The Wire
June 2011

On May 16, 2011, the Massachusetts Access to Justice Commission convened the In-House Counsel Pro Bono Forum, inviting lawyers from legal departments and law firms, and judges from several Massachusetts courts to discuss developing robust in-house pro bono programs in legal departments across the state. The Honorable Ralph Gants, associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, and David Rosenberg, of counsel at Englander, Leggett & Chicoine, P.C., co-chaired the meeting, which was held in the John Adams Courthouse in Boston. Susan Finegan, pro bono partner at Mintz Levin*, planned and moderated the meeting with assistance from Corporate Pro Bono.

Justice Gants welcomed the more than 100 attendees by describing the increasing need for legal assistance among low-income communities and the growing crisis legal service organizations and the courts face in trying to address that need. Pro bono assistance from in-house counsel, while not the complete answer, can be a valuable resource, and the desire from in-house legal departments to get involved is great.

Esther F. Lardent, president and CEO, of Pro Bono Institute, and Marc Gary, executive vice president and general counsel, Fidelity Investments**, discussed the value of in-house counsel participation in pro bono. Lardent shared with the audience the growth her organization has seen in in-house pro bono over the past ten years, since the founding of Corporate Pro Bono, a partnership project of PBI and the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC). In-house pro bono has grown from a handful of nascent efforts to hundreds of legal departments formalizing pro bono programs for their legal staff with hundreds more supporting the pro bono engagements of their lawyers. Lardent also discussed several obstacles to in-house pro bono that no longer impede the development and growth of vibrant in-house pro bono programs.

Gary, also the former general counsel of BellSouth Corporation, revealed that support from the top has been a vital element to the growth of in-house pro bono and explained the value general counsel find in in-house pro bono, including its beneficial impact on morale, team building, and job satisfaction. With his encouragement, the legal departments at BellSouth and Fidelity have experienced the breadth of in-house pro bono engagements. Gary described some of the projects his lawyers and legal staff have tackled, including traditional pro bono assignments like family law as well as transactional pro bono projects for nonprofit organizations.

Eve Runyon, director of Corporate Pro Bono, then moderated a conversation among panelists Kathleen McGrath, senior corporate counsel, Liberty Mutual; William O’Brien, pro bono chair, Northeast Chapter of ACC; and Dorothy Varon, assistant vice president and counsel, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, about starting and sustaining a formal in-house pro bono program. McGrath and Varon discussed the steps their departments took to start and grow an in-house program while Bill talked about opportunities the Northeast Chapter offers to members who often come from smaller legal departments. Runyon and the other panelists considered several of the obstacles outlined earlier by Lardent and discussed how legal departments in Massachusetts and in other states have addressed those concerns.

Judge Dina Fein, Special Advisor for Access to Justice Initiatives to the Massachusetts Trial Court, closed the program by encouraging the attendees to share with the other members of the Massachusetts Access to Justice Commission ways in which the Commission can assist with and help grow opportunities that would ease access and increase services provided to those left unserved. She then invited the attendees to reconvene at a Pro Bono Fair that immediately followed the meeting. During the Fair representatives from various court programs, legal service organizations, and public interest groups hosted tables where they met with attendees to discuss the different pro bono opportunities their programs offer.

To learn more about this event or to host a similar meeting in your state, please contact Corporate Pro Bono Director Eve Runyon.

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