The pair had never spoken before
A junior lawyer at a US firm has saved a partner’s life after donating her kidney following a firm-wide email appeal.
Bernie Citron, a partner at Thompson Coburn’s Chicago office, developed kidney disease in his 40s due to an autoimmune condition. His health deteriorated sharply in 2024 after a stroke, leaving him on dialysis seven nights a week and facing a five-year wait on the deceased donor list.
Speaking to Law360 (£), Citron said doctors informed him he was unlikely to survive the wait and he launched what he described to as a “marketing campaign” to find a living donor. He eventually turned to his firm, who gave the green light and encouraged Citron to send his plea to all 800 staff, not just lawyers.
Junior lawyer Hope Watson, based in the firm’s Washington DC office, received the email in January 2025. Watson said she had been considering becoming a living donor since 2017, when she had learnt about the impact of dialysis on patients when staying with her aunt, who runs a health literacy non-profit. Ever since then she had been “planning to donate to the next person who came across my transom.”
She completed the donor questionnaire linked in the email, flew to Chicago for testing, and only told Citron once she was confirmed as a match.
The firm gave both lawyers — who had never spoken before — the time off needed for surgery and recovery. Watson’s kidney was successfully transplanted into Citron on 11 July 2025. Thompson Coburn has since donated $25,000 to the National Kidney Foundation in their honour.
The pair are now close friends. “We’ve developed this wonderful intergenerational friendship,” Watson said. “I consider him a very close friend and a member of my family.”
Smart move, now she knows she’s basically unsackable as the PR optics would be terrible for the firm