Sonnenschein attorneys are encouraged to become involved in pro bono work that adds value and is personally meaningful and rewarding. Full-time attorneys may credit the first 100 hours of time spent on pro bono client matters each year to their billable hour requirement. In 2007, we devoted more than 50,000 hours, an average of over 60 hours per attorney, to providing pro bono legal counsel. This significant commitment places us among the top 15 law firms in the most recent annual Pro Bono rankings of the Top 200 grossing firms published by The American Lawyer. Guidance from our full-time Pro Bono Partner, as well as from our firm-wide and local-office Pro Bono Committees, helps us focus our efforts on this important arena every day.
Others take notice of our commitment to making a difference in our communities. For example, Public Counsel, the largest public interest pro bono law firm in the world, awarded our Los Angeles office its 2006 Public Counsel Law Firm Pro Bono Award as a result of the complex and difficult cases our attorneys handled and the extraordinary participation rate of attorneys, from senior partners to law clerks. Also in recent years, lawyers in our Chicago office received the Pro Bono Service Award and the Law Firm Mentoring Program of the Year Award from the Chicago Bar Association. Our San Francisco office received the State Bar of California’s President’s Pro Bono Service Award as a result of a nomination by the Volunteer Legal Services Program of the Bar Association of San Francisco, and lawyers in our New York office received both the “Cornerstone Award” from the Lawyers Alliance for New York for transactional assistance and inMotion’s “Commitment to Justice Award” for work representing victims of domestic violence.
Sonnenschein was cited as one of nine New York law firms that collaborated with each other and the New York Lawyers for Public Interest to represent the families of union members who died in the attack on the World Trade Center. Our people represented families in extreme grief and disarray in the months after this tragedy. Overall, we contributed more than 1,000 hours to helping victims’ families needing to file with the Federal 9/11 Victims’ Fund, needing help with trusts and estates problems, housing problems and many immigration issues, as well as a host of other legal needs.
Major pro bono initiatives for us include helping men, women and children who have fled persecution in their home countries to seek asylum in the U.S., working with various prisoner populations to protect and uphold their rights, protecting people who are vulnerable from eviction and successfully managing tenant/landlord disputes, offering counsel in transactional issues for community-based organizations trying to bring services or businesses to improve the vitality of a community, and a host of educational initiatives.
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