Access Justice

The American Bar Association Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service declared last month, October 20-26, National Pro Bono Week to draw attention to the invaluable legal services which lawyers, such as those from Access Justice, provide to low-income clients who cannot afford the usual high rates which law firms charge for their services. The AmLaw Pro Bono Rankings recognize the corporate law firms across the United States which dedicate the most time and resources to pro bono work. Some firms mandate as part of their policy that each of its attorneys devote a certain number of hours to pro bono work each year. Many sign on to the Pro Bono Institute’s Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge, a common benchmark of attorney involvement in pro bono work which encourages corporate law firms to devote three to five percent of their yearly billable hours to pro bono work.

To celebrate Pro Bono Week, LLMinfo.com created an infographic profiling the top five Pro Bono All-Stars, according to the firms which ranked in the top five in the AmLaw Pro Bono rankings: Covington & Burling, Jenner & Block, WilmerHale, Debevoise & Plimpton, and Arnold & Porter. The infographic details how many hours attorneys at the firm dedicated to pro bono work annually both individually on average and as part of the firm as a whole, how many lawyers devoted more than 20 hours to pro bono work and the percentage of firm lawyers who did so, whether or not the firm requires pro bono participation from its attorneys and if it is a participant in the Pro Bono Challenge. The infographic also includes the stories not told by the numbers, including notable cases such as WilmerHale’s involvement in DOMA and Debevoise & Plimpton’s work to reunite an immigrant mother with her son. To check out the infographic, continue to LLMinfo.com.