Category: Law Firm Pro Bono

Another tie?  A gift card?  Choosing the perfect gift during the holiday season is always a challenge.  Fortunately, The PBEye is here to help once again.  Here are some antidotes to the runaway consumerism that can overwhelm us at this time of year. We recently reviewed Gideon’s Army, an access-to-justice-themed documentary that premiered on HBO this past summer and has been showing at film festivals across the country.  The film follows public defenders in the Deep South who are faced with staggering caseloads and insufficient resources as they struggle to provide effective representation to low-income defendants in a criminal justice

Although overall homeless rates have reportedly fallen over the past decade, the number of homeless children has grown at an alarming pace.  According to recent data collected by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Homeless Education, the number of homeless youth enrolled in K-to-12 public schools has increased by 72 percent since 2007, and has risen 10 percent between 2010 and 2011 alone.  Furthermore, the most recent Department of Education numbers reveal that a record number of children – 1.2 million – enrolled in public schools were homeless between 2011 and 2012.  The largest concentration of homeless youth

More than 47 million Americans who benefit from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly referred to as food stamps, recently experienced sharp reductions in their monthly assistance.  The automatic cuts will decrease food stamp spending by $5 billion in the 2014 fiscal year, leaving many people struggling to get by, especially at the end of each month. With the start of November marking what food activists have termed the “Hunger Cliff,” we at The PBEye have been thinking about pro bono efforts designed to fight hunger and increase the availability of nutritious and affordable food.  Pro bono work to support

The 2013 Pro Bono Institute Annual Dinner has arrived and tonight’s the big night at Gotham Hall!  That means it’s also time for Law Firm Pro Bono Project house calls in New York City and this week we’ve already met with five firms! These house calls are part of our expert consultative services program, where Law Firm Project Director Tammy Taylor and Law Firm Project Assistant Director Reena Glazer visit law firms and meet with pro bono committees, firm and office leaders, partners, and pro bono coordinators, directors, and managers to discuss trends in pro bono and to learn about

Planning is underway for the 2014 PBI Annual Conference and The PBEye has all things Conference-related on the mind.  As we previously wrote, there are many meaningful ways to take the Conference home with you and continue building upon what you learn in March.  For instance, you can supplement the Conference materials with even more information found in the Law Firm Pro Bono Project’s Resource Clearinghouse or you can check out the “Best of the Conference” webinars, which update and reprise some of the most popular sessions. Our friends at Alston & Bird*† took it one step further and designed

As The PBEye previously reported, criminal justice debt is a persistently troubling part of our nation’s criminal justice system, as there are substantial expenses incurred by offenders throughout the entire incarceration process. As states, cities, and counties face increasingly tight budget constraints, many have turned to the offenders themselves to offset some of those costs.  Fees and surcharges are now imposed at nearly every stage of criminal processing, such as fees for public defenders, jail fees, court administrative fees, prosecution fees, probation fees, and more.  Offenders are often saddled with overwhelming costs which they struggle to pay, resulting in additional

There are many indications that law firm pro bono has hit critical mass – law firm pro bono brochures and videos, questions about pro bono in RFPs from corporate clients, cocktail party talk about pro bono work – but one sure sign is the prevalence of pro bono in popular culture, including documentaries, books, and prime-time television. As we’ve reported previously, lawyers at Lockhart Gardner, the fictional law firm at the center of “The Good Wife,” a successful CBS series, do a lot of pro bono work.  During one of its first episodes, a firm managing partner emphasized that “like

What do 39 of the Law Firm Pro Bono Project’s Member Firms and/or Challenge Signatories have in common?  They rank among the top 50 Best Law Firms for Women according to the Working Mother and Flex-Time Lawyers 2013 list. These law firms are leaders not just in pro bono but in advancing women’s interests.  They frequently promote women to leadership positions, offer generous parental leave, and allow flexible schedules and telecommuting.  It turns out that family-friendly firms also tend to support successful pro bono programs and vice versa; the two go hand-in-hand.  Indeed, there are notable parallels between efforts to