dlipscomb, Author at Pro Bono Institute

It’s Pro Bono Podcast Monday

March 21, 2016

Need a break from March Madness? Looking to pass the time as you travel to Washington, D.C. this week for the PBI Annual Conference? Tune in to the Law Firm Pro Bono Project’s podcast, the Pro Bono Happy Hour, and learn about exciting and meaningful developments in the world of law firm pro bono. Each week we interview insightful and entertaining expert guests from Law Firm Pro Bono Project Member Firms and Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge® Signatories, and offer a smart, fresh, creative take on pro bono. You don’t want to miss our recent interviews with Terri Hendley of

Bringing More to Pro Bono: Appreciation for Social Workers

March 18, 2016

Celebrated each March, National Professional Social Work Month is an opportunity to highlight the many contributions social workers make to the communities in which we live, including improving access to justice. Social workers across the country, now numbering in the 600,000s, assist individuals and families in need each day in a wide variety of capacities, including more and more at legal organizations to provide more holistic services to clients facing a variety of critical legal needs. As many pro bono lawyers know, the clients they serve often carry more than just legal-related issues, and may be facing a variety of

A Purpose Beyond Profit

March 17, 2016

We at The PBEye spend a lot of time thinking, talking, and writing about why lawyers, law firms, and legal departments should do pro bono work. In case you need yet another reason, check out The Business Case for Purpose, a recent global survey of 474 executives conducted by Ernst & Young and Harvard Business Review Analytics. They wanted to better understand how a strong shared sense of purpose can help companies meet new challenges and transform their organizations. (The survey defined organizational purpose as “an aspirational reason for being which inspires and provides a call to action for an

Pro Bono and Millennial Engagement

March 10, 2016

In 2015, Millennials (adults born between 1980 and the late 1990s) became the largest share of the American workforce, with many more Millennial employees expected to pour into the workforce in the coming years. This generation’s workplace needs are different than those of their parents and grandparents – as a consequence, employers (including law firms) must make some adjustments if they want to retain the top Millennial hires. Recent research studies by Network for Good (“Engaging Millennial Employees: Recruit and Retain Top Talent with Cause”) and Achieve/The Case Foundation (“The 2015 Millennial Impact Report”) found that “transactional” needs, such as

Celebrating Women’s History Month with an Access to Justice Pioneer

March 4, 2016

March is Women’s History Month, dedicated to the many achievements and contributions of women throughout American history, including women in the legal profession. Among the women to have pioneered access to justice in law is Clara Shortridge Foltz, a once-celebrated but now largely forgotten public servant. Foltz was the first woman on the Pacific Coast to pass the bar after first lobbying the California legislature to change a legal code that allowed only white males to become lawyers. Foltz had a successful corporate practice and also represented many indigent defendants in criminal trials where she witnessed rampant prosecutorial misconduct and

John Oliver Takes On Voting Rights

March 3, 2016

The presidential primaries are in full swing and The PBEye was pleased to see that John Oliver kicked off season three of Last Week Tonight with a timely segment about voting rights. He took aim at states that have implemented voting restrictions following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby County v. Holder, which weakened the Voting Rights Act. According to Oliver, “Since 2011, seven states have curtailed early voting and 13 have added requirements that voters show some kind of ID at the polls.” After showing clips of state lawmakers claiming that these new voting requirements are simply

It’s Pro Bono Podcast Monday

February 29, 2016

Leap day is here, which means you have some extra time to catch up on any Pro Bono Happy Hour episodes you may have missed. Tune in to the Law Firm Pro Bono Project’s podcast and learn about exciting and meaningful developments in the world of law firm pro bono. Each week we interview insightful and entertaining expert guests from Law Firm Pro Bono Project Member Firms and Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge® Signatories, and offer a smart, fresh, creative take on pro bono. Check out our recent two-part interview with Pam Wandzel of Fredrikson & Byron*†, where she talks

It’s Pro Bono Podcast Monday

February 8, 2016

Too much fun at your Super Bowl party yesterday? Need an antidote for the Monday blues? Tune in to the Law Firm Pro Bono Project’s podcast, the Pro Bono Happy Hour, and learn about about exciting and meaningful developments in the world of law firm pro bono. Each week we interview insightful and entertaining expert guests from Law Firm Pro Bono Project Member Firms and Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge® Signatories, and offer a smart, fresh, creative take on pro bono. You don’t want to miss our recent episodes, featuring Scottie Brown of Hunton & Williams*† and Jonathan Baum of

Warm Up This Winter with Pro Bono

February 4, 2016

The National Law Journal recently released its annual Pro Bono Hot List, which showcases significant and noteworthy pro bono efforts at major law firms. This year’s issue recognized 10 Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge® Signatories and/or Law Firm Pro Bono Project Member Firms for “raising the bar” through their inspiring and exceptional pro bono initiatives: Chadbourne & Parke*† (advising a Virginia task force on the creation of a human trafficking prevention foundation); Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton* (winning a unanimous jury verdict in New Jersey against a firm promising “conversion therapy” for LGBTQ youth); DLA Piper*† (working with Texas Appleseed

Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge® Reporting Is Now Open!

January 25, 2016

Reporting season for the 2015 calendar year is now open. We have emailed unique survey links to all Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge® Signatories, so be sure to check your spam filter if you did not receive yours. The deadline for reporting is February 26. Each year, Challenge Signatories provide a brief, electronic report to the Law Firm Pro Bono Project on their progress in meeting the Challenge. The individual firm data is kept confidential, but each submission provides the basis for critically important aggregate statistics about trends in law firm pro bono. Please assist us in communicating the good

Author: dlipscomb