2026 CPBO Pro Bono Partner Awardee

JPMorganChase, Legal Aid of Southeast and Central Ohio (LASCO), and Taft have built a long-standing partnership combining high-volume legal clinics with institutional backing to help Ohio residents overcome barriers to stability and opportunity.

Their joint work began with a 2015 Day of Service in central Ohio where JPMorganChase played a vital role in helping LASCO develop their pro bono program and process for engaging with in-house volunteers. What began as a Day of Service has evolved into a collaboration spanning 11 years, reflecting LASCO’s most consistent and energetic pro bono partnership.

JPMorganChase volunteers provide legal assistance through the annual Days of Service, covering a broad range of civil matters, including immigration, estate planning for seniors and veterans, expungement, and driver’s license reinstatement. JPMorganChase also sponsors a monthly brief advice clinic that offers triage and legal guidance to individuals facing a variety of legal challenges. In June 2025, JPMorganChase teamed up with LASCO and Taft to complete employment authorization applications and wills for low-income immigrants and seniors. The event engaged 35 lawyers, including 29 from JPMorganChase alone, with 260 hours of pro bono work performed.

In addition to large-scale clinics, a defining feature of this partnership is the focus on workforce development and reentry. JPMorganChase has hosted expungement clinics in Community Center branches and, to maximize impact, also supports LASCO’s larger reentry events that take place three times a year in Columbus, Ohio, through volunteer time and financial resources. In September 2025, LASCO hosted a Driver’s License Reinstatement Clinic, serving more than 570 individuals with JPMorganChase volunteers. By helping clients restore driving privileges, seal criminal records, and secure employment-related certifications, this work helps open pathways to jobs, housing, and education. Volunteers play a critical role in guiding individuals through these processes and providing support that would otherwise be inaccessible.

JPMorganChase’s Legal Pro Bono Program aims to identify and connect employees in the Legal Department and other interested employees to pro bono opportunities that strengthen communities, empower families, and provide assistance to vulnerable individuals. The program is designed to be locally responsive — reflecting applicable local rules, community needs, and partner ecosystems — while remaining globally connected through shared program oversight, communications, and annual milestones.

This collaboration with LASCO and Taft is distinguished by its measurable outcomes and the breadth of engagement to provide client-centered service, respond to shifting client and partner needs, and reinforce trust through sustained engagement in the community. It also has served as a model for LASCO’s engagement with other in-house legal teams. By combining institutional support with hands-on legal services and focusing on critical barriers to stability and opportunity, JPMorganChase, LASCO, and Taft demonstrate how strategic partnerships can operate long term to deliver meaningful and lasting outcomes for underserved communities.

About JPMorganChase
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) is a leading financial services firm based in the United States of America (“U.S.”), with operations worldwide. JPMorganChase had $4.9 trillion in assets and $364 billion in stockholders’ equity as of March 31, 2026. The Firm is a leader in investment banking, financial services for consumers and small businesses, commercial banking, financial transaction processing and asset management. Under the J.P. Morgan and Chase brands, the Firm serves millions of customers in the U.S., and many of the world’s most prominent corporate, institutional and government clients globally. Information about JPMorgan Chase & Co. is available at www.jpmorganchase.com.

JPMorganChase’s Legal Pro Bono Program is a global, volunteer-driven effort that enables employees to provide pro bono legal services and related community support in partnership with nonprofit organizations, legal services providers, law firms, and other stakeholders. The program coordinates an annual Global Day of Service, a capstone event for the legal department to give back to the communities in which colleagues live and work, traditionally held on one designated day across regions. Additionally, the JPMorganChase Legal Pro Bono Fellowship advances the firm’s commitment to pro bono participation and engagement and volunteer service activities. The Fellowship is awarded annually to one legal professional in the legal department who will dedicate three to six months to full-time legal pro bono service at a qualifying organization.

About Legal Aid of Southeast and Central Ohio
Legal Aid of Southeast and Central Ohio (LASCO) is a nonprofit organization that provides free civil legal aid to low-income individuals and families in 36 counties. Through legal representation, advice, and advocacy, LASCO helps people protect their homes, health, safety, income, and families while addressing legal issues that affect their stability and well-being. LASCO works to ensure that access to justice is available to everyone, regardless of income. With fewer than 200 full-time staff, LASCO relies on the consistent, tireless support of hundreds of volunteer lawyers, students, and other professionals each year, leveraging their time and talent by offering training, mentoring, and logistics support to those who volunteer. For more information, visit www.lasco.org.

About Taft
Founded in 1885 with a 140-year legacy rooted in the historic Taft family, today Taft is one of the nation’s fastest growing law firms. As a modern law firm with a non-headquarter operating model and more than 1,250 attorneys, Taft is fully committed to delivering the highest level of service to today’s organizations and individuals. The legal performance of Taft attorneys is recognized nationally, with inclusion in the Am Law 100, Chambers USA, Best Lawyers^®, Super Lawyers, and more.

Each year, Taft devotes thousands of hours to individuals, groups, and nonprofit organizations who otherwise are unable to afford legal services. This dedication to the public interest is inherent in Taft’s culture; our founding partners were heavily engaged in public and political service, and our current attorneys continue that legacy. Learn more about Taft pro bono work here.

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About the CPBO Pro Bono Partner Award
The PBI Corporate Pro Bono (CPBO) project created the CPBO Pro Bono Partner Award to recognize innovative pro bono collaborations of in-house legal departments with law firms and public interest organizations. Pro bono partnerships that include at least one in-house legal department with one or more law firms and/or public interest organizations are eligible. The CPBO Advisory Board selects the award recipients.

The award honors legal departments and the organizations with which they partner in the provision of legal services to those in need. The award recipients are departments, law firms, and public interest organizations that have demonstrated an impact in their community through their partnership project, shown substantial involvement in the project by in-house lawyers, made tangible steps toward sustaining the relationship among the partners, developed innovative substantive or structural approaches in support of the partnership’s effort, and addressed a critical legal need or assisted a particularly vulnerable community or target population.