The Legal Intelligencer
By Ben Seal
May 12, 2015
“Step into a half-day departmental meeting at most large companies and you might expect to find a few hours of business presentations and corporate speak, perhaps some pie charts and growth indicators. For Exelon Corp.’s legal department, those hours are instead filled with pro bono service, whether it means ordering birth certificates for clients or providing life-planning documents for senior citizens. The all-hands-on-deck meetings are just another opportunity for the company’s legal department to strengthen its connection to the community it serves.
“Exelon is a pro bono leader, a ‘model corporate citizen,’ as Marsha Cohen of the Homeless Advocacy Project said, in large part because of its top-down commitment to community service. Shortly after Peco Energy Co., of Philadelphia, and Unicom Corp., of Chicago, merged in 2000 to form Exelon, the company formalized a pro bono program, established a formal policy and appointed leads in both cities to help develop what would quickly become a robust program and a corporate trend-setter.
“‘Because we are electric companies, because the vibrancy and wellbeing of the neighborhoods we serve and the area in which we work and live is important to us as a monopolized public utility, that is the genesis of the drive toward pro bono,’ said associate general counsel Kevin Stepanuk, who was the second pro bono lead in the Philadelphia office, holding that role from 2004 to 2008.
“Exelon partners closely with law firms and public service organizations, as well as fellow corporate counsel, a commitment made in order to spread its work beyond its own walls. Whenever the legal department organizes a clinic with a public interest group—Homeless Advocacy Project, SeniorLAW Center, Philadelphia VIP, Support Center for Child Advocates and the Wills for Heroes Foundation are among its closest relationships—it makes a point to bring outside organizations along for the ride. The effect has been apparent, particularly among corporate counsel, who are less likely than lawyers at law firms to have pro bono hours built into their annual plans.
“‘They have singlehandedly brought about 20 corporations in the area to do pro bono by inviting them and showing them that it’s bite-sized and not scary,” Cohen said. ‘They serve as the introducer and the gateway to all of these other companies.'”