John D. Hamilton, Jr., for sixteen years the managing partner of Hale and Dorr and currently of counsel at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, will receive the Pro Bono Institute’s 2005 Chesterfield Smith Award. The award, which will be presented on March 4, at a ceremony at the United States Supreme Court, recognizes extraordinary courage and commitment to pro bono by a law firm leader. It is not given annually; rather, only when warranted by outstanding achievement.
“John Hamilton is a very fitting recipient of the Smith award because, like Chesterfield, John helped shepherd his firm through a remarkable period of growth and change, while at the same time advancing and institutionalizing a culture of pro bono,” said Pro Bono Institute President Esther F. Lardent. “He also shares Chesterfield’s strong belief in equal access to justice and in lawyers’ responsibilities to their communities.”
With Hamilton’s guidance, Hale and Dorr created an innovative venture with the clinical legal program and the Legal Services Center at Harvard Law School. This successful venture is known today as the Hale and Dorr Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School. He also served as co-chair of the Advisory Committee of the Pro Bono Institute’s Law Firm Pro Bono Project, lending his time and passion for justice to efforts to strengthen pro bono at major law firms across the nation and around the world.
Until recently, Hamilton chaired the Boston Lawyers Group, an organization of law firms, corporate law departments and governmental legal offices that support the efforts of Boston’s legal community to identify, recruit, advance and retain attorneys of color.
“He has been a visionary,” said the Pro Bono Institute’s Law Firm Project Director, Tammy Taylor, “and a leader in the truest sense of the word – leading by example with quiet strength.”
Using his practice specialty of real estate law, Hamilton served for many years as pro bono counsel to the Walden Woods Project, which preserves the land, literature and legacy of Henry David Thoreau to foster an ethic of environmental stewardship and social responsibility. He also served on the Advisory Council of the Society for Preservation of New England Antiquities, and has been a trustee of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a member of the Board of Governors of the Concord Museum. Hamilton was general counsel of the Boston Museum of Science and a trustee of the Museum from 1976 to 2004. Having served as a member of the Museum’s Executive Committee and the chair of its Diversity Committee, he is now a Trustee Emeritus.
Nationally, Hamilton is a director of Princeton Project 55, a nonprofit organization established by members of the Class of 1955 at Princeton University to mobilize alumni, students and others to provide civic leadership and to develop and implement solutions to systemic problems that affect the public interest. He is also a tireless supporter of City Year/Boston where he has served as Board Chair and pro bono counsel.
The Chesterfield Smith Award honors the late Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Holland & Knight who grew his law firm from a two-lawyer office to the eighth largest law firm in the nation while holding firmly to his – and its – values and his humanity. He believed, throughout his long life, in the promise of the law and the justice system. He believed, passionately and completely, in equal justice for all, while standing firm in his conviction that public service and pro bono were absolutely essential elements in the lives of lawyers and in the texture and culture of great law firms.
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About the Pro Bono Institute at Georgetown University Law Center
Established in 1996, PBI is a non-profit organization mandated to explore and identify new approaches to the poor and disadvantaged unable to secure legal assistance to address critical problems. In doing so, the Institute identifies and develops innovative programs and undertakes rigorous evaluations to ensure that these new approaches are workable and effective. The Institute administers a number of projects designed to enhance access to justice, including: the Law Firm Pro Bono Project, the CorporateProBono Project, and the Reinventing Pro Bono Project for public interest organizations.