Washington Lawyer - July 2017 - 36

A SURGE IN
GOVERNMENT
PRO BONO
"Every Bar president, you are kind of building on
what other people have done," says Cruden,
recalling the creative work and dedication of others
he served with during the decade.
"We had a really cool Board. So, I'm president, but
first of all, I had Jim Sandman as my president-elect,
Annamaria Steward was secretary, and on the Board
with me were a lot of presidents-to-be: Kim Keenan,
Mel White. We had just a really great set of Board
members, which allowed us to do a lot just because
they were such a talented group," says Cruden, who
is remembered by others for his work bringing government lawyers into the D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center.
"I wrote a letter to every single counsel of every
single agency in the government saying I was a
government lawyer and already doing pro bono
and so should they, and I would be happy to meet
with them and fold them into an already existing
pro bono process," Cruden recalls.
James Sandman, Bar president from 2006 to
2007, and now president of the Legal Services
Corporation, also tried to focus on expanding pro
bono work. "I was fortunate to be John Cruden's
successor," he says. "John helped to expand the

Bar's pro bono work enormously by mobilizing
government lawyers. In significant part as a result
of his efforts, today federal government lawyers
are the single largest source of staff for some of
the Pro Bono Center's signature programs."
Sandman, too, is credited with recruiting large law
firms to the Bar's Pro Bono Center.
"In expanding the list of firms that were committed
to the pro bono initiative, I contacted the leaders
of big law firms that were not already participating.
I made the case that this is a list you don't want
to be left off of - that the participating firms
are known as leaders of pro bono in Washington.
Because pro bono is so much a part of the culture
of the Bar here, and so important in recruiting,
I tried to make it attractive to be a part of the pro
bono club," Sandman recalls, chuckling at some
of the arm bending that went on in those days.

NATIONAL DEVASTATION
There were other events during the decade. The
devastation of New Orleans, a major American city,
by Hurricane Katrina. The Great Recession of
2007-08. Both events had an impact on the Bar.
Katrina, which made landfall in southeast Louisiana
on August 29, 2005, was one of the deadliest hurricanes in U.S. history, killing nearly 2,000 people
and displacing tens of thousands more. The Bar

John C. Cruden

wrote a letter to every
" Isingle
counsel of every
single agency in the
government saying
I was a government
lawyer and already
doing pro bono and
so should they.

JOHN C. CRUDEN
D.C. Bar President, 2005-06

John C. Cruden, Patrice Gilbert Photography; President Barack Obama,
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images News; D.C. Bar officers, courtesy of
Katherine A. Mazzaferri; Melvin White, Patrice Gilbert Photography

36 WASHINGTON LAWYER

* JULY 2017 *

2009
Barack Obama becomes the first black president of the United States.

http://www.dcbar.org

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