Earlier this week, The National Law Journal released its annual Pro Bono Hot List, which showcases significant and noteworthy pro bono efforts at major law firms.
This year’s issue recognized 10 Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge® Signatories and/or Law Firm Pro Bono Project Member Firms for their inspiring and exceptional pro bono initiatives: Arnold & Porter*† (litigating two significant voter identification cases); Chadbourne & Parke*† (providing legal help to immigrant youth fleeing Central America and Mexico); Crowell & Moring* (assisting those affected by unfair sentencing laws in clemency cases); Farella Braun + Martel* (defending a gun safety ordinance in state and federal district court); Jenner & Block*† (advising a nonprofit youth village in Rwanda on a complex lease deal for a solar project); Kirkland & Ellis*† (working with Lambda Legal to secure marriage equality in Illinois); Morrison & Foerster*† (waging a multi-court battle against a restrictive Texas abortion law); Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe*† (researching and identifying countries that would be best-suited for the International Bar Association’s anti-trafficking training programs); Reed Smith*† (creating a mobile legal clinic to help rape survivors in Haiti); and Sidley Austin*† (overturning an Illinois eavesdropping law that criminalized the act of recording public officials, including police officers, without their consent).
These large-scale pro bono efforts are deserving of attention and praise for making an impact, being strategic, and tackling underlying legal issues to mitigate systemic problems and effectuate meaningful change. It is especially notable and encouraging to see law firms making significant commitments of time and resources to undertake major pro bono matters. We will be highlighting similar pro bono initiatives at the 2015 PBI Annual Conference, which will be held March 4-6 at the Capital Hilton in Washington, D.C. Please join us at the Conference to continue the celebration and dialogue about innovative pro bono endeavors.
* denotes a Signatory to the Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge®
† denotes a Member of the Law Firm Pro Bono Project