On June 26, 2009, Corporate Pro Bono (CPBO), a national partnership project of the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) and the Pro Bono Institute, the Bay Area Chapter of ACC, the Volunteer Legal Services Program of the Bar Association of San Francisco (VLSP), and Fenwick & West LLP hosted the Bay Area Onsite Pro Bono Clinic.  The clinic implemented the off-the-shelf clinic model developed by CPBO – Clinic in a BoxSM – and attracted 54 volunteers from corporate legal departments throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, including the Hewlett-Packard Company, The Clorox Company, Sun Microsystems, Inc., United Health Care, and Altera Corporation. 

The San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC-SFBA) has announced an exciting new matching funds program for chapter members who engage in pro bono work.

The impact of the economic downturn is being felt not only in the revenues of large law firms but also in profound – and possibly long-term changes – in the nature of law firm practice.  As readers of the Wire are well aware, the downturn in client demand for legal work has led to major firms placing hundreds of underutilized lawyers and deferred incoming associates in “pro bono fellowships” for periods of three months to one year.  A second trend, unrelated to pro bono, has been the dramatic increase in commercial secondments, in which firms detail lawyers to work, for a period of time, in the legal departments of their corporate clients.   These secondments, in an increasingly competitive environment, enable firms to make good use of less-than-busy lawyers, while learning more about and strengthening relationships with key clients.

On October 27th, the legal department of Merck & Co., Inc. – along with members of the legal department of the Schering Plough Corporation which is in the process of merging with Merck – held a joyful celebration of the 15th anniversary of the company’s vibrant pro bono program.  Honored guests and participants included Merck and Schering Plough’s public interest partners in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

On July 17, 2009, Corporate Pro Bono, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Southern California (SoCal) Chapter, the Public Law Center, the Volunteer Center Orange County, and Dorsey & Whitney LLP hosted the SoCal Onsite Pro Bono Clinic in a Box℠.  Thanks to the hard work and planning of all of the partnership organizations, the SoCal Clinic was one of the most successful to date, attracting 41 volunteer attorneys and 14 local nonprofit organizations. The volunteer attorneys represented many corporate legal departments, including Ingram Micro Inc., Intel Corporation, FedEx, and Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.  The volunteers represented a number of different practice specialties as well, including employment, intellectual property, and contracts.

On June 1, 2009, the Hildebrandt Institute and the Pro Bono Institute, through Corporate Pro Bono, its partnership project with the Association of Corporate Counsel, sponsored an interactive virtual seminar on how to use pro bono partnerships to improve relationships between law firms and in-house legal departments.  Pro Bono Institute’s President and CEO, Esther Lardent, served as a panelist for the June webinar, titled “Putting the Values in Value: Using Pro Bono to Enhance Inside-Outside Counsel Relationships.”

Not only has pro bono become a watchword and a shared value among in-house legal departments, it is now an essential criteria for Corporate Counsel magazine’s “Best Legal Department” Award.  Exelon Corporation, a Signatory to the Corporate Pro Bono Challenge℠, was recently selected by Corporate Counsel as one of two finalists for its fourth annual Best Legal Department 2009 award.  Under the helm of Executive Vice President and General Counsel William Von Hoene, Jr., Exelon has expanded its legal department’s commitment to pro bono and diversity, making them two of his department’s top priorities.  It is this commitment, among other strengths, that made Exelon a contender for this honor.  

LexisNexis, a Signatory to the Corporate Pro Bono Challenge℠, has launched the LexisNexis® Associates Serving Public Interests Research (ASPIRE) program in response to the growing number of law firms that are delaying the start dates of new associates. As a way to make the transitional year more effective, ASPIRE extends complimentary access to LexisNexis services, including federal and state case law as well as online training materials, to those associates who elect to work at a public interest organization during their deferral time. ASPIRE will help equip these associates with the necessary tools to flourish in the non-profit field.

On Thursday, April 2, 2009, Esther F. Lardent, President and CEO of the Pro Bono Institute, participated in an International Pro Bono Opportunities panel at the Association of the Bar of the City of New York (City Bar). Facilitated by the City Bar’s Pro Bono and Legal Services Committee, along with Ms. Lardent, panel members included Edwin Rekosh, Executive Director of the Public Interest Law Institute and Jean Berman of the International Senior Lawyers Project, among others. Madeleine Schachter, Special Counsel, Pro Bono at Baker & McKenzie LLP, moderated the panel.

Earlier this month, I participated in two moving events that, while not directly related to pro bono service as we in the legal profession would define it, provided important lessons and opportunities for the future of pro bono.  On May 18, I traveled to Boston to see my friend and mentor Brooksley Born receive one of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library’s Profile in Courage awards.  Created in 1989 by members of President Kennedy’s family, the award annually honors public servants who have demonstrated the political courage to do what is right, rather than what is expedient.  In addition to highlighting the work of extraordinary women in Nigeria who brought peace and a freely-elected government to that troubled nation, this year’s awards went to two lawyers – Brooksley, who served as Chair of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission in the late 1990’s and Sheila Bair, now Chairman of the FDIC.  Both issued unpopular warnings about, respectively, unregulated financial contracts, such as derivatives and credit default swaps, and the dangers of the subprime lending bubble in housing – two conditions that were responsible, in great part, for the current economic meltdown.  These two women dared to defy conventional wisdom, as voiced by the most powerful and respected government officials in the administration and Congress, and, in doing so, faced unease, resistance, and even enmity in the political and business spheres.