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 initiative will benefit the legal services organizations with which chapter members volunteer.  On behalf of each volunteer, the ACC-SFBA will donate $50 per hour of pro bono work done by chapter members, and will also donate matching funds up to $500 per year per volunteering member.  Each legal services organization may receive up to $3,000 per year.

The ACC-SFBA will disburse these funds semi-annually.  At this point, the program is entirely funded by the ACC-SFBA.

Lilia Rose, Senior Corporate Counsel, NetApp, Inc., and President of the ACC-SFBA, says the motivation for the project came simply from the organization’s mission statement, which directs the chapter to encourage its members to engage in pro bono work as part of their ethical obligations.  “We thought that it could provide added incentive to our members to increase their participation in pro bono activities,” she said.

Legal services providers are eligible to receive the ACC-SFBA donations if they are located within the San Francisco Bay Area and provide legal services to the indigent.  They must also provide pro bono volunteers with adequate training and malpractice insurance, as most legal services providers do.

The ACC-SFBA is about to begin implementing the program, following their recent Clinic in a Box℠, which took place June 26, 2009.  See a related story in this issue of the Wire.  Rose hopes that as many volunteers as possible will take advantage of the matching funds program, and that it will encourage volunteers to expand their current pro bono activities, as well as encourage them to seek out new ones.

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