Our Pro Bono Initiatives

Through our many and diverse pro bono opportunities, Summer Associates gain hands-on lawyering experience. If they choose to participate in one of our pro bono opportunities, they may find themselves handling much of the matter themselves, with supervisory oversight from one of the Dickstein Shapiro attorneys.

In the same manner that Dickstein Shapiro has grown as a law firm, so too have we broadened our pro bono outreach to the community. Focusing on the needs of individuals, we have strong partnerships with organizations including Bread for the City, Women Empowered Against Violence, Inc., Lawyers for Children America, Legal Counsel for the Elderly, Duke Ellington School of the Arts, and the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights. In addition, we have new commitments to the Whitman-Walker Legal Clinic, Legal Aid of Washington, DC, the DC Bar Pro Bono Program, the New York Mentor Program, and the Prisoners’ Legal Services Project. We have received numerous awards for our efforts, and we are indebted to our attorneys and staff who generously dedicate themselves to this work.

We encourage pro bono service by recognizing as billable time 100% of the first 100 hours, 50% of the second 100 hours and 100% of any additional hours of pro bono service. All pro bono service is considered a Firm building activity. In recent years, the firm has exceeded its objective of devoting 3% of anticipated billable hours to pro bono work

More importantly, we believe that we have a duty to the community in which we work, and that we are in a position, as a law firm and as individuals, to give something back.