More than 165 years ago, the founding partners of Foley took an active role in the fight against slavery and for women's rights, thus establishing a commitment to conscience and community service that remains one of the firm's core values to this day.Foley is dedicated to taking a leading role in providing every person and organization — regardless of financial means — access to the justice system. And as is often the case, in giving we also receive, as pro bono work provides our attorneys with unique opportunities for personal and professional development by exposing them to areas of law, procedures, and clients not often available in our day-to-day work.
Dedicated to strengthening the communities in which we practice, Foley implemented a firmwide Pro Bono Policy that promotes pro bono initiatives and cultivates an environment that supports those engaged in such work.
But at Foley, we know that policies by themselves are not enough: The firm must support its words with substantial action. In that effort, Foley has accepted the Pro Bono Institute Challenge advocating that every attorney in the firm dedicate 60 or more hours per year on pro bono projects. The firm supports this challenge by offering billable credit for 100 hours — or more with committee approval — of pro bono work per year.
Additionally, Foley was a founder of the Public Interest Law Initiative (PILI), an organization that facilitates the provision of pro bono services to legal aid organizations by law students and recent law school graduates, and a signatory to the initiative's Pro Bono Statement of Principles.
We are extremely pleased that our hard work and focus continue to drive the success of our pro bono initiative. In 2008, 82 percent of all attorneys participated in pro bono service, and the firm's monthly average increased to 4,275 hours of pro bono work, up from 2,800 hours in 2007 and 1,692 hours in 2006.
Meeting the Diverse Needs of Our Communities
Foley executes a wide range of pro bono services, from providing assistance to individuals, legal aid societies, or civil rights organizations to representing nonprofit organizations in strategic projects and litigation matters. In recent years, we have provided significant representation in matters referred to us by such public interest firms as the National Immigrant Justice Center, Political Asylum/Immigration Representation (PAIR) Project, and Public Counsel.
Foley performs work in nearly every area of public interest law. Attorneys have dedicated their time to immigration and asylum matters, freedom of expression cases, child custody proceedings, domestic battery injunctions, patent and copyright cases, veterans' benefits applications, death penalty appeals, and transactional matters, among others.
