For Immediate Release
| Contacts: | Adam Licht, Director of Product Management, Pro Bono Net |
| Phone: (212) 760-2554 x486; E-mail: alicht@probono.net |
BALLARD SPAHR CHOOSES PRO BONO MANAGERTM
Premier law firm to purchase Pro Bono Net's customized pro bono management application
NEW YORK (November 17, 2008) – Pro Bono Net, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing access to justice through the innovative use of technology, today announced that Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP has become the seventh customer for Pro Bono ManagerTM, its pro bono management solution for law firms.
Pro Bono Manager is a customized, hosted web application that increases law firms’ pro bono program management capacity. With law firms of all sizes increasingly emphasizing pro bono work, Pro Bono Manager helps firms meet the challenge of managing a robust pro bono program, allowing them to maximize their public service impact on the community.
Ballard Spahr has a long history of pro bono work and has received numerous awards for its efforts. The firm’s pro bono clients include The Mother Teresa of Calcutta Center and Classroom on Wheels, which operates a mobile preschool program for low-income children in Las Vegas, NV.
Pro Bono Manager’s customized, web-based tools enable pro bono coordinators to more efficiently handle the firm’s pro bono caseload, raise the internal profile of the firm’s pro bono program, increase volunteer participation among attorneys and the quality of support and oversight provided to them and automate the creation of reports. The service integrates data from time and billing and personnel systems with content for a firm’s attorneys. One of its benefits is that it leverages Pro Bono Net’s nationwide network of public interest legal groups to provide an unmatched source of practice materials, volunteer opportunities, training events and news.
The service is built on Microsoft’s SharePoint 2007 and SQL Reporting Services, and was developed by Pro Bono Net in partnership with XMLaw, the leading provider of SharePoint intranet, extranet and search products enabling law firms to effectively use all their internal and external knowledge sources.
Development of Pro Bono Manager was funded in large part by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which declared Pro Bono Net “a model for other nonprofits that are looking to create innovative, technology-based delivery systems that are sustainable over the long term.”
About Pro Bono Net
Pro Bono Net is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing access to justice through innovative uses of technology and increased volunteer lawyer participation. Founded in 1998 with support from the Open Society Institute, Pro Bono Net has created a broad and powerful network of nonprofit legal aid providers, courts and bar associations across the United States and Canada. This network uses two innovative web-based platforms—www.probono.net and www.lawhelp.org—to recruit and manage volunteers and provide direct information and tools for low-income communities and the organizations that serve them. For more information, please visit www.probono.net/probonomanager.
About Ballard Spahr
Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP, a national law firm with more than 550 lawyers, is ranked among the AmLaw 100 as one of the country's 100 largest law firms by size. The firm has offices in Atlanta; Baltimore; Bethesda; Denver; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Philadelphia; Phoenix; Salt Lake City; Voorhees; Washington, D.C.; and Wilmington. Ballard Spahr is a multi-practice law firm that provides a wide range of legal services to its clients.