PBEye Blog - Page 3 of 64 - Pro Bono Institute

Race, Income, and the Effect on Educational Opportunity

July 13, 2023

When it comes to equity in education, America is still learning. by Emily Cardona, PBI Intern On June 29, 2023, the Supreme Court of the United States issued an opinion ending affirmative action programs at colleges and universities across the country. The decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College reversed decades of legal precedent, upending admissions practices that, over the years, were designed to ensure equality and promote diversity in higher education. Inequality in education remains a significant problem in the United States. In this blog article, PBI Intern Emily Cardona shares her

One Year Post Dobbs; A Reproductive Rights Pro Bono Update

June 26, 2023

June 24, 2023 marked one year since the Supreme Court decided Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the decision that overruled the 1973 landmark case Roe v. Wade and eliminated the constitutional right to abortion. Since that decision, many pro bono volunteers have sought out opportunities to participate in reproductive rights pro bono. On February 24, at the 2023 PBI Annual Conference, we hosted a session on Post Roe Reproductive Rights & Pro Bono, taught by Ronald Blum, Partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP; John Freedman, Senior Pro Bono Counsel at Arnold & Porte; Rabia Muqaddam, Senior Staff Attorney

Update on Right to Counsel in Immigration

June 21, 2023

by Hitha Bollu, PBI Intern The PBEye has long followed movements to secure the right to counsel because this right marks essential progress in the struggle for access to justice for all. While we celebrated the 60th anniversary of Gideon v. Wainwright in March, which established the right to counsel in criminal proceedings, there is still no “civil Gideon” in civil and administrative proceedings, including immigration. Therefore, people who are asserting their right to stay in the United States, including those who are detained, do not have a right to access an attorney to help them through the challenging removal proceedings process. Many non-citizens face removal

Transactional Pro Bono

June 20, 2023

Corporate Pro Bono (CPBO) project is excited to highlight the legal department of Advance for this month’s Signatory Showcase. In 2022, Advance partnered with the nonprofit Start Small Think Big (SSTB) to provide transactional legal services to Black and women-owned small business owners in the e-commerce field making less than $50,000 a year. The volunteers applied their commercial lawyering expertise on a variety of issues, ranging from privacy to terms of use for doing business online to intellectual property. SSTB provided support to the volunteers, including template documents that the volunteers could review and customize before they met with the clients. CPBO spoke

PBI Organizes Legal Leaders in the Business Community in Support of Legal Aid

April 28, 2023

By Emily Cardona, PBI Intern For the seventh year in a row, legal department leaders have rallied to support 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), along with the National Legal Aid & Defender Association and the Association of Corporate Counsel, recently circulated a letter inviting the General Counsel and Chief Legal Officers to sign on in support of increasing LSC’s funding for Fiscal Year 2024. The General Counsels and Chief Legal Officers from 208 corporations signed a letter of support for increased funding

Intellectual Property Rights

April 26, 2023

by Hitha Bollu, PBI Intern The United States prides itself on being a center for innovation, with much of that innovation coming from smaller enterprises. Small businesses produce over 14 times more patents than large businesses and universities, and employ nearly 40 percent of America’s scientists and engineers. And, of course, even the largest well known innovative firms were once small businesses. Unfortunately, without protection of their intellectual property, small businesses can find it difficult to attract capital because potential investors know more established businesses could copy the ideas, methods and practices of smaller businesses, and use their greater resources to market more

2023 PBI Annual Conference Takeaways

March 29, 2023

At the end of February, PBI hosted the 2023 Annual Conference in Washington, DC. For the first time since 2019, the Annual Conference was held entirely in-person in Washington, DC. With over 200 attendees from law firms, in-house departments, and public interest organizations, the 2023 Annual Conference sparked passionate and insightful discussions surrounding many pro bono topics. Here are a few takeaways from the Conference: The number of lawyers doing pro bono in the U.S. is increasing, but so is the number of individuals without access to justice. During their plenary presentation, Jim Sandman, Distinguished Lecturer and Director of the Future of

Making Voting Rights Meaningful for People with Disabilities

March 28, 2023

By Nathan Price, PBI Intern, and PBI staff Participating in the election of public officials is a cornerstone of American Democracy and a core process for helping America ensure political freedom. According to recent U.S. Census Bureau statistics, 73 percent of U.S. citizens without disabilities reported being registered to vote and 67.5 percent of U.S. citizens without disabilities reported voting in the 2020 presidential elections, the highest turnout in the current century.[1] In contrast, only 70 percent of U.S. citizens with any disability[2] reported being registered, and just 61.8 percent of citizens with any disability reported voting — amounting to a 4

Housing Justice

March 28, 2023

As part of the Challenge Signatory Showcase, Corporate Pro Bono is excited to highlight The Williams Companies**, and their housing justice pro bono project. We chatted with Williams’ Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Lane Wilson, about the project and the impact that it has on tenants who are unable to afford legal representation when faced with eviction. Wilson also discussed with us the importance of having a general counsel who is involved in the department’s pro bono program. LW: One of the many ways Williams’ employees implement our Responsible Stewards Core Value is to support the communities where we work and live.

Bringing Legal Resources to Legal Deserts

February 15, 2023

Legal deserts are regions in the United States that have no or few attorneys. These regions are generally rural communities. In recent years, the legal community has analyzed the characteristics and consequences of legal deserts, and their impact on access to justice. For example, in 2018, a Harvard Law & Policy Review article surveyed parts of California, Georgia, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Maine, and South Dakota, called for increased data collection about legal deserts, and recommended creative approaches to provide legal resources to residents in those communities. The study found common challenges across these diverse states with regard to addressing legal deserts. These challenges were exacerbated by the