Attorney Sujata Dayal, co-chair of Abbott Laboratory's pro bono committee, says, "A lot of us went into the legal field wanting to do some good," which is why Abbott attorneys help low-income clients who have been improperly denied food benefits.

When the first hijacked airplane slammed into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, Pfizer Inc.'s recently installed pro bono counsel, Jean O'Hare, had just kicked off a seminar series aimed at helping New York non-profits with their legal problems. Fifty participants were gathered for a session on employment law in midtown Manhattan when the attacks occurred just 5^1/2 miles away. 

In the aftermath of September 11th, Pfizer was even more resolved to help charities on the legal front, hosting another nine clinics in its "Strategic Legal Thinking for Non-Profit Executives," in which 100 charities received vital information about insurance and fundraising. Yet that seminar series ultimately took on less urgency as Pfizer decided to take its pro bono program in a dramatically different-and suddenly more pressing-direction: leading the New York legal community's 9/11 relief efforts. 

O'Hare mobilized Pfizer's entire legal department to respond to the terrorist tragedy. Company attorneys aided victims' families with workers' compensation claims, assisted others in obtaining death certificates, coordinated the processing of financial and in-kind donations, oversaw help from Pfizer vendors and local law firms, and arranged for the Grand Hyatt ballroom to be used for related financial planning seminars. The company lent out its senior corporate counsel to provide advice to officials of the September 11 Fund. It provided 45 volunteers and more than a dozen donated computers to the United Way of New York. Company leaders even employed a number of paralegals and other workers who found themselves out of work when the dust settled. 

Pfizer is not alone in undertaking such efforts among major American drug companies. It turns out, the pharmaceutical industry-routinely blasted by the media for its collective position on controversial issues like pricing, patents, government regulation, and immunity from lawsuits-is at the forefront of corporate America's growing resolve to use its considerable resources to promote civil justice for all. 

"A lot of us went into the legal field wanting to do some good," says Sujata Dayal, legal regulatory affairs counsel at Abbott Laboratories in Chicago and co-chair of the company's pro bono committee. "This company as a whole is very dedicated to giving back to the community. A lot of people are really embracing these projects."

Abbott Labs, led by General Counsel Jose de Lasa, has focused its pro bono work on helping new arrivals in Chicago navigate the labyrinthine process of becoming naturalized American citizens. To do this, Abbott's 70 in-house attorneys have embraced a synergistic approach used by a growing number of companies: strategic equal justice partnerships. 

Pfizer hosts a seminar series called "Strategic Legal Thinking for Non-Profit Executives" and has a full-time pro bono counsel on staff.

Teaming with the Midwest Immigrant and Human Rights Center (MIHRC) and the law firm of Baker & McKenzie, Abbott has helped scores of locals process their immigration claims and, in some cases, seek political asylum. The companies walk clients through complex INS paperwork at special Saturday naturalization clinics held every other month and provide assistance with asylum cases on a regular basis. "This has been an exciting partnership that has certainly enriched the lives of our clients," says Mary Meg McCarthy, director of the MIHRC. "We're beginning to expand it more and more." Pro bono work is essential to many of the center's clients, McCarthy says. Studies have shown that political-asylum seekers who represent themselves receive asylum only about 20 percent of the time, while those with counsel receive it nearly 80 percent of the time, she says.

In addition to immigration work, volunteers from Abbott's legal department help clients of LSC-funded Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago appeal denials of food stamp benefits. Attorneys work with the Center for Disability and Elder Law to determine whether the legal rights of low-income seniors and disabled individuals have been violated, and they aid fledgling non-profits and small businesses in the region with community economic development assistance. 

For these efforts, Abbott was recognized with CorporateProBono.Org's first-ever Pro Bono Partner Award this past winter. Also honored at the Washington, D.C., pro bono meeting was Merck and Co., which has provided pro bono assistance to more than 650 low-income New Jersey clients since its patent attorneys began working with Legal Services of New Jersey in 1994. Today, 54 in-house attorneys and 20 support staffers participate in the Merck Pro Bono Program, handling bankruptcy, child custody, domestic violence, guardianship, landlord/tenant, and matrimonial matters through referrals from legal services agencies in a half-dozen cities in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, says Merck spokesman Christopher Loder. 

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg presented Merck General Counsel Kenneth C. Frazier with the Pro Bono Institute's Laurie D. Zelon Award for extraordinary pro bono achievement at a reception in the U.S. Supreme Court's Great Hall during the Washington meeting. "Pro bono is one of those contagious things," says CorporateProBono.Org co-founder Susan Hackett. Companies with general counsels strongly dedicated to pro bono can create a ripple effect among their colleagues, Hackett says.

Then there's Pfizer, which has taken its own novel approach to pro bono productivity. In January 2001, O'Hare became the corporate community's only known full-time pro bono counsel. With Pfizer since 1988, O'Hare had initially approached former General Counsel Paul Miller about expanding the legal department's charitable endeavors. He liked the idea, gave her the green light, and she began by offering her pro bono services to United Way. Soon, however, she branched out to help other charities, such as the American Cancer Society, figuring that helping groups that help the needy might do even more good than helping individuals alone.

"If we can help the not-for-profits identify legal hot spots and think strategically about these issues and where to go for legal advice, we could be adding a significant value to the city," O'Hare says. Not to mention, adding to the public's awareness that big drug companies make big contributions to the public welfare.