PBEye Blog - Page 5 of 64 - Pro Bono Institute

CPBO Organizes GCs and CLOs to Support LSC Funding

May 19, 2022

by Noor Khan, PBI Intern For the sixth year in a row, legal department leaders are speaking out to support increased funding of 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®), worked in partnership with the National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA) to invite General Counsel and Chief Legal Officers to sign a letter asking Congress to approve $700 million in funding for LSC for Fiscal Year 2023. A notable group of 162 GCs and CLOs signed a letter

Homelessness & Housing Justice

March 29, 2022

by PBI intern Isabella Brill Last month when the Super Bowl was held at the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, a sudden move to shut down a nearby homeless encampment focused the public’s attention on a longstanding issue — homelessness. In the past year, homelessness has become an important topic amongst state and city leaders in Los Angeles, where the population has increased to over sixty thousand people in Los Angeles County. This estimate includes people that are unhoused and live amongst the street. However, it could be much larger due to the difficulty in finding and counting homeless people, and multiple delays in the annual

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

Pro Bono & the AAPI Community: A Conversation with Christina Yang of Advancing Justice – LA

February 16, 2022

Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders account for 7.2% of the U.S. population, and are the fastest growing ethnic population in the U.S. In the last few years, there has been a significant increase in hate incidents targeting the Asian American community. PBI’s Corporate Pro Bono project recently joined Christina Yang, General Counsel and Pro Bono Director at Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Los Angeles (Advancing Justice – LA), in conversation to learn more about the challenges facing the AAPI community and what pro bono lawyers can do to help. Yang joined Advancing Justice – LA over seven years ago as

Crime-Free Housing Ordinances

December 8, 2021

Adequate housing is a basic human right, yet there are many barriers to housing in the United States. The PBEye has been following the development of laws and policies that create or ease barriers to housing, including the response to growing housing insecurity during the pandemic, the impact of the end of the national eviction moratorium, the decriminalization of homelessness through the establishment of homeless courts, and the movement to secure a right to counsel for tenants in housing court. In this latest article, we look at the impact of crime-free housing ordinances. Crime-free housing ordinances vary widely state to state and within county and city jurisdictions, but

Assisting Refugees with Resettlement in the U.S.

December 6, 2021

By PBI Intern Søren Whiting On August 31st, the Biden Administration ended all U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan, marking an end to a twenty-year war. Two weeks before the United States had withdrawn all troops, Taliban forces seized control of the country. In response, tens of thousands of individuals in Afghanistan gathered at central airports seeking to flee gendered, political, or religious oppression under Taliban rule. The Taliban’s rapid takeover complicated the evacuation process for many, leaving U.S. citizens, Afghans who assisted the U.S., and Afghans fleeing oppression stranded in Afghanistan. Moreover, Afghans who managed to leave Afghanistan, or are

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

Pro Bono Week 2021

October 10, 2021

by PBI Intern Søren Whiting While carving pumpkins with your families or loved ones this fall, why not carve out time to celebrate pro bono?! As the season changes, pro bono practice is also transitioning into the start of a post-pandemic world. Despite the many obstacles over the past two years, pro bono endured, and that is worth celebrating and recognizing. This October 24-30, 2021 marks the American Bar Association’s (ABA) 13th Annual Celebration of Pro Bono. The event is an opportunity to celebrate the perseverance of pro bono and recognize the work that still needs to be done to strengthen

The Homeless Court Movement

September 29, 2021

By Kristen Bolster, PBI Intern On any given night there are roughly 580,500 people experiencing homelessness in the United States (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development). People who experience homelessness may be penalized and charged with civil offenses for trespassing, and receive fines and fees for actions including living in a vehicle, blocking the sidewalk, and smoking, urinating, drinking or sleeping in public. These acts can be categorized as ‘public nuisance offenses,’ which many people experiencing homelessness oftentimes have little option but to commit. Nonpayment of fines and fees can lead to collection agencies getting involved and tacking on

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