On November 12th, 2007, Intel Corporation and Hewlett-Packard Company, in association with Corporate Pro Bono (CPBO), hosted a Summit on Pro Bono Participation for corporate legal departments in the Bay Area.  The Summit attracted over twenty in-house representatives from more than thirteen legal departments, and achieved its goals of promoting awareness of pro bono efforts in the Bay Area, highlighting the feasibility of pro bono work at departments, and identifying opportunities for collaboration among Bay Area corporate legal departments.

The Summit included two panel discussions.  The first, led by Esther Lardent, President and CEO of the Pro Bono Institute, Michael J. Holston, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Hewlett-Packard Company, Tiela Chalmers, Executive Director of the Volunteer Legal Services Program of the Bar Association of San Francisco, and Laura Stein, Senior Vice President and General Counsel of The Clorox Company, dealt with the legal needs in the Bay Area and obstacles to in-house pro bono service.  This included a discussion of the common obstacles that prevent legal departments from attempting to start pro bono work, and how to address them.  Michael Holston and Laura Stein specifically discussed pro bono from the perspective of a general counsel: why it is important, how it helps a legal department, and how it fits into a corporate environment and corporate culture.

The second panel, led by Bruce Ives of Hewlett-Packard and Jeff Hyman of Intel, along with Alison Brunner, Directing Attorney, AIDS Legal Services of the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, discussed the practicalities of pro bono work in the corporate environment.  Other topics included the benefits of offering both long-term and short-term pro bono commitments, which allows as many people as possible to undertake pro bono.  The panel also discussed partnerships between legal departments and public interest organizations, and the needs of both types of organizations when entering into a partnership to provide pro bono legal services.

After the panels, participants broke into two groups, one consisting of legal departments new to pro bono, and another for legal departments with established programs.  During these sessions, participants shared best practices, discussed how to collaborate with other in-house legal departments, and brainstormed projects that could be used to support each other.

Such a successful summit would not have taken place without the inspiration and hard work of Bruce Ives of Hewlett-Packard and Jeff Hyman of Intel.

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