Latham & Watkins is committed to providing free legal services to those who are most in need but least able to pay. The firm is a charter signatory to the ABA Pro Bono Challenge, and is committed to at least 60 hours of pro bono time per attorney. In 1999, we provided more than $9.7 million in free legal services, and we anticipate that this amount will dramatically increase in 2000. The same high standards are applied to pro bono work and the same billable hour credit is given, with no cap on credit.
Our Washington, D.C. attorneys serve as transactional counsel to East of the River Community Development Corporation and regularly staff a legal clinic at a homeless shelter. They also helped create www.generousassociates.com to help raise more than $160,000 for the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia.
In New York, we have assisted Tibetan refugees in applying for U.S. asylum and in Los Angeles, we provide legal services and advice to the NAACP for its annual "Image Awards."
This year our Orange County office was named "Pro Bono Law Firm of the Year" by the Public Law Center and by the Orange County Constitutional Rights Foundation.
Nationally, our attorneys represent Ashoka Innovators for the Public and assist in coordinating National Adoption Day when attorneys will help finalize adoption petitions. The firm is also providing thousands of hours of research for the National Committee to Prevent Wrongful Execution, which is examining the efficacy of the current death penalty litigation system. The firm also provides two public interest fellowships annually to recent law graduates through the National Association of Public Interest Law.
