Corporate Pro Bono Archives - Page 2 of 19

Over Three Dozen Corporate Legal Department Leaders Urge Congress to Support EQUAL Defense Act

March 23, 2022

This month, Pro Bono Institute (PBI) and its global in-house project, Corporate Pro Bono (CPBO), have worked with the National Legal Aid & Defender Association to rally the support of more than three dozen legal department leaders behind the Ensuring Quality Access to Legal Defense (EQUAL Defense) Act of 2021 through a successful letter campaign. The act, formally introduced to Congress as H.R.1408 in February of 2021, aims to establish pay parity between defenders and prosecutors via a federal grant program that would invest $250 million annually to reduce the immense public defender workloads across state, local, and tribal systems. Last week an

Panel Recap: The Chief Legal Officer’s Point of View: Sustainability, Racial Justice, and In-House Pro Bono

November 15, 2021

By PBI Intern Søren Whiting On October 21, 2021, at the 2021 Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) Annual Meeting, Corporate Pro Bono (CPBO) hosted an engaging panel discussion on leaders of corporate in-house departments engaging their teams to strengthen their sustainability, racial justice, and in-house pro bono missions. Todd Machtmes, Executive Vice President & General Counsel of Salesforce**, Sandra Phillips Rogers, Group Vice President, General Counsel, Chief Legal Officer, and Chief Diversity Officer of Toyota Motor North America, Inc.; and Allon Stabinsky, Senior Vice President and Chief Deputy General Counsel, of Intel** served as panelists and provided a great discussion. PBI

Help us reach our goal of 200 signatories to the CPBO Challenge® initiative

August 30, 2021

PBI’s Corporate Pro Bono Challenge® (CPBO) initiative is celebrating its 15th Anniversary this year! Since 2006, more than 185 legal departments have signed the CPBO Challenge statement and committed to encouraging their legal staff to use their unique skills to provide pro bono legal services to those in need. We thank our many signatories, which include departments with longstanding pro bono programs and departments that have recently started programs, for their commitment to improving access to justice through pro bono. This year, CPBO staff and members of the CPBO Advisory Board are calling on General Counsels and Chief Legal Officers to sign

200+ Legal Department Leaders Call on Congress to Increase Funding for the Legal Services Corporation

May 27, 2021

For the fifth year in a row, legal department leaders have come together to support funding for the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), the largest funder of civil legal aid in the United States.

Pro Bono Institute (PBI) and its global in-house project, Corporate Pro Bono (CPBO), along with the National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA) and the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC), recently circulated a letter inviting General Counsel and Chief Legal Officers to sign on in support of increased funding for LSC for Fiscal Year 2022.

Two Decades of Exceptional In-House Pro Bono

April 12, 2021

In 2020, Corporate Pro Bono (CPBO), the global in-house project of Pro Bono Institute (PBI), celebrated its twentieth anniversary, and published the 2020 Benchmarking Report, the sixth biannual report on the state of in-house pro bono. When CPBO was first founded, in-house pro bono was far less common than it is today. Within a decade, in-house pro bono programs had multiplied and expanded. To track and measure pro bono engagement, CPBO began surveying in-house pro bono leaders about their legal departments’ pro bono programs in 2010, and every other year thereafter.

Pro Bono Fairs Then and Now: Don’t Let Distance Interfere with Your Fair!

September 30, 2020

PBI’s Corporate Pro Bono project (CPBO) has worked with legal departments and Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) chapters over the years to host in-house pro bono fairs. Pro bono fairs are a great opportunity to introduce in-house attorneys and legal department staff to local legal services organizations that offer pro bono opportunities. In-house attorneys and staff interested in pro bono participate in presentations by local legal services organizations about pro bono opportunities, and networking with pro bono peers. Historically, coffee and croissants were on the menu, too.

Pro Bono Rules! How Policies Can Expand Or Impede Pro Bono

June 20, 2019

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

A Pro Bono Collaboration to Help Innocent Owners Recover Seized Property

May 14, 2019

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

Chief Legal Officers Advocate for Funding of Legal Services Corporation

May 1, 2019

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

Financial Institutions Unite for Pro Bono

April 22, 2019

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

Category: Corporate Pro Bono