On April 14, 2011, Corporate Pro Bono hosted a Clinic in a Box℠ in partnership with the Time Warner Legal Department, the Time Warner Corporate Social Responsibility Department, and Kirkland & Ellis LLP*.  Clinic in a Box℠ is an off-the-shelf program developed by Corporate Pro Bono to provide volunteer attorneys transactional pro bono opportunities.

The Clinic, held at the Time Warner Center, began with a training session for volunteer lawyers led by experts from Kirkland & Ellis.  Time Warner Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary Paul Cappuccio participated in the training session alongside members of his legal department.  The volunteer lawyers then worked in teams to conduct a legal audit of local nonprofits, covering issues ranging from intellectual property to taxes to employment.

The Time Warner Corporate Responsibility Department and Kirkland & Ellis recruited the client organizations for participation in the Clinic.  Combined, the nonprofits serve nearly 54,000 low-income people a year in the New York area, providing a broad range of services.

Time Warner’s corporate philanthropy focuses on education and the arts.  Among the clients served at the Clinic was an organization that partners with under-resourced elementary schools to create inspiring learning environments and two organizations dedicated to promoting and supporting women in theater.  The Clinic also benefited organizations dedicated to providing various social services; one organization provides health, housing and legal services to immigrants, refugees, and asylees from Africa, another provides foster and adoption programs, affordable housing, and supplemental educational services to those in need, and another provides holistic criminal and family defense, as well as civil, legal, and social services to New Yorkers. Many of the volunteers will continue to provide counsel to the nonprofit clients to address issues that were identified but could not be resolved at the Clinic.

Prior to the Clinic, the volunteers received comprehensive training materials that were developed by Corporate Pro Bono and updated in accordance with New York law by specialists from Kirkland & Ellis.  Volunteers may refer to these resources as they continue to provide legal advice to their clients.  The nonprofit organizations also received materials, which include sample policies, guidelines, and other resources pertaining to nonprofit operations.

* Signatory to the Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge^®

For more information about Clinic in a Box℠, or to learn about other resources CPBO has to offer, please contact Eve Runyon, director of CPBO, 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