Category: Blog

Ethical rules and pro bono policies in each state can either ease the way for attorneys seeking to provide pro bono legal services or erect road blocks in their path. With studies showing that approximately 80% of the civil legal needs of low-income Americans are unaddressed, how do we structure our laws, rules, and policies to encourage and cultivate a broader commitment to pro bono? Determining which statewide practices can best harness pro bono resources is a topic of important research. In a recent article, Professor Latonia Haney Keith discussed the consensus among pro bono leaders that implementing policies that expand

In September 2016, United Airlines**, Seyfarth Shaw*, and Cabrini Green Legal Aid (CGLA) began a pro bono collaboration to help low-income individuals in Chicago recover vehicles and other property seized by the police during an arrest. This practice, known as civil asset forfeiture, originally intended to go after crime lords, drug cartels, and white-collar criminals, was being routinely turned against “workaday homes, cars, cash savings, and other belongings of innocent people who are never charged with a crime” in cities throughout the United States, as explained in a 2013 New Yorker article. In Chicago, police are authorized to seize property suspected of being

For the third year in a row, in response to the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) proposal to eliminate Legal Services Corporation (LSC), Corporate Pro Bono (CPBO), the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC), and the National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA) worked with the in-house community to gather the support to ensure LSC is fully funded. This week, more than 260 general counsel and chief legal officers signed a letterdelivered to Congress advocating for LSC funding for FY2020. An impressive group of leaders, representing legal departments diverse in size, geography, and industry, joined this effort. As the largest funder

PBI is gearing up for the first-ever Financial Institution Pro Bono Day, Thursday, May 2, 2019. Financial institutions from across the U.S. are working together for a day of volunteering to provide a diverse range of pro bono legal services to vulnerable communities. Organized by Corporate Pro Bono, PBI’s project to support in-house pro bono, Financial Institution Pro Bono Day will spotlight the severe gap in legal services for underserved individuals in the U.S. and promote in-house pro bono engagement and collaboration. This guest blog, written by Mark Gittelman, Managing Chief Counsel – Bankruptcy and Business Reorganization for PNC Bank, tells

The California Supreme Court recently loosened restrictions on the ability of non-locally licensed in-house counsel to engage in pro bono legal services, effective March 1, 2019. Corporate Pro Bono (CPBO) and the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) worked to advocate for amendments to the California Rules of Court and the State Bar Rules that would remove burdensome restrictions on pro bono practice for in-house counsel. Approximately three dozen Chief Legal Officers (CLOs) signed onto letters in support of the rule change. Prior to the amendments, in order to practice pro bono, non-locally licensed, registered in-house counsel were required to additionally

Ready to learn about the latest trends in in-house pro bono? Corporate Pro Bono’s 2018 Benchmarking Report is hot off the press! Since 2010, CPBO’s biennial benchmarking survey highlights key trends in in-house pro bono and enables legal departments to compare the performance and management of their pro bono programs with those of other departments. Historically, the survey always covers topics such as program administration, policies, insurance, partnerships, projects, global pro bono, metrics, communications, and budgets. For the 2018 Benchmarking Report, CPBO also incorporated new questions in the survey we sent to in-house legal departments that included questions about dedicated pro bono

While many associate “legal pro bono services” with attorneys, efforts have shown that paralegals and administrative staff in the legal departments of companies, as well as attorneys and professionals in other departments, are actively engaged in pro bono. There are many ways for employees, regardless of their title and position in a company, to provide pro bono legal services. To help companies navigate how to effectively engage legal department professionals and other company employees in pro bono, Corporate Pro Bono (CPBO) recently released a new paper on this topic. Here are key takeaways from CPBO’s new resource: There is no one-size-fits-all approach.