The Wire
November 2011

Corporate Pro Bono staff, along with PBI’s Global Coordinator Julia Alanen and thousands of in-house attorneys, attended the Association of Corporate Counsel’s (ACC) Annual Meeting in Denver, October 23 – 26. CPBO provided information about in-house pro bono to numerous in-house attorneys who stopped by its booth and to those who attended the CPBO pro bono breakfast. Many in-house leaders familiar to CPBO stopped by to check in, while others new to in-house pro bono came to find out how to get started. CPBO provided a variety of materials, including suggestions on how to start an in-house pro bono program, sample best practice profiles, and an article on multi-jurisdictional practice rules (all of which are available on CPBO’s website).

CPBO also hosted the session “Exploring an Innovative Legal Engagement Tool: Global Pro Bono.” This interactive session featured panelists Bruce Ives, managing counsel at Hewlett-Packard Company**, Esteban Mazzucco, legal director at Syngenta AG, and Michael Sposato, deputy general counsel at Caterpillar, Inc.**. Each panelist provided insight on the global pro bono activities of his organization and discussed the many benefits and challenges in expanding pro bono around the globe.

CPBO looks forward to working with the many in-house attorneys from the conference and their departments to create or improve their legal departments’ pro bono programs. If you were unable to attend the ACC Annual Meeting, you missed out on an exciting event; however, CPBO is available to provide resources and consulting to legal departments and ACC Chapters. For more information, contact CPBO Director Eve Runyon.

*denotes a Signatory to the Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge®
**denotes a Signatory to the Corporate Pro Bono Challenge℠