On January 26, 2010, the legal department at Viacom Inc. hosted a Clinic in a Box℠ program, in partnership with Corporate Pro Bono (CPBO), New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, and Shearman & Sterling LLP (a Signatory to the Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge^®), and provided invaluable legal assistance to nonprofit organizations in need.  Twenty-one volunteers from Viacom’s legal department and 13 lawyers from Shearman & Sterling served 11 New York based nonprofit organizations, addressing matters of employment, tax, real estate, corporate governance, intellectual property, and other legal issues nonprofit organizations often face.

Michael Fricklas, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Viacom, Inc., began the clinic by welcoming the volunteers, from Viacom and its different companies, including MTV Networks, BET Networks, and Nickelodeon.  He also thanked his team and the other host organizations for supporting the Viacom legal department’s commitment to pro bono legal services.

Shearman & Sterling hosted the clinic at its offices.  During the first session of clinic, Shearman lawyers Christa D’Alimonte, Doreen Lilienfeld, Michael Shulman, Susan Reiss, Patrick Valenti, Michael Brueck, and Ken Hemler conducted a CLE training program on the legal needs of New York nonprofit organizations.  They also made themselves available during the second session to answer any questions the volunteers had when meeting with the nonprofit clients. The volunteers and the clients also received extensive training materials, which were originally developed by CPBO and updated by Shearman for this clinic.

During the second session, the volunteer attorneys met with representatives from nonprofit organizations to conduct a legal audit of the nonprofit clients to ensure that the organizations were in good legal health and to address more specific legal needs the clients had. The nonprofits in attendance were local organizations serving many communities and interests, including an arts-related publishing organization, an organization dedicated to fostering the growth of sustainable agriculture, and a group that pairs micro-loans for small business development in Zambia with local tree planting efforts. Without this pro bono assistance, these worthy organizations would otherwise be unable to obtain needed legal advice.

Clinic in a Box℠ is an off-the-shelf model developed and administered by CPBO for in-house counsel interested in legal pro bono work.  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.