Our associate general counsel, Rodney L. Pepe-Souvenir

At Achievement First, we’re proud to work alongside people who bring their talents and convictions to the service of others. Our associate general counsel, Rodney L. Pepe-Souvenir, recently brought that commitment to the United States Supreme Court, helping lead a legal brief defending protections for hundreds of thousands of Haitians living in the United States.

For Rodney, a proud Haitian immigrant, the work was deeply personal. In addition to her role at AF, she serves as president of the Haitian American Lawyers Association of New York. Working with fellow attorneys in New York and Illinois, she helped write a brief urging the Court to preserve Haiti’s Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, while a legal challenge continued. She served as counsel of record, the attorney formally responsible for submitting it. 

TPS allows eligible people to live and work temporarily in the United States when conditions make it unsafe to return to their home country. Haiti first received the designation after the devastating 2010 earthquake. Ending those protections threatened the stability of people who had spent years building lives here, raising families, pursuing degrees, working, and contributing to their communities.

“These are our neighbors, our colleagues, our caregivers,” Rodney wrote in a reflection about the case.

Her words capture why she took on the work. Behind the legal questions were people facing the possibility of losing their ability to work and being returned to a country experiencing severe violence and displacement. Rodney and her colleagues used their expertise to make the case for their protection. Their brief gave the justices additional legal arguments and a perspective grounded in their connection to the Haitian community.

On April 29, Rodney joined her colleagues Sandra Dieudonne and Stephanie Delia in the Supreme Court gallery as the justices heard arguments in cases concerning TPS for Haitians and Syrians. After the work of researching, writing, and submitting the brief, she was there to witness the Court consider the questions they had worked to inform.

“I did not come to that courtroom merely as a spectator,” she wrote.

Listening to the attorneys and the justices, Rodney felt the responsibility of her profession and the significance of being in that room. She recalled exchanging a glance with Sandra that seemed to say, “we did our part.”

The Court ultimately ruled that the challengers were not entitled to orders keeping the TPS terminations on hold while litigation continued. It was not the outcome Rodney and her colleagues had sought. But the ruling does not diminish the commitment we are celebrating: Rodney recognized a moment when her community needed advocates, brought her skills to the effort, and helped carry its concerns to the nation’s highest court. 

“We are our ancestors’ wildest dream,” she wrote to a colleague. “I also know we have a responsibility to pass it forward.”

At AF, our work begins with a belief in people’s potential and a responsibility to the communities we serve. Rodney’s advocacy gives us another powerful example of that responsibility in action. We’re proud to celebrate her leadership, her care for her community, and her willingness to use her gifts to stand up for others.