Pro Bono
Foley is committed to providing meaningful pro bono opportunities for our attorneys and quality legal services to those who most need our help.
Our commitment to conscience and community — established by our founding partners and still a core value to this day — includes providing quality pro bono legal services that ensure every person and organization, regardless of financial means, has access to the justice system.
And, as is often the case, in giving we also receive: Our attorneys gain not only professional experience through exposure to areas of law, procedures, and clients not often available in their day-to-day work, but also a deep, personal satisfaction that comes from achieving justice for those who otherwise would have been powerless to protect their legal rights.
Racial Justice and Equity Practice Group
Foley & Lardner proudly launched its Racial Justice and Equity Practice Group in July 2020. This highly skilled practice group underscores the firm’s commitment to stand up against racial injustice and compliments its continued membership in the Law Firm Antiracism Alliance. While the firm has worked on numerous matters impacting racial justice and equality that predated the formation of this practice group, circumstances in recent years demanded a sharp, coordinated focus of efforts. Read More
Reporting directly to our CEO, Foley’s National Pro Bono Legal Services Committee monitors and implements the firm’s comprehensive Pro Bono Policy to ensure that our pro bono clients are afforded the same high standard of quality given to our paying clients.
As part of our commitment to pro bono, the committee set a number of goals to improve the quality and quantity of our pro bono service: significantly increase the number of attorneys performing pro bono service and the hours they contribute; expand the variety of service opportunities; and enhance partnerships with other law firms, clients, nonprofits, and law school pro bono programs.
And because we know that policies and goals by themselves will not get the job done, we actively support our words with action. We automatically provide billable credit for the first 100 hours of pro bono work per year, with the opportunity to request additional credit over that amount; launched specialized pro bono practice groups that deepen our capabilities in specific areas and attract more quality projects from referral sources; and strongly encourage all attorneys — regardless of department or practice — to meet their professional responsibility in aiding the underserved. We also accepted the Pro Bono Institute Challenge, which results in the firm’s commitment of approximately three percent of all billable hours toward pro bono.
When it comes to pro bono services, we have done everything from assisting individuals, legal aid societies, and civil rights organizations to representing nonprofit organizations in strategic projects and litigation matters. We work in nearly every area of public interest law, and we have teamed with organizations such as the Medical Legal Partnership, Just Neighbors, National Immigrant Justice Center, Political Asylum/Immigration Representation (PAIR) Project, and Public Counsel to increase our access to pro bono cases in our communities.
- As part of a national initiative, our Washington, D.C. office partnered with the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) and other law firms to provide pro bono legal representation for injured soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
- As part of Foley’s long-standing relationship with Bet Tzedek Legal Services — a public-interest law center in L.A. that assists low-income, disabled, and elderly clients — Foley attorneys across the country have participated in the Holocaust Survivors Justice Network, the first-ever nationally coordinated Holocaust-survivor reparations initiative.
- Our IP attorneys provide pro bono services to the Institute for OneWorld Health, including writing and filing patent applications for new drugs to aid the world’s most impoverished areas. We recently expanded the initiative by creating a new program to aid discoveries in orphan and neglected diseases.
- Our Artists and Arts Organizations Pro Bono Group leverages the firm’s capabilities in a number of practice areas to help struggling artists and arts organizations address a variety of legal issues, including trademark registration and copyright infringement.
Our Asylum/Immigration Pro Bono Group handles a significant amount of the firm’s pro bono work, drawing from attorneys in practices across the firm and offices across the country to help persecuted individuals from around the world. We have secured asylum for numerous pro bono clients from Venezuela, the Republic of The Gambia, Nigeria, the Central African Republic, the Sudan, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Somalia, Madagascar, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Burma, and many others.
We do not perform pro bono work to win awards. We do it because true justice requires that every voice has a worthy advocate. But we are proud of the recognition and accolades we have received, as they embody the time, effort, and resources that our attorneys and staff have dedicated to so many matters. Recent recognition includes:
- Florida Bar President’s 2022 Pro Bono Service Award for the 13th Judicial Circuit – Mark Wolfson, January 20, 2022
- USPTO Award Winning Law Firm, April 22, 2020
- PAIR 2020 Pro Bono Law Firm Award, June 8, 2020
- Daily Business Review Distinguished Leader Award – Mark Neuberger, October 2020
- State Bar of Michigan’s “A Lawyer Helps Pro Bono Honor Roll”, October 7, 2020
- Boston Bar Association’s Beacon Award Selection Committee’s Empowerment Award, November 20, 2020
- Tahirih Justice Center Pro Bono Attorney of the Year Award – Olivia Singelmann, December 19, 2019
- The Florida Bar and The Florida Supreme Court Outstanding Pro Bono Law Firm for the State of Florida, February 7, 2019
- Dane County Bar Association Pro Bono Publico Program Award – Legal Action of Wisconsin’s Eviction Defense Project, May 1, 2019
- Dane County Bar Association Pro Bono Publico Law Firm Service Award – Foley & Lardner, May 1, 2019
- 2019 Detroit Bar Association Pro Bono Service Award recipient, May 6, 2019
- Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs Outstanding Achievement Award, May 29, 2019
- Milwaukee Business Journal Extraordinary Commitment to Pro Bono Work, September 23, 2019
- Milwaukee Bar Association 2019 Pro Bono Publico Award – Tanya O’Neill, September 26, 2019
- The Business Journals Largest In Kind Contributions, September 26, 2019
- Susan Khoury Guardian ad Litem (GAL) Award of Excellence – Kim Ashby, September 27, 2019
- Tampa Bay Chapter of the Federal Bar Association Pro Bono Service and Excellence Award – Heather Lee