PBEye Blog - Page 54 of 65 - Pro Bono Institute

Remembering a “Giant”

April 19, 2012

The PBEye and access to justice community mourn the loss of John G. Brooks this week after the “champion for access to legal services for the poor died Sunday at his home.” Brooks, who was the past president of the Boston Bar Association and partner at Peabody & Arnold, spent his career advocating on behalf of access to legal services. In a tribute to Brooks on its website, the Boston Bar Association notes: In the 1950s, he began a lifetime commitment to pro bono work to improve the delivery of legal assistance for the poor. He became intimately involved in the

Honoring Their Memory

April 19, 2012

Today is Yom HaShoah — Holocaust Remembrance Day, a day of commemoration for the approximately six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. Imagine your youth and family destroyed by the Nazis and now your old age is tormented by the crushing burden of poverty. This is the reality for a great number of survivors worldwide who live below the poverty line. In May 2008, Bet Tzedek launched the Holocaust Survivors Justice Network in response to two German government sponsored payment programs. The Network partners pro bono attorneys with Jewish social service providers to provide free legal assistance to eligible Holocaust

VIDEO: Why Do Pro Bono? Jim Sandman, Legal Services Corporation

April 18, 2012

As in-house legal departments have shown us increasingly in recent years, pro bono is not just for law firms. But pro bono still reaches even further than that into public interest groups and government, which also play a crucial role in increasing access to justice. For example, the Legal Services Corporation is the single largest funder of civil legal aid to low-income Americans. Hear from LSC President Jim Sandman about why pro bono is important. YouTube Link

“IP”ro Bono

April 13, 2012

Attendees at the PBI Annual Conference last month had the opportunity to learn about an exciting new pilot initiative called the Minnesota LegalCorps Inventor Assistant Program. John Calvert from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and Candee Goodman from Lindquist & Vennum PLLP*† were on hand to speak about the program and educate attendees as to how this can be a resource for IP lawyers looking to do pro bono work, while helping jumpstart the U.S. economy. Independent inventors fuel innovation that can inspire inventions and create new businesses and jobs. However, they often need legal help they

Guest Blog: “Insurmountable Opportunities”

April 12, 2012

One of the speakers at the PBI Annual Conference this year offered a quote from the classic comic strip philosopher Pogo as an apt description of the current state of pro bono, “We are confronted with insurmountable opportunities.” One of the greatest benefits of attending the Conference for me (for the first time), was the sense of instant community I had with the people I met — bright, energetic, dedicated professionals, all faced with the same set of insurmountable opportunities. When I signed on to attend the Conference, I wasn’t sure what I really wanted to get out of it.

VIDEO: Why Do Pro Bono? Betsy Cavendish, Appleseed

April 9, 2012

We at The PBEye talk to a lot of lawyers about why they do pro bono, and we can pretty much count on them giving both professional and personal reasons. What’s great about that is that is underscores the win-win-win outcome of doing pro bono work for firms, lawyers, and clients. Even better, often it’s hard to draw a distinct line between the professional and personal benefits of pro bono as Betsy Cavendish, executive director of Appleseed, explains below. YouTube Link

A “True Champion of Equality” Gone Too Soon

March 23, 2012

The PBEye was saddened to hear of the passing of John Payton, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. Payton was a lifelong champion for equal rights and justice. Going back to his time at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP*, he embraced pro bono as a critical part of his practice and used his influence to encourage colleagues at the firm to promote pro bono work. Tributes have come pouring in in his memory, including President Obama: “A true champion of equality, [Payton] helped protect civil rights in the classroom and at the ballot box.

From Annual Conference . . . to Major Litigation

March 22, 2012

At the 2010 Pro Bono Institute Annual Conference, we were pleased to highlight a then month-old, cutting-edge initiative of The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Loan Modification Scam Prevention Network (LMSPN). Millions of distressed homeowners are vulnerable targets to devious and sometimes criminal third-party scammers and con artists. Underwater homeowners, desperate to keep their homes, are at risk from so-called “loan modification specialists,” some of whom are the very people who previously peddled subprime loans. They employ various scams with disastrous consequences for homeowners. While waiting for the promised relief, homeowners not only lose their money but often

VIDEO: 26 Years: The Dewey Bozella Story

March 20, 2012

In November, PBI was honored to hear from Dewey Bozella at the 2011 PBI Annual Dinner in New York. Bozella, an amateur boxer who was wrongly imprisoned for 26 years, was exonerated in 2008 with the hard work of pro bono attorneys at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr LLP*. Bozella subsequently received the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage and won his first and only professional boxing match. Now, Bozella’s story, and the hard work of WilmerHale, is the subject of an hour-long documentary by ESPN Films. We at The PBEye, are happy to see this kind of attention paid

VIDEO: Why Do Pro Bono? Cheryl Naja, Alston & Bird LLP

March 19, 2012

Why do pro bono? Why not? Well, it’s not quite as simple as that, but we at The PBEye have been grateful to have great friends and supporters who can explain the many important reasons to do pro bono legal work. This week hear from Cheryl Naja, pro bono and community service manager at Alston & Bird LLP* about why it’s important to do pro bono. YouTube Link *denotes a Signatory to the Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge®