Category: Pro Bono

The PBEye Salutes Solicitor General Donald Verrilli

After five years as Solicitor General of the United States, Donald Verrilli will be stepping down from the position. Verrilli is well known not only as a gifted orator but a staunch advocate for pro bono. PBI was honored to have him join us at the 2015 PBI Annual Conference to discuss his passion for access to justice and his hopes for the future of pro bono. When asked about whether he advises others to share his personal goal of spending at least 10 percent of his hours on pro bono matters he said: The way it looks to me now

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Celebrating Women’s History Month with an Access to Justice Pioneer

March is Women’s History Month, dedicated to the many achievements and contributions of women throughout American history, including women in the legal profession. Among the women to have pioneered access to justice in law is Clara Shortridge Foltz, a once-celebrated but now largely forgotten public servant. Foltz was the first woman on the Pacific Coast to pass the bar after first lobbying the California legislature to change a legal code that allowed only white males to become lawyers. Foltz had a successful corporate practice and also represented many indigent defendants in criminal trials where she witnessed rampant prosecutorial misconduct and

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A Call to Action on September 11

Eleven years ago today, the U.S. experienced a trauma like no other in our history.  We watched as a brutal and senseless attack by terrorists unfolded on innocent people who were going about their daily lives.  The events of September 11 forever changed us as individuals and as a nation.  None of us – not only those of us in New York City, near the Pentagon, or in a small town in Pennsylvania who were direct eye witnesses  – will ever forget the unspeakable horror of that day or the bravery and generosity of spirit that followed. One of the

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