During its annual meeting in San Francisco this week, the American Bar Association presented its Pro Bono Publico Award to Sidley Austin, citing in particular its firmwide Capital Litigation Project in which lawyers from several offices represented prisoners on Alabama's death row in post-conviction proceedings.

"The commitment that Sidley has made to death penalty representation is unprecedented," said Robin Maher, director of the ABA's Death Penalty Representation Project. "I'm not aware of any other law firm that has committed this amount of resources, people and funding to this number of cases at one time."

In 2005, Sidley established the capital project, through which the firm represents indigent prisoners. In partnership with the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit legal services agency in Montgomery, Ala., the firm currently offers its services to 19 condemned men.

More than 120 Sidley partners, counsels and associates, along with legal assistants and project assistants, have volunteered some 29,000 hours to such cases since the project's inception.

"We hope that awards like this draw attention to the need for pro bono legal representation for the poor, including prisoners on death row," said John N. Gallo, a partner at Sidley's Chicago office who spearheaded his firm's capital project.

http://www.law.com/jsp/nylj/PubArticleNY.jsp?id=1187254928898