Pro Bono & Community
Pillsbury averaged 48 pro bono hours per attorney in 2008. Our lawyers donated 33,033 pro bono hours, the equivalent of 3.8 years of round-the-clock effort. And while legal counsel is our most valuable service, the people at Pillsbury serve in other ways as well. Volunteer work, charitable contributions and community participation are significant expressions of service by our lawyers, professional staff, and our family and friends.
Pro Bono
While we handle high impact litigation, our pro bono practice centers on providing basic legal services to the poor. We also counsel nonprofit organizations. Individual attorneys take the lead in finding these cases and causes, and their efforts consistently win community recognition.
Community
There is a rich tradition at the firm of giving back to the community, through volunteering, fundraising or charitable giving. Pillsbury lawyers and staff, often with clients, family and friends, participate in hundreds of community service activities—walking 10Ks, raising money for medical research, volunteering to rebuild playgrounds, mentoring needy children and collecting business clothing, winter coats or food in charity drives. Pillsbury's community outreach and charitable giving initiatives are organized by our individual offices responding to the unique needs of their local areas. Through this approach, we support a large and diverse set of causes.
Pro Bono Practice
Launching an International Nonprofit
A first year associate helped incorporate a new nonprofit organization called the Arsenic Foundation, whose mission is to prevent severe skin disorders and cancers seen in villages where the water supply is poisoned by naturally occurring arsenic—a major concern for more than 35 million people in Bangladesh. The foundation funds new wells and filters that provide clean water at a cost of about $6 per person. The associate advised the foundation on qualifying for tax-deductible donations from its supporters, a designation critical for fundraising in the U.S.
Education, Reconstruction and International Aid
The turbulence in Afghanistan over the last 25 years obliterated many key institutions and the institutional knowledge that went with them. So when Afghans wanted to open their first co-ed liberal arts university since the fall of the Taliban, they asked Pillsbury attorneys to advise the nonprofit governing board of the new American University of Afghanistan. We helped the university establish a U.S. fundraising foundation and earn accreditation that will enable its graduates to pursue further studies at U.S. and European schools.
Supporting Grass-Roots Efforts to Fight Poverty
The Northern Virginia office entered into a pro bono relationship to help new small businesses in the area. The Fairfax Small Business Development Center, sponsored by George Mason University, uses business professionals and MBA students to help small enterprises get started. What had been missing from the equation were lawyers able to help with matters such as incorporation issues, lease reviews, employee manuals, benefits questions and supply contracts. Pillsbury has one or two lawyers visit the Center monthly during business hours to meet with prospective clients screened by the Center. Those lawyers will in turn solicit others in the office to work on the matters, helping people from the community starting out on the road to economic well-being.
Assessing the Legal Authority Behind Disaster Planning
Disaster planning is a fact of 21st century life for all American cities, but the government of the city of New York stands apart for the complexity and visibility of its efforts. New York has developed detailed procedures for every major category of emergency, focusing on scenarios as varied as a dirty bomb, a pandemic, a chemical attack and a Category 4 hurricane. A team of 20 Pillsbury attorneys reviewed New York's emergency plans, along with relevant federal, state and local law, in order to ensure that the city has adequate legal authority for its operational decisions. The team also examined issues impacting the city's potential liability for its emergency measures, its regulatory compliance responsibilities and how best to position the city legally.
Key Amicus Brief in Landmark Same-Sex Marriage Ruling
Often our pro bono and diversity agendas align, as was the case in the California Supreme Court's landmark same-sex marriage case. The Court overturned the state's ban on same-sex marriage in May 2008. The decision stated that depriving gays and lesbians of the same rights as other citizens was unconstitutional. A Pillsbury team, led by a partner with extensive leadership experience in pro bono and diversity work, co-authored an amicus brief supporting marriage equality. The brief, written on behalf of more than 60 Asian American bar associations and community groups, proposed that marriage should be deemed a "fundamental interest" under equal protection analysis, akin to how education has been recognized as a fundamental interest by the Court.
14-Year Odyssey in Death Row Case
Ohio Governor Ted Strickland recently commuted the death sentence of Pillsbury client John Spirko to life in prison because of "residual doubt" about his murder conviction. Pillsbury began representing Spirko in 1994, when he lost his final state appeals. Two Pillsbury partners discovered the most serious kinds of investigative and prosecutorial misconduct, demonstrated that the case presented at trial was false and known to be false by the lead investigator, and ultimately developed a substantial actual innocence claim on behalf of Mr. Spirko. Mr. Spirko's case has been the subject of extensive national and even international press coverage, including a front-page, three-part, award-winning series in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and was featured in Newsweek magazine as "one of five [death row] cases where there may be big questions."
Pro Bono Fellowship Programs
Pillsbury sponsors a number of fellowships to support equal access to justice. We support Equal Justice Works, an organization that pairs recent law school graduates with public interest law, and we sponsor fellowships through Equal Justice that serve neighborhoods and community groups in Washington, DC, and California. The firm also sponsors the Stimson Fellowship, which allows incoming associates the opportunity to spend a year at a public service organization. Recipients of these fellowships—named after firm founding father Henry Stimson—focus on cases to overcome opposition to affordable housing, advocate for the homeless and the developmentally disabled, provide information on workplace rights to immigrants, and coordinate youth employment law projects.
Community and Professional Service
Our lawyers are active supporters of the legal profession and contributors to the community. Many write and lecture on legal topics, participate as judges in moot court programs, and serve as leaders in the national, state and local bar associations. Others act as judges pro tem in small claims court, arbitrators in federal court, or participate on panels to resolve attorney fee disputes or disciplinary proceedings. Our lawyers also advise and serve on boards of numerous hospitals, educational institutions and charitable organizations.
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