WolfBlock lawyers have demonstrated their commitment to pro bono causes throughout the firm’s 100-year history. WolfBlock lawyers engage in a wide gamut of pro bono matters from the representation of indigent individuals in a variety of civil cases - to the post-conviction representation of individuals in death penalty cases - to tax and transactional work for local, national and international nonprofit organizations.

"A large measure of pro bono work," explains the firm’s chair, Mark L. Alderman, "is in the area of poverty law and civil rights law in which most large law firm litigators have little experience, even those generally skilled in litigation practice. Pro bono clients are entitled to representation of as high a quality as received by fee paying clients. We ensure that lawyers handling pro bono cases are well trained and prepared for such professional representation."

WolfBlock’s innovative program combines its commitment to pro bono service with the firm’s commitment to its newest lawyers to provide training and professional education. Attorneys select pro bono matters that match their interests. While associates have front-line responsibility for their pro bono matters, a partner also is assigned to most matters in order to maximize the supervision and mentoring benefits of the program.

WolfBlock has a history of a deep commitment to the public interest, especially to protection of the rights of the dispossessed and disenfranchised. WolfBlock's Jerome J. Shestack, former president of the American Bar Association, founded the ABA Center for Pro Bono and made pro bono commitment a centerpiece of his term as ABA president. Mr. Shestack adds, "We recognize that public interest service is a responsibility that comes with the role and privilege of this profession. Isn’t this a part of why lawyers enter this profession?"

WolfBlock lawyers continue to meet this responsibility. Andrew A. Chirls is a former Chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association. Mr. Chirls is a member of the Board of the Philadelphia Volunteers for the Indigent Program and routinely accepts pro bono referrals. Michael L. Temin and Gretchen M. Santamour have long served as Board members and as volunteer lawyers with the Consumer Bankruptcy Assistance Project. Other WolfBlock attorneys have handled a number of pro bono immigration and asylum cases. In 2004, after three years of intense work, a team of WolfBlock lawyers had the death sentence vacated and a new trial ordered for their client, a Pennsylvania death row inmate.

One of the firm’s major public interest initiatives, the Shestack Public Interest Fellowship, was launched in 1998 to address the shortage of attorneys working on behalf of underserved populations in Philadelphia. Named in honor of Mr. Shestack, the Fellowship provides support, training, salary and benefits to committed young attorneys working in the public interest. Aliza Karetnick, a 1998 graduate of Penn Law School, the first Fellowship recipient, divided her time between WolfBlock and the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia.

Malia N. Brink, a 2000 graduate of Penn Law School , divided her time between WolfBlock and the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, where she worked on civil rights litigation and lobbying. Working half-time at the ACLU provided Malia with a number of unique opportunities and experiences. Malia testified before the Judiciary Committee of the Pennsylvania Senate with respect to pending legislation.

Because the ACLU is viewed as a prominent nongovernmental force in the protection of civil liberties in the United States, the organization is frequently asked to discuss the U.S. Constitution with international visitors touring the United States at the invitation of the U.S. State Department. As the Shestack Fellow, Malia participated in these discussions. Additionally, Malia gained a variety of litigation experiences at the ACLU.

Another Fellowship recipient, Joseph Litvin, a 2005 graduate of Harvard Law School, divided his time between the Environmental & Land Use Practice Group at WolfBlock and the Pennsylvania Environmental Council.

The Council's mission is to improve the quality of life for all Pennsylvanians by enhancing the Commonwealth's natural and built environments by integrating advocacy, education and implementation of community and regional action projects. The Council values reasoned and long-term approaches that include the interests of all stakeholders to accomplish its goals.

The Council has played an active role in environmental policy discussions and decision-making in Harrisburg, in both the regulatory and legislative arenas. The Council's advocacy work includes commenting on proposed legislation and regulations, testifying before General Assembly committees and publishing a Legislative Update, which provides members and others with clear analyses of issues and the Council’s positions. The Council's recent work includes supporting Pennsylvania Governor Rendell's Quality of Life initiative, which would provide continued funding for important programs such as Growing Greener. The Council also focused on advocating for improved state water resource management and for improvements to abandoned mine reclamation work.

Joe worked on brownfield redevelopment initiatives and legislative analysis pertaining to water resource management.

The 2007 recipient, Sarah Schalman-Bergen, Harvard Law School J.D. '07, will divide her time between WolfBlock and the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania (http://www.aidslawpa.org).

Each spring, the firm writes to each incoming summer associate and outlines the firm’s existing and prospective pro bono engagements. We elicit the interests of the summer associates and line up appropriate pro bono assignments in advance of their arrival. We enroll interested Philadelphia office summer associates in the training conducted by Philadelphia Volunteers for the Indigent Program (VIP). We then match our summer associates with WolfBlock attorneys who work as co-counsel on a variety of pro bono cases. Some of this work is highlighted in our pro bono newsletters.

We host and participate in a variety of events throughout the year that introduce pro bono opportunities and that provide training and resources.

For example, each fall the firm hosts or participates in a Road Show presentation by representatives from more than a dozen public interest organizations. The representatives each describe their organization and the variety of cases and legal matters in which they utilize volunteer attorneys in direct service representation. These powerful and compelling presentations demonstrate the enormous contributions that private attorneys can make to the lives of individual needy clients and to the quality of the justice system. WolfBlock attorneys already experienced in pro bono work attest to the gains they realize, both in professional development and personal satisfaction, by providing critical legal services to needy individuals.

As we all know, lawyers have a professional obligation, under 6.1 of the Rules of Professional Conduct ("A lawyer should render public interest legal service"), to provide pro bono legal services.

Not only do lawyers who take pro bono cases afford access to justice in individual cases, they improve the justice system for all individuals. Legal representation is afforded when otherwise the indigent person would have no counsel, but pro bono engagements have a much more profound effect: Private practitioners, equipped and experienced in providing excellent legal service to fee-paying clients, are infused into "poor people’s courts." These courts handle family law issues, landlord-tenant issues, public housing issues and public benefits issues. The stakes could not be higher: the families, homes and subsistence of the clients. In many cases, however, the "quality" of the "justice system" could not be lower. Private lawyers need to be exposed to these parts of the legal system if they are to fulfill their professional obligation to improve the legal system.

The firm’s Pro Bono Committee urges you to take on a new pro bono case if you are not currently working on a pro bono matter.

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