Improving Partner Participation

A popular and well-attended session at last month’s 2012 Annual Conference was “Best Practices for Improving Partner Participation.”  Many law firms struggle with how to involve more partners in pro bono work.  The PBEye believes that it is critical to attain meaningful participation by partners — it broadens a firm’s pro bono capacity and helps ensure the long-term vitality of pro bono by sending a clear message that pro bono is an important and lasting firm value. Here are a few helpful hints and best approaches for achieving significant partner involvement and successfully addressing obstacles to partner participation: Perform diagnostics

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Pro Bono in Practice: Immigration

People across the country and around the world will be watching closely when the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments tomorrow on the bitterly disputed immigration enforcement law that was passed two years ago in Arizona, inspiring similar laws in Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina, and Utah.  Arizona’s law, known as SB 1070, expanded the powers of state police officers to ask about the immigration status of anyone they stop and to detain those suspected of being illegal immigrants. The Obama administration challenged the law, and federal courts suspended several of its most contentious provisions.  Numerous firms, working pro bono, have

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VIDEO: Why Do Pro Bono? Andrew Fisher, Exxon Mobil Corporation

We at The PBEye know the importance being in touch with your community’s needs.  And pro bono just happens to be a great relationship builder and way to connect with your community. This week, hear from Andrew Fisher, counsel at Exxon Mobil Corporation, about why pro bono is important and how it can help you help others around you. YouTube Link

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Remembering a “Giant”

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

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Honoring Their Memory

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

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

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

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“IP”ro Bono

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

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Guest Blog: “Insurmountable Opportunities”

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. 

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VIDEO: Why Do Pro Bono? Betsy Cavendish, Appleseed

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

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A “True Champion of Equality” Gone Too Soon

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. 

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