Corporate Pro Bono Archives - Pro Bono Institute

130+ Chief Legal Officers and General Counsel Urge Congress to Support Funding for Civil Legal Aid

June 25, 2026

By Alyssa Saunders, Director, Corporate Pro Bono On May 29, 2026, 132 General Counsel and Chief Legal Officers called on Congress to fully fund the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) for Fiscal Year 2027. LSC is the largest funder of civil legal aid in the United States, providing essential support to legal aid organizations that serve low-income communities in need in every congressional district. The 2026 GC/CLO letter to Congress is linked here. This is the tenth year that Pro Bono Institute (PBI), through its global in-house project, Corporate Pro Bono (CPBO), has worked in collaboration with the National Legal Aid

Celebrating Growth in Pro Bono: P&G Signs on to the CPBO Challenge

June 11, 2026

The Pro Bono Institute Corporate Pro Bono (CPBO) Challenge® initiative is celebrating its 20th anniversary alongside PBI’s 30 years of advancing access to justice. These milestones are an opportunity to celebrate the evolution of in-house pro bono, welcome one of the newest additions to the CPBO Challenge initiative, and encourage more legal departments to participate in delivering pro bono legal services to those in need. After a year of revitalizing its Pro Bono Program, Procter & Gamble’s Legal Division (P&G) was honored to sign on to the CPBO Challenge initiative. In April 2026, P&G’s North America General Counsel Dara Kendall signed the pledge and

Celebrating 20 Years of the Corporate Pro Bono Challenge Initiative

December 11, 2025

By Alyssa Saunders, Director Corporate Pro Bono In 2026, the Pro Bono Institute Corporate Pro Bono (CPBO) Challenge® initiative will celebrate its 20th anniversary alongside PBI’s 30 years of advancing access to justice. These milestones are an opportunity to celebrate the growth of in-house pro bono over the years and challenge more legal departments to participate in delivering pro bono legal services to those in need. Background on the Challenge and In-House Pro Bono In 2000, PBI founded the CPBO project to develop and transform in-house pro bono. Since then, the CPBO project has worked with more than one thousand

Five Trends for In-House Pro Bono in 2025

January 23, 2025

Alyssa Saunders, Director, Corporate Pro Bono The 2024 Benchmarking Report by Corporate Pro Bono (CPBO) highlighted several key trends shaping in-house pro bono programs. This report, based on legal departments’ responses to CPBO’s biennial survey, provides key insights into the structure and substance of in-house pro bono programs. Here are five trends that emerged in the report, that we expect will continue to shape pro bono in 2025. Increased Institutional Commitment A rising percentage of legal departments that do pro bono are adopting formal pro bono policies. In 2024, 72% of respondents reported having a written pro bono policy, up

Driving Change: The Chief Legal Officer’s Perspective on Innovation and Pro Bono

October 11, 2024

At the 2024 Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) Annual Meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, this week, Corporate Pro Bono (CPBO), PBI’s global project committed to enhancing in-house pro bono, hosted an engaging session on Driving Change: The Chief Legal Officer’s View on Innovation and Pro Bono. Moderated by Alyssa Saunders, Director, CPBO, the session featured insights from two prominent in-house pro bono leaders: Gayle E. Littleton, Chief Legal Officer of Exelon Corporation,** and Bimal Patel, Senior Vice President and General Counsel of PayPal. The panel attracted a diverse audience from legal departments of various sizes, with many senior leaders present, including

In-House Counsel in the Community: Advancing Justice Through Pro Bono in Domestic Violence and Immigration Matters

July 29, 2024

PBI Signatory Showcase Interview with Kimball Electronics, Inc.** Organized by the Orange County Public Law Center, Kimball Electronics has been actively involved in the Domestic Violence Assistance Program where they provide vital legal support, assisting clients in obtaining restraining orders to protect them from domestic violence. These efforts are crucial in empowering individuals to secure their safety and that of their loved ones. The department also collaborates with the Indiana Bar Foundation’s Indiana Legal Help walk-in clinics, both in-person and online. Both organizations work to improve legal assistance for people across the state of Indiana. And beyond direct client representation,

The Force Multiplier Effect: Combining Partnership, Mentorship, Technology and More to Serve Nonprofits and Impact Community

May 29, 2024

PBI Signatory Showcase Interview with Koch Capabilities, LLC and Barnes & Thornburg LLP In February 2020, weeks before the pandemic began to ripple across the U.S., Koch Industries welcomed representatives from our panel of preferred law firms to Wichita. Koch General Counsel Ray Geoffroy felt strongly that Koch had a tremendous opportunity to accomplish so much good for society by leveraging our combined capabilities (internal lawyers and external panel firm lawyers) on a larger scale. He challenged the law firms to partner with our Pro Bono Initiative and become a “force multiplier” to Koch’s efforts. Further, he set the expectation

Pro Bono Evolution: A New Maturity Model for In-House Pro Bono

October 30, 2023

The legal department at Microsoft and the Corporate Pro Bono (CPBO®) project of Pro Bono Institute are proud to announce the release of a Pro Bono Maturity Model for in-house pro bono programs. In-house pro bono has grown over the past three decades, with more corporate legal departments creating and implementing formal pro bono programs. The Pro Bono Maturity Model is designed to assist pro bono leaders at departments with robust or longstanding pro bono programs who may wonder how to take their program to the next level. The Maturity Model offers guidance to departments to assess the strengths and

Chief Legal Officer’s Point of View: Doing Well and Doing Good

October 25, 2023

Corporate Pro Bono (CPBO), a global project of Pro Bono Institute (PBI) committed to enhancing in-house pro bono, presented a session at the 2023 Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas this week: Chief Legal Officer’s Point of View: Doing Well and Doing Good. Eve Runyon, President and CEO of PBI, moderated an engaging discussion with Marcus Brown, Executive Vice President & General Counsel of Entergy Corporation, and Hossein Nowbar, Chief Legal Officer of Microsoft Corporation. Entergy and Microsoft both have robust, longstanding pro bono programs. They are signatories to the Corporate Pro Bono Challenge® initiative,

Corporate Pro Bono Publishes New Metrics Resource

June 29, 2022

Metrics pose a perennial challenge for tracking in-house legal departments’ pro bono programs. To assist departments, PBI’s Corporate Pro Bono project (CPBO) recently published the Corporate Pro Bono Metrics Guide as part of its continuing development of effective tools for measurement and assessment of in-house pro bono. Capturing metrics can enable a pro bono program to convey the value and importance of pro bono to volunteers, the institutions for which they work, and the individuals and communities being served. Regular and ongoing assessments of in-house pro bono practice provide a way to evaluate and improve the legal services delivered as well

Category: Corporate Pro Bono