On October 19, 2009, Corporate Pro Bono (CPBO), a national partnership project of the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) and the Pro Bono Institute, hosted its 12th annual Onsite Pro Bono Clinic in conjunction with the 2009 ACC Annual Meeting in Boston. The clinic was co-sponsored by CPBO, the Northeast Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel, the Boston Foundation, and Foley Hoag LLP and attracted 29 attorneys from several legal departments, serving ten Boston area nonprofit organizations.

The clinic, implementing CPBO’s Clinic in a Box℠ model, consisted of two sessions. During the first session, expert attorneys from Foley Hoag LLP (Jonathan Book, Bruce Parker, Shirin Phillip, and Michael Rosen) trained attendees on the legal issues that impact Massachusetts nonprofit organizations.  Foley also produced for the volunteers a CD of training material on nonprofit law, and similar materials for each nonprofit organization that participated in the clinic.

During the second session, the volunteer attorneys met with representatives from local nonprofit organizations to conduct a legal check-up of the organization.  All grantees of the Boston Foundation, the nonprofit organizations were invited to participate in the clinic by their grantor and were organizations that would otherwise not be able to afford legal assistance.

In addition to the clinic, CPBO staff distributed resources and answered questions at the CPBO Booth outside the Annual Meeting exhibit hall.  Staff met with many members of the in-house legal community to answer questions regarding in-house pro bono programs, pro bono opportunities, and the challenges legal departments face in providing pro bono services.  CPBO also held a meeting of its Advisory Board, led by its co-chairs, Brad Smith, Senior Vice President, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, Legal and Corporate Affairs, Microsoft Corporation and Laura Stein, Senior Vice President – General Counsel, The Clorox Company.

For more information about CPBO’s Clinic in a Box℠ model, or to learn more about Corporate Pro Bono, please contact Eve Runyon, director of CPBO, at 202.729.6694 or erunyon@probonoinst.org, or visit www.cpbo.org.

Developed by Corporate Pro Bono
A global partnership project of the Pro Bono Institute and the Association of Corporate Counsel
www.cpbo.org