EmPOWERing Pro Bono Day is an event that brings together volunteer attorneys and legal staff from electric and gas companies to provide pro bono legal assistance to address critical legal needs of underserved communities. Pro bono leaders from legal departments, often in partnership with legal services organizations and major law firms, organize pro bono opportunities and trainings on or around an industry-wide day of service. EmPOWERing Pro Bono Day serves to spotlight the need to increase access to justice by providing legal services to low-income, marginalized communities, and promote in-house pro bono engagement and collaboration with law firms and legal services organizations.
November 16, 2022, marked the first annual EmPOWERing Pro Bono Day, a day of service for volunteer attorneys and legal staff from electric and gas companies, including Avangrid, Consolidated Edison, Dominion Energy, Duke Energy Corporation**, El Paso Electric, Entergy Corporation**, Exelon Corporation**, and PPL Corporation. Corporate Pro Bono (CPBO), the global in-house project of Pro Bono Institute (PBI), partnered with the legal department of Entergy Corporation and Edison Electric Institute (EEI) to organize the overall initiative.
Next year’s EmPOWERing Pro Bono Day will take place on November 16, 2023.