Pro Bono Partnerships Archives - Pro Bono Institute

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.

A Conversation with Annie Helms — Rolling Meadows Domestic Violence Help Desk

October 18, 2018

In 2016, the Rolling Meadows Help Desk was created when a group of lawyers at Allstate**, Discover**, DLA Piper*†, and Illinois Tool Works united to help a local nonprofit organization, Between Friends, assist domestic violence survivors at the Rolling Meadows Courthouse. The courthouse is located 25 miles outside Chicago in suburban Cook County, Illinois. With the expert training and support of LAF, lawyers from each of the partner organizations regularly staff four-hour shifts in the Between Friends office, helping victims fill out paperwork, explaining the court process, and ensuring that no survivor goes through the process of obtaining a protective

Doing Pro Bono to Preserve Democracy

September 6, 2018

With the 2018 midterm elections around the corner, an added spotlight is placed on ensuring the right to vote in jurisdictions across the United States, and pro bono lawyers have played a unique role in protecting the right to vote for individuals and marginalized communities. In the last seven years, dozens of states have adopted a range of laws that impact voting. In 2017, legislatures in Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Montana, and North Dakota passed laws that impose voter ID requirements, purge voters, and limit voter registration drives. Opponents of these regulations argue that they have a disproportionate impact on

It’s Pro Bono Podcast Monday: A Conversation with Eliza Vorenberg

October 16, 2017

Eliza Vorenberg from the Roger Williams University School of Law joins us on the Law Firm Pro Bono Project’s podcast, the Pro Bono Happy Hour, to explore her career, the Pro Bono Collaborative, which connects law firms, attorneys, and law students to community organizations that need pro bono legal services, and the access to justice culture in Rhode Island. We also discuss the wide variety of law student pro bono opportunities; the role of volunteer attorney mentors: expungement clinics; providing civil legal advice to individuals in a medium security prison and tax assistance clinics for low-income residents; and more. Take

It’s Pro Bono Podcast Monday

July 17, 2017

Don’t miss the latest episode of the Law Firm Pro Bono Project’s podcast, the Pro Bono Happy Hour, featuring Courtney Darts of the Pro Bono Partnership. Courtney talks to us about pro bono initiatives to support nonprofit organizations, transactional pro bono opportunities that strengthen communities, advice for aspiring public interest lawyers, and more. Subscribe to the Pro Bono Happy Hour on Apple Podcasts and be sure to leave a review! We’d appreciate the feedback and it would help us expand the conversation about access to justice. The podcast is also available on YouTube. Links to all of our episodes can

Guest Blog: Boston Scientific Makes an Impact

September 20, 2016

We at The PBEye are inspired every day by the Corporate Pro Bono Challenge® signatories. In celebration of the 10th anniversary of the launch of the CPBO Challenge® initiative, we are showcasing some of their projects with the hope that they inspire you, too. At Boston Scientific Corporation**, a global medical device company dedicated to transforming patient lives through innovative medical solutions, one of our credos is “Everyone Makes an Impact.” This statement rings true not only with respect to the company’s commitment to patient care but its philosophy on corporate citizenship, including contributions made through its pro bono program. Although Boston Scientific’s pro

Global CSR + Pro Bono

September 8, 2015

One of the ways to increase pro bono activities within in-house legal departments is to closely align them with the company’s ethos and its global corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts. One such example of the complementary nature of Global CSR and pro bono programs is the work done by International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), which have garnered numerous awards and recognition for the company. IBM’s legal department’s pro bono activities routinely match with the company’s CSR initiatives through such programs as IBM’s employee Corporate Service Corps and On Demand Community. In 2011, IBM celebrated its 100-year anniversary by encouraging employees

Partnership Develops Tools to Aid Judges in South Asia

August 26, 2015

South Asia has suffered from a significant amount of terrorist violence over the years. For example, 38 percent of terrorist incidents in 2013 occurred in South Asia, according to the Global Center on Cooperative Security. In 2014, according to the U.S. State Department, more than 60 percent of terrorist attacks took place in just five countries (Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, and Nigeria), of which three are in South Asia; nearly 6,700 people died from terrorist attacks in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India that year. In recognition of the need to build expertise in the adjudication of terrorism-related cases, the Global Center

Mobilizing Pro Bono

August 11, 2015

In the spring of 2013, two weeks after attending an immigration law training session hosted by Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld*†, AT&T Inc.** volunteers put their skills to use by participating in a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival mega-clinic. At the clinic, set in a local Dallas high school that serves a large immigrant population, AT&T attorneys counseled more than 250 immigrants regarding eligibility and in filling out detailed applications. The clinic was designed as a one-day project; however, one client who needed more assistance stuck out to Belinda Marin Boling, a co-chair of AT&T’s southwest region’s pro bono

Liberia, the Magna Carta, and the Rule of Law

June 17, 2015

On June 15, thousands of people from around the world descended on a field in Runnymede in the United Kingdom to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the sealing of the Magna Carta. Although the Magna Carta was not the first time a monarch agreed to respect the rights and liberties of others, it went on to become an icon for the revolutionary concepts of due process and the rule of law. As British Prime Minister David Cameron noted at the commemoration, “Think of South Africa – of that courtroom in Rivonia. As Nelson Mandela stood in the dock, looking at

Category: Pro Bono Partnerships