women (AUW) in Bangladesh who were studying in Kabul, all of whom feared targeted persecution from the Taliban. Filing several asylum applications and with a number of lawyers from the Firm working to obtain legal status in the United States for the 14 individuals, the Firm has successfully obtained asylum status for the entire group – obtaining legal status for the six Afghan women in October 2023 and securing asylum more recently for the Afghan journalist and his family in October 2024.
The Simpson Thacher team who assisted the New York Times family included John Ericson, Mark Brod, Beate Krieger, Harlene Katzman, Nicholas Cunha, Lena Dennington, Andrew Mandelbaum, Suzannah Ranzo, Albert Tagliaferri and Clark Vaughn. The Simpson Thacher team who assisted the AUW students included Vanessa Burrows, Alan Turner, Harlene Katzman, Shuhao Fan, Yonah Goldschmidt, Iram Huq, Anna Jarman, Jacob Kornman, Belinda Li, Albert Murzakhanov, Michael Palizkar, Emily Rosenthal, Jessica Shieh, Robert Vogel, Natalie Wembolua and Megan Whitman.