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. 

Corporate Pro Bono (CPBO) participated in several Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) Chapter pro bono events over the last few months.  On October 29, 2009, the Charlotte ACC Chapter held a Pro Bono Forum.  The Pro Bono Forum was an informative gathering designed to highlight opportunities available to in-house counsel to provide pro bono legal services.  The event addressed several issues faced by in-house counsel, including state licensure questions and professional liability insurance concerns.  In addition to CPBO, Street Law, Private Attorney Involvement/Legal Aid of North Carolina, and Mecklenburg County Bar Volunteer Lawyer Program participated.  More than 20 ACC members attended.

On October 19, 2009, Corporate Pro Bono (CPBO), a national partnership project of the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) and the Pro Bono Institute, hosted its 12th annual Onsite Pro Bono Clinic in conjunction with the 2009 ACC Annual Meeting in Boston. The clinic was co-sponsored by CPBO, the Northeast Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel, the Boston Foundation, and Foley Hoag LLP and attracted 29 attorneys from several legal departments, serving ten Boston area nonprofit organizations.

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.