To make legal advice and the legal system more accessible to all, Reed Smith provides pro bono legal services in the communities where our offices are located. Attorneys and staff members alike lend their talents in dozens of ways, and contribute their skills on hundreds of pro bono matters and community service initiatives.
As an international firm, we see our communities as including, as well, those areas of the developing world where the need for legal assistance is also great. Reed Smith's contributions to pro bono and community service bring the members of our firm closer together, and deepen our understanding of the communities in which we live.
Pro Bono
Reed Smith is a proud charter signatory to the Pro Bono Institute's Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge, devoting more than three percent of our billable time to pro bono work. We are also a founding member of Advocates for International Development and a signatory to the United Kingdom Joint Protocol for Pro Bono Work.
In 2009, 64% of our U.S. lawyers, and 56% of our UK lawyers, did pro bono work valued--if expressed at normal billable rates--at $26 million. The Firm's lawyers performed more than 55,000 pro bono hours in 2009. We are proud that our pro bono efforts have received prominent recognition and awards:
- The National Law Journal featured Reed Smith lawyer Jayne Fleming as one of its four pro bono award winners for 2009. Jayne was recognized in a full-page article for her successful and innovative representations of asylum-seekers in a series of cutting-edge cases.
- The New York City Bar Association selected our NY associate Casey Laffey to receive the 2009 Epstein Award for Public Service as the most outstanding volunteer in the City Bar's Elderlaw Project.
- The D.C. Circuit Judicial Conference honored Reed Smith at its "40 at 50 Breakfast" (over 40% of our Washington D.C. lawyers reported 50 or more pro bono hours).
- Reed Smith was named in London as the 2008 "Corporate Social Responsibility Firm of the Year" by Legal Business magazine, a prestigious honor received largely for our pro bono work with Advocates for International Development.
- Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), a nonprofit leader in the rebuilding of distressed neighborhoods, in a ceremony attended by the Mayor of Philadelphia, presented a beautiful crystal award to Reed Smith, recognizing our continuous pro bono work done since 2004 for LISC and its borrowers by lawyers throughout our U.S. offices.
- Reed Smith received an “Adoption Excellence” Award from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for providing legal assistance that has now allowed more than 900 abused and neglected children to be placed into permanent homes.
Community Service
Our lawyers and staff provide community service on many fronts:
- We help nonprofits merge so they can pool their resources.
- We resolve real estate issues so that nonprofit organizations can have a home.
- We serve on the boards and committees of more than 500 nonprofit organizations.
- We collect cell phones for battered women, and almost-new and never-used toys for children with no toys.
- We repair houses of elderly and disabled people.
- We spend one-on-one time with children – reading and tutoring – to help them raise their reading levels and continue to succeed.
- We serve as mentors to high school students in at-risk communities.
- We received the "Platinum Award" for our contribution to the United Way.
- We raise funds and participate in various Walks, Runs, and Rides that benefit charitable causes.
Reed Smith is proud of the contributions lawyers and staff make in the areas of pro bono legal work and community service. Leading Reed Smith in this effort is our Director of Pro Bono and Community Service and our fulltime Senior Pro Bono Counsel, as well as fulltime Pro Bono Counsel. In the United Kingdom, our leader is our Pro Bono Partner, Europe and Middle East.