The Pro Bono Wire
October 18, 2012

Corporate Pro Bono (CPBO), the global partnership project of PBI and the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC), joined thousands of in-house counsel at ACC’s Annual Meeting in Orlando, Fla., September 30 – October 3. As the pro bono arm of ACC, CPBO staffed a booth in the exhibit hall throughout the conference and met with many ACC attendees to answer questions about in-house pro bono and CPBO services for their legal departments and local ACC Chapters. In addition, the CPBO team organized and participated in a number of pro bono-focused events.

CPBO Director Eve Runyon served on the panel of the DLA Piper LLP (US)* sponsored session “Pro Bono Partnerships Mean Greater Value from Your Outside Counsel.”Runyon, along with DLA Piper’s Lisa Dewey and Stasia Kelly, Celeste Como from Verizon Wireless, a subsidiary of Verizon Communications Inc.**, and Bruce Ives from Hewlett-Packard Company** discussed the growing trend of legal departments teaming with law firms to do pro bono. The program highlighted the history and challenges of in-house pro bono, the win-win proposition of teaming with firms, ways to initiate a partnership, and the resulting impact of partnerships. The takeaways from the session included:

• active buy-in from top level individuals is crucial to ensure a strong pro bono partnership;
• firms can help legal departments accelerate and expand pro bono programs;
• departments should embrace partnerships; and
• communication is essential to maintaining effective partnerships.

CPBO also hosted an informal breakfast for attendees interested in pro bono, which was attended by in-house counsel from legal departments across the U.S. The discussion ranged from professional liability insurance for pro bono work to integrating pro bono and corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts, the topic of one of CPBO’s later sessions.

Many of those who were at breakfast joined new faces at the CPBO sponsored session “1 + 1 = 3: Aligning Corporate Social Responsibility and Pro Bono.” PBI President and CEO Esther F. Lardent moderated the session, with James R. Jenkins, senior vice president and general counsel of Deere & Company**; Ellen Lambert, executive vice president of The Merck Company Foundation¹; and Ellen Rosenthal, chief counsel of the Pfizer Legal Alliance² as panelist.  The participants detailed many of the ways CSR and pro bono can be integrated to the benefit of company, the legal department, and the community. Options discussed included adopting a common theme or target community, coordinating the timing and communications regarding volunteer projects, and providing financial support to the organizations with which the legal department works on a pro bono basis. Although each panelist brought a unique perspective, they all agreed that the alignment of CSR and pro bono is on the rise.

From Chair’s Choice programming that focused on the ACC, PBI, and CPBO’s campaign to remove restrictions on in-house lawyers undertaking pro bono, to the Annual Meeting Award Dinner to the hallway buzz among the nearly 3,000 registrants, pro bono was a centerpiece at the meeting.

CPBO looks forward to working with the in-house counsel they met in Orlando and to attending ACC’s 2013 Annual Meeting in Los Angeles, which will feature CPBO’s Clinic in a Box^SM program and other pro bono programming. Until then, if you would like to discuss in-house pro bono, please contact CPBO Director Eve Runyon.

^—
1 The Merck Company Foundation is a private foundation funded by Merck & Co., Inc.** and is the company’s chief source of funding support to charitable organizations.
² The Pfizer Legal Alliance is a collaboration of Pfizer Inc.** and 19 law firms.

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