National Pro Bono Week 2015: Volunteer-a-Day Initiative

Pro Bono Net celebrated Pro Bono Week by highlighting the hard work of volunteers!

Pro Bono Net would like to recognize the thousands of volunteer lawyers who make a huge difference for those in need and the incredibly important work of pro bono volunteers in building our capacity to meet the vast unmet need for civil legal services.  National Pro Bono Week is a co-ordinated national effort by the ABA Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service, and is an exciting time of the year where we recognize the hard work of our volunteers, and the critical roles they play in helping bridge the justice gap, and live up to our professional ideal of "justice for all".   
We celebrated  National Pro Bono Week through a special "Volunteer A Day" Initiative, which showcased a new volunteer profile to our national community for each day of Pro Bono Week. In addition to recognizing and honoring the hard work of volunteers, we hope that these profiles provide interesting reading and insights into the motivations, rewards and incentives to volunteer. We are very proud to showcase these volunteers from our pro bono community and hope they may inspire you to get involved as well!
 
 


Interested in volunteering?  Check out our "Volunteer Tools" page to learn about the range of resources we have at Pro Bono Net to help mobilize and engage pro bono volunteers, or start searching for opportunities right now by using our national Pro Bono Opportunities Guide!

 

Our Volunteers

Pro Bono Week 2015: Featured Volunteer
Fiona Finlay-Hunt, Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP

 

Name:  Fiona Finlay-Hunt

Organization:  Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP

Featured Pro Bono Volunteer Work:  Arts & Entrepreneurship, Elder Law, Criminal Appeals, Corporate Governance

Fiona Finlay-Hunt is an associate in the New York office of Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP. She is a member of the Intellectual Property & Technology group and her practice focuses on intellectual property issues arising from corporate transactions, such as mergers and acquisitions, securities offerings and credit transactions. Ms. Finlay-Hunt has participated in pro bono work spanning the arts and entrepreneurship, elder law, criminal appeals and corporate governance.

 
Pro Bono Week 2015: Featured Volunteer
Heather McDevitt, Partner, White & Case LLP

Name:  Heather McDevitt

Organization:  White & Case LLP

Featured Pro Bono Volunteer Work:  Death Penalty; General Advice

Heather McDevitt is a litigation partner at White & Case LLP.  She is the head of the firm's Global Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare Group, and a member of the Firm's Partnership Committee.  Today's volunteer feature is an interview style, which gives us a very special personal insight into pro bono from a partner perspective at one of the nation's leading law firms. It provides some useful advice and guidance that we hope will serve as an inspiration for many others to volunteer and shares an important perspective on the importance of pro bono work in ensuring fairness for all in our justice system.

 
Pro Bono Week 2015: Featured Volunteer
Karen Grisez, E-Conference Expert Panelist

Name:  Karen Grisez

Organization:  Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP

Featured Pro Bono Volunteer Work:  Expert Panelist for Immigration Advocates Network E-Conference

Karen T. Grisez is a member of the Litigation Department and is resident in Fried Frank’s Washington, DC office. In her role as Public Service Counsel, Ms. Grisez manages the intake and placement of pro bono matters, acts as liaison to national and local bar associations and legal services providers and provides substantive advice and assistance to other attorneys who are working on pro bono cases. She has experience with issues of political asylum and other immigration matters, veterans’ benefits, family law, landlord/tenant law and general civil litigation.

 
Pro Bono Week 2015: Featured Volunteer
Bill Sussman, Ropes & Gray LLP

Name:  Bill Sussman, Ropes & Gray team

Organization:  Ropes & Gray LLP

Featured Pro Bono Volunteer Work:  Civil rights, Prisoner's Rights, Class Action Lawsuit

Today's feature is authored by the Legal Aid Society and describes the recent success of class action lawsuit, Nunez v New York. The article speaks to a partnership between the Legal Aid Society's Prisoners' Rights Project and Pro Bono Counsel, Ropes & Gray, which was led by our featured volunteer, Bill Sussman, a business and securities litigation partner.  The piece reflects on 30,000 hours of pro bono work over a 3 year period and a continued and deepened commitment to pro bono by Ropes & Gray following the success of the case.

 
Pro Bono Week 2015: Featured Volunteer
Rebecca E. Algie, Her Justice Volunteer

Name:  Rebecca E. Algie

Organization:  Seward & Kissel LLP

Featured Pro Bono Volunteer Work:  Her Justice, Litigated Divorce, Family

As a summer associate, Rebecca E. Algie first volunteered 5 years ago, in 2010, on a case referred to by Her Justice, a non-profit organization based in New York.  Today, this article, written by Her Justice, recognizes the ongoing commitment and dedication of Ms. Algie to providing low-income women with access to justice. It highlights her work on a litigated divorce case for a mother of four children, and her hard work in ensuring her client's long term economic security and right to safely remain in her home.

 
Pro Bono Week 2015: Featured Volunteer
Christopher Mendez, VOLS New York Volunteer

 

Name:  Christopher Mendez

Organization:  Invesco Ltd

Featured Pro Bono Volunteer Work:  Volunteers of Legal Service, Microenterprise Project

Bill Lienhard, Executive Director of Volunteers of Legal Service (VOLS), shares this very special story about Christopher Mendez, a Senior Compliance Officer for Invesco Ltd, and a former Marine. This piece speaks to Chris' journey through NY's 50 hour pro bono requirement, his passions and time as a volunteer in VOLS Microenterprise Project, and the important work of his client, Community Health Worker Connections.

 
Pro Bono Week 2015: Featured Volunteer
Alicia A. Handy, Latham & Watkins LLP
Name: Alicia A. Handy

Organization: Latham & Watkins

Featured Pro Bono Volunteer Work: Landlord-Tenant, Immigration, Criminal Appeal

Alicia A. Handy is an Associate at the Houston Office of Latham & Watkins LLP. She is a member of the Environmental Transactions Practice and her practice focuses primarily on environmental, land and regulatory matters within the oil and gas industry. Ms. Handy has maintained an active pro bono practice that has included landlord-tenant and immigration matters, and a criminal appeal before the Maryland Court of Special Appeals.

 

 


Once again we wish to thank all of the volunteers that continue to make our mission of increasing access to justice a reality.

 

Pro Bono Net is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing access to justice through innovative uses of technology and increased volunteer lawyer participation. Watch our video celebrating our 15th anniversary and learn more about how Pro Bono Net and our partners are bridging the justice gap.

 


Interested in volunteering?  Check out our "Volunteer Tools" page to learn about the range of resources we have at Pro Bono Net to help mobilize and engage pro bono volunteers, or start searching for opportunities right now by using our national Pro Bono Opportunities Guide!