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Pro Bono Partnership Wins ABA/WEST Group Public Service Award
The Pro Bono Partnership, based in White Plains and formed in 1997 by The Corporate Bar Fund to facilitate pro bono service by inside counsel in the Fairfield and Westchester county area, has won the 1999 Public Service Partnership Award sponsored by the American Bar Association and the West Group. The award, which includes a $3,000 grant, will be presented to Richard S. Hobish, Executive Director of the Partnership and Shelley Wallace, a director of the Corporate Bar Fund and founder of the Wallace Law Registry, at the ABA mid-year meeting in Los Angeles on February 5.
In 1998, the Partnership’s first full year of operation, Mr. Hobish and Maurice Segall, the Partnership’s part-time staff attorney based in Stamford, matched 77 volunteer lawyers with 81 community-based non-profit organizations that had legal needs but could not afford private counsel. The Partnership’s volunteers were drawn from more than 30 companies and law firms located in the two-county area, including Champion International, GE, IBM, Jackson Lewis, Paul Hastings, PepsiCo, Pitney Bowes, Texaco, Union Carbide, and Xerox. According to Robert E. Healing, President of the Corporate Bar Fund, and Corporate Counsel of General Electric Company, the ABA selected the Partnership as "the most outstanding example of bar association activities throughout the country that provide direct service to the public." The Partnership had previously been cited by ABA President Jerome J. Shestack as "a unique and ambitious program to encourage corporate counsel participation in pro bono work." The Partnership is a coordination and resource center that helps lawyers provide volunteer legal services to non-profit community-based organizations in Fairfield and Westchester counties. Its primary focus is to encourage inside counsel to provide pro bono legal assistance to non-profits that serve poor and disadvantaged populations, particularly those working in the areas of health and human services, affordable housing, and neighborhood revitalization. The Partnership identifies and screens non-profits with legal needs and matches them with volunteers from the inhouse corporate legal community and the private bar. It provides professional liability insurance coverage; the opportunity for inhouse counsel to partner with local private counsel; and ongoing supervision, backup, and coordination. In 1998, Mr. Hobish, Mr. Segall and the Partnership’s volunteer lawyers also conducted a dozen community workshops and training sessions on the laws pertaining to non-profit and tax exempt organizations. More than 150 non-profit directors and administrators attended these workshops. Mr. Hobish added that "corporate counsel have generally been less engaged in pro bono activities primarily because they do not have the skills to provide legal advice to individuals and families in areas of the law in which they have little training or experience." The Partnership removes this and other barriers to inside counsel pro bono service by encouraging inside counsel to provide non-profit organizations the same type of services that they are currently providing to their corporate clients, including counsel on corporate structure and governance, contracts, real estate, employment, tax, and regulatory compliance issues. Ben W. Heineman Jr., GE’s Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary, who was instrumental in the formation of the Partnership, noted that "the potential rewards from inside counsel pro bono service are enormous: leveraging our financial support for United Way agencies with high-impact, badly-needed technical assistance; providing personal satisfaction and professional enrichment for our volunteer corporate lawyers; creating good will for our clients and our profession." In addition to working closely with corporate law departments, Mr. Hobish formed successful partnerships with community-based foundations, banks and other non-profit organizations in Westchester and Fairfield Counties and surrounding areas. For example, the Partnership is working closely with the Westchester Community Foundation and the Fairfield Community Foundation, Citibank and CHASE’s community service organizations, all of which have sponsored workshops conducted by Pro Bono Partnership staff and volunteers and serve as a source of many referrals; Pace University Law School, where students are exposed to non-profit legal work by providing research assistance; CHASE’s Not-for-profit Resource Center, a program dedicated to helping not-for-profits improve their management effectiveness and efficiency; and The Fairfield County Non-profit Loan Fund. Mr. Healing said that the Corporate Bar Fund created the Partnership primarily to demonstrate that an entirely voluntary program could generate a significant, and sustainable increase in the level of pro bono services provided by inhouse counsel. He added that "the first year’s results far exceeded our expectations" by uncovering an "enormous reservoir of previously untapped good will and expertise" among corporate counsel willing and able to address "significant unmet legal needs in the local non-profit sector." Mr. Hobish observed that "the non-profits serving the interests of the most needy in their communities are often the public service organizations least able to afford required legal services, and their effectiveness can be greatly enhanced with adequate legal service." He also said that "the response to the Pro Bono Partnership by the non-profit clients has been outstanding," citing as examples the comments of Douglas Brian, Executive Director of Congregations Linked in Urban Strategy to Effect Renewal who said that "the services which the Partnership provides to small and mid-sized non-profits are very important. Clearly this makes it possible for such organizations to function at a more professional level. Your knowledge and experience with the non-profit sector are invaluable." Also, according to Diane E. Longo, Community Director of the Stamford Coalition for AIDS Resources, Education and Services, "Within one month, the Partnership was able to have all of our needs met by providing Stamford CARES with three specialized lawyers." Similarly, Max Thaxton, Vice President of Operations, of The Community Action Agency for the Greater Stamford Area, advised Hobish that: "we cannot begin to describe how reassuring it is for us to have caring, competent attorneys there when we need them." Christina Rohatynskyj, Executive Director, The Westchester County Food Bank, noted the direct benefit to the needy when she stated that: "the help provided by the Partnership will have a deep and direct impact on the lives of the hungry women, children and men of Westchester County by enhancing our ability to forge better relationships with food donors and the distribution network of food pantries, soup kitchens and other anti-hunger programs in Westchester." Anyone interested in more information about the Partnership should contact Mr. Hobish at (914) 328-0674. Reprinted by Permission of The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel |
