Companies With A Conscience With some of America's best-known corporations leading the way, legal departments are mobilizing resources and forming novel new partnerships to make unprecedented contributions to low-income clients and nonprofit groups seeking access to justice. Financial disaster loomed for an elderly Michigan couple when an appliance repairman inside their home was nipped on the rear end by their son’s dog. The worker assured them he was fine—his pants weren’t even torn—and he finished fixing their washing machine without complaint. But later he filed a $10,000 lawsuit against the couple in a jurisdiction known for high plaintiff awards. Stunned, scared, and in poor health, the couple didn’t know what to do—until they found help from a most unlikely source… Out East, the Family and Children’s Agency of Norwalk is always on the financial bubble. The Connecticut nonprofit’s annual $9 million budget must be constantly stretched to maintain critical services in areas like addiction, homecare, foster parenting, and adoption. There are never enough resources to cover legal demands, such as scrutinizing real estate contracts and dealing with the subpoenas that routinely accompany child-custody cases. “Like a lot of nonprofits, we used to go to lawyers on our Board when we had no money and needed expertise for things that were really crucial,” President and CEO Florence Kraut says. “Now, we no longer have to muddle along.” Who exactly was this agency’s savior in a three-piece suit?
Down South in Atlanta, Ga., an aunt and uncle have been the primary
caregivers of their 12-year-old niece and 13-year old nephew since they
were toddlers because the children’s biological parents are drug
addicts. The same aunt and uncle also care for their 16-year-old niece
and her two small children, both of whom were conceived after the girl
was raped in foster care. Life is still not easy; the financial burdens
on the family are tremendous. That all changes for the better once
attorneys volunteer to help the aunt and uncle officially adopt the
children for whom they’ve been caring. They’re successful, and the
judge awards Medicaid benefits and adoption assistance that will make a
huge impact on the family’s quality of life. The Michigan couple “didn’t have much money, and both had heart problems,” recalls General Motors attorney Steve Cernak, who was able to settle the handyman dog bite case in mediation for a few hundred dollars. “If they hadn’t had a volunteer lawyer, they would have had to proceed pro se and wouldn’t have gotten as good a result.” Cernak, who heads up GM’s pro bono committee and the Detroit Bar’s Volunteer Lawyers Committee, calls such assistance “the best way to help people who really need help." Indeed, for many in the corporate world who support lower taxes, a minimalist government, and a just society, pro bono participation is a natural way to make the American system work for everyone. “I’m not a bleeding-heart liberal,” Cernak says. “I am basically a conservative Republican who believes less government is probably better. But there are still people who need assistance, and this is a better way to provide that help than having them go to the government.” The third international gathering of in-house pro bono movers and shakers, hosted this past February by CorporateProBono.Org in conjunction with the 13th annual National Pro Bono Seminar in Washington, D.C., offered evidence that such opinions may indeed be growing more common. The first of these conclaves in 1991 attracted a dozen participants and lasted two hours. This year’s meeting drew 300 attendees, lasted for three days, and culminated with a private reception in the Great Hall of the U.S. Supreme Court at which Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg honored Merck General Counsel Kenneth Frazier for extraordinary pro bono achievement. Says Frazier: “In-house lawyers doing pro bono may seem like an oxymoron. After all, our chief responsibility is to serve the interests of the company—not champion the rights of the individual, let alone the indigent. But that narrow conception of our place within the profession is quickly changing. Like our counterparts in private and public practice settings, we share a responsibility to promote justice for all. And, as company lawyers are highly trained, respected, and well-compensated, we are uniquely positioned to do just that.”
According to the most recent survey (left), pro bono participation in corporate America is verifiably on the rise. The American Corporate Counsel Association (ACCA) completed a survey of large corporate legal departments two years ago and found 40 percent confirming in-house pro bono participation and another 40 percent saying they planned or hoped to start. Firms with 21 or more attorneys are currently the most active; the survey found that 83 percent permit counsel to take part in pro bono projects on company time. Those numbers compare favorably to a 1993 ACCA survey indicating that only 32 percent of large legal departments engage in pro bono activities. “In-house pro bono participation is actually higher than people think,” asserts Esther Lardent, President and CEO of Georgetown University’s Pro Bono Institute. Her organization, along with ACCA, co-founded CorporateProBono.Org in 2000 as a national way to boost involvement even more. Inaugurated primarily as a Web site that would serve as a meeting place for interested corporate attorneys and groups in need of pro bono assistance, the alliance has expanded into a resource reservoir that facilitates the process and ensure matches of corporations and clients work well. “Participation by in-house attorneys is growing because the corporate community, the ABA, and others have really been promoting the concept, and because legal services programs are becoming more aware of this as a source of pro bono,” agrees Prairie State Legal Services Executive Director Joseph A. Dailing, whose Illinois-based program regularly partners with Chicago-area firms like State Farm Insurance, Baxter International, Sears Roebuck and Abbott Laboratories. Historically, many obstacles have stood in the way of more robust pro bono participation. Corporate attorneys are often under tremendous pressure to meet heavy workloads from profit-minded CEOs. Most in-house lawyers are not litigators, making them less-than-perfect matches for the litigation-oriented nature of most pro bono work. Then there’s the itinerant nature of the profession; attorneys in the largest firms can relocate five times in a decade, minimizing their community attachment. And until recently, law departments seldom had malpractice insurance that covered non-corporate work, leaving their companies susceptible to a lawsuit if a pro bono client was unhappy with a result. Many of those obstacles are melting away as corporate counsels see how encouraging and funding pro bono helps legal department morale, new attorney recruitment, and the communities in which they do business. Rather than focusing on the needs of specific individuals, corporate legal departments are now offering transactional help to nonprofit groups that help the poor—a better match for corporate lawyers’ skill sets. In still other instances, in-house legal departments are forming strategic partnerships with legal aid programs or neighboring law firms. That’s what Atlanta’s BellSouth Corporation, led by Executive Vice President and General Counsel Charles Morgan, has done to make its signature pro bono program a success. The Grandparents Advocacy Project is a joint collaboration between BellSouth, the Atlanta law firm of Kilpatrick Stockton, and the Atlanta Legal Aid Society. The project helps relatives who are serving as primary caregivers—like the aunt and uncle taking care of their nieces and nephews—legally adopt their dependents in uncontested adoption proceedings. BellSouth is one of Kilpatrick Stockton’s major clients, and the synergy created by such partnerships is powerful. “BellSouth is a large client of ours and their offices are directly across the street,” says Debbie Segal, who heads up the law firm’s pro bono efforts. “We look out over their building, yet none of the lawyers in our firm had ever worked together with the lawyers in their corporate counsel’s office. Now, we are building long relationships over happy occasions, and the adoptions are very happy occasions. This is a wonderful project. It’s something that corporate lawyers can do and do well.” Segal says adoption day itself is the high point. “It’s done in the judge’s chamber. He’s not wearing a robe. You go into the office, and you sit down with the adoptive parents and the children, who are all dressed up and know what’s going on. The judges often hold the baby and have their photo taken. It really warms the heart.” The growing corporate community of Atlanta, Ga., has in many ways emerged as a catalyst in the in-house equal justice explosion that’s spreading across the country. Not only have Atlanta corporate legal departments and large law firms banded together to provide pro bono help, they are also supporting legal aid in Atlanta financially. That’s due in large part to the leadership of Charlie Lester, an attorney with the firm of Sutherland Asbill & Brennan. Twenty years ago, area corporations and firms made a commitment to support legal services financially, and today the annual giving is up to roughly one million dollars a year—making up a significant part of the LSC-funded Atlanta Legal Aid Society’s budget. “You invest in things you’re interested in, and you’re interested in things you invest in,” says Lester, explaining that the monetary giving was an antecedent to Atlanta’s pro bono boom. Recently, Lester oversaw the establishment of an informal pro bono advisory panel in Atlanta consisting of representatives from the largest eight law firms in the city. “It’s very informal. We just exchange ideas and talk about ways to facilitate pro bono work,” Lester says. “It’s a way to help your colleagues promote and develop a stronger pro bono culture.” The Coca-Cola Company, spurred on by General Counsel and Executive Vice President Deval Patrick, doesn’t need any prodding. Last year, the company unveiled a model in-house pro bono policy and created an oversight committee for free legal work benefiting the community. Previously, the company allowed members of its legal department to engage in voluntary pro bono work, and one-third of its 70 U.S.-based lawyers donated free services to clients in need. But Executive Counsel Joel Neuman believes his legal division can do even better, and today, you will find Neuman and his colleagues preparing wills for seniors (Coke is a two-year partner with Hunton & Williams in the Wills on Wheels project) and teaming with Atlanta Legal Aid to assist kids with serious problems at school. “We pick only projects in which everyone from the file clerk to the General Counsel can participate,” Neuman says. “It’s part of what we call our corporate promise, which is that we exist to benefit and refresh everyone who is touched by our business. It means making the community in which we operate better for our being here.”
Empowering the community, Neuman says, can simultaneously empower Coca-Cola’s hard-working legal workforce. “There’s no question that our emphasis on pro bono projects—both those that we select and those that are near and dear to our attorneys’ own hearts—do make them feel more fulfilled about their job and feel better about the company they work for. In the end, we feel our pro bono emphasis is going to make our lawyers, legal assistants, and support people more energized and do a better job of providing the legal services that we need here.” Other Atlanta companies like United Parcel Service (UPS) that have long histories of service to their communities are jumping on the pro bono bandwagon. UPS promotes volunteerism, contributes to literacy initiatives, funds hunger programs, and is a major player in providing welfare-to-work employment opportunities for low-income job-seekers. Aware of corporate Atlanta’s growing reputation as a national leader in pro bono efforts, UPS General Counsel Joseph Moderow is ready for his company to become part of that elite group. “Volunteerism is an important aspect of UPS culture. Until recently, undertaking pro bono matters has not been a focus of the legal department’s volunteering, but that is changing,” says Allen Hill, UPS Vice President and Legal Department Manager. “With the growth of our legal department over the last few years and the growing interest among our attorneys, we are actively working to organize and expand our pro bono involvement.” Certain corporate leaders who came of age during the Kennedy Era’s community-service renaissance—such as Robert Healing, who is retiring this fall as General Electric’s Corporate Counsel—have been trying to stimulate pro bono among their contemporaries for years. Healing initially planned to become a public interest lawyer before he took what he thought would be a short-term job at GE—and wound up staying 32 years. Early in his career, he said even corporate legal departments that cared about pro bono did not know how to match supply with demand. “Corporate pro bono was just not talked about then as it is today,” Healing says. “No one had a specific focus on it or access to a program that worked.” This led Healing and some like-minded peers in the New York/Connecticut/New Jersey area to form the Pro Bono Partnership as a tax-exempt public charity “whose mission is to make it as easy and enjoyable as possible for in-house and transactional counsel to provide valuable pro bono services for non-profit agencies serving our poor and disadvantaged communities.” With Healing as President, a permanent staff of three full-time lawyers, and funding from corporations, foundations and law firms, the tri-state consortium unites organizations like the Family and Children’s Agency of Norwalk with counsel from major area companies like Honeywell International. Since 1997, the Partnership has matched some 360 lawyers with 350 nonprofits on 800 different legal matters. An example: When legal expenses could have proven a deal-breaker for the Family YMCA at Tarrytown’s new housing project, the Partnership made it possible for this 91-year-old Main Street facility to develop 48 affordable single-resident units with improved safety features and handicapped access in Westchester County, N.Y. Originally, funding for the project was to have been raised through low-income housing tax credits and grants from local, state, and federal sources. However, construction costs came in higher than expected, making requisite legal and accounting services unaffordable. With resources stagnant and YMCA officials unfamiliar with the complexities of tax-credit financing, it seemed as though the project would have to be abandoned. So Leonard D. Andrew, then-YMCA President and a former corporate counsel himself, contacted Rick Hobish, executive director of the Pro Bono Partnership. “Rick said, ‘Why don’t you use us?’” Andrew recalls. Hobish explained why he believed the Partnership could solve the Y’s problems and then introduced YMCA Board members to Jane Alpert, regional counsel for GE Capital Real Estate and a specialist in tax-credit and affordable-housing transactions. Some on the YMCA Board were skeptical—Why would a lawyer who really knows her stuff do this for us for free?—but any lingering doubts vanished after that initial meeting. “She came and made a wonderful presentation, and everyone on the board understood,” Andrew says. Alpert then went to work. She first convinced the law firm of Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker and the accounting firm of Reznick Fedder & Silverman, both based in Atlanta, to lend their expertise for free. Next, she recruited additional volunteers from GE and other private law firms. And she ultimately spent many hours keeping the “intellectually challenging” project on track through the various agreements, certifications, and guarantees required. The result was a savings of $250,000 in professional services, making this the largest project by far facilitated by the Partnership since its inception. The free services allowed construction on the additional residential units to proceed, thus helping to address the well-documented shortage of affordable housing in this New York community. “Corporations are becoming more aware of the variety of ways that they can be involved in their communities,” says Susan Hackett, ACCA’s senior vice president and general counsel. “Whatever a company does, it should be tailored to their culture, their history, their location, and their needs.” Different companies have found ways to do just that, matching community needs with their areas of interest and expertise. Attorneys from Hilton Hotels Corporation and Southern California Edison provide hundreds of Los Angeles-area families with adoption assistance. Nike’s 20 Oregon-based in-house attorneys get involved with local programs like the Campaign for Equal Justice and the Volunteer Lawyers Project. McDonald’s legal staff participates in programs initiated by the Constitutional Rights Foundation, Center for Disability and Elder Law, and Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights. Exxon Mobil attorneys counsel individuals, staff legal hotlines, answer disaster relief calls, and host clinics encouraging others to provide legal services to the poor.
And Microsoft, the technology giant, recently announced a pro bono partnership with the American Bar Association to help detained Washington state immigrants seeking asylum or other critical assistance in immigration court. Microsoft plans to donate 5,000 hours of legal time to the project and will underwrite most of the project’s costs. “Many of the detained asylum seekers that will be represented by these volunteers will owe their very lives to the commitment of the Microsoft legal team,” says Ed Yohnka, a member of the ABA commission overseeing this project. “I work for a company that sees no limits to human potential or imagination, so a project like this is a natural fit,” says Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith. “It’s a way for Microsoft to honor the work and creativity of our foreign-born workers and further our corporate mission of developing services and programs that meet people’s needs. We hope this program will provide useful learning for corporate legal departments nationwide.” Not to worry, Mr. Smith. Your fellow business leaders have already gotten the memo: Corporate America is getting down to the business of justice. n Colorado-based author and freelance writer Howard Rothman writes regularly about the human side of business. The third edition of his 1992 book, Companies With A Conscience, will be published this fall. |
