Washington Lawyer - July/August 2021 - 55

THE PRO BONO EFFECT
BLAIR DECKER
Hogan Lovells
District to
serve as pro
bono guardians
ad litem
for children
in contested
custody cases.
" We had been
doing that
work, " Decker
says of Hogan
Lovells' builtin
pro bono
culture, which
encourages
attorneys to commit to a minimum 25 hours a
year of pro bono work and/or non-legal community
service activity. " But because of the
pandemic we decided to do more. "
" We understand that not everyone can do a pro
bono case immediately or for several months
because of a whole host of reasons, but we
have a pretty big pool of lawyers to pull from.
So, if there's a practice group that is really busy,
we will look to others to step up, " says Decker.
For Lee, the bigger challenge for D.C. Represents
is how to maintain its momentum as the
District gradually reopens. " The whole purpose
of the D.C. Represents campaign is to reemphasize
that as lawyers who work in the
private sector or for the federal government,
[we might] go back to a normal setting. Yet it's
anything but normal for a lot of our neighbors
who are just now trying to figure out how to
untangle all of the problems accruing during
the pandemic. That's why this campaign is so
crucial, " says Lee.
" We know that there has been a big financial
hit for a lot of gig workers, people who work
in the restaurant industry and the service
industry, people who work in childcare. Those
things will start coming back to the city, but
they will come back slowly, " adds Lee.
HOLDING EACH OTHER ACCOUNTABLE
Support for D.C. Represents has been strong
across the District's legal community. D.C.
Court of Appeals Chief Judge Anna BlackburneRigsby
says pro bono legal help is needed now
more than ever.
" Even here in our nation's capital, where we have
one of the largest concentrations of lawyers and
a judiciary devoted to access to justice, there are
people living in our community who do not
PARTICIPATING FIRMS & ORGANIZATIONS (As of June 2021)
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer
& Feld LLP
Allen & Overy LLP
Arnold & Porter
Ayuda
Bread for the City
Catholic Charities Immigration
Legal Services
Children's Law Center
Christian Legal Aid of D.C.
Cooley LLP
Covington & Burling LLP
Crowell & Moring LLP
Dechert LLP
DC Affordable Law Firm
D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center
DC Volunteer Lawyers Project
District of Columbia
Government
DLA Piper US LLP
Domestic Violence Legal
Empowerment and Appeals
Project (DV LEAP)
Faegre Drinker Biddle
& Reath LLP
Finnegan LLP
Fish & Richardson PC
George Washington University
School of Law Legal Clinics
Gibson Dunn
Goodwin Procter LLP
Hogan Lovells US LLP
Jenner & Block
King & Spalding LLP
Legal Aid Society of the
District of Columbia
Legal Counsel for the Elderly
Mayer Brown LLP
Miller & Chevalier
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
Morrison & Foerster LLP
Neighborhood Legal Services
Program
Network for Victim Recovery
of DC
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton
& Garrison LLP
have the means to afford an attorney, nor access
to pro bono assistance, " Blackburne-Rigsby said
in a March 25 press release.
The D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center, the largest
provider of pro bono legal services in the
District, has also pledged to support the
campaign. Executive Director Rebecca K. Troth
says the organization " is proud to be part of
this effort . . . to meet the tremendous challenges
the pandemic has posed and will
continue to pose even as the public health
emergency ends. "
D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine encouraged
coalition members to " make tangible
commitments, including exceeding their prior
year's total of pro bono hours logged on behalf
of D.C. residents, and consider incentivizing
partners, associates, paralegals, and others to
ramp up this work by counting pro bono work
toward billable hour requirements. "
Participation in D.C. Represents is completely
volunteer-based, with no minimum hours or
a certain amount of case commitments. " That
was intentional, " Decker says. " When we were
coming up with D.C. Represents, we were very
mindful that all the firms already have a lot of
reporting obligations. We didn't want this to
become another one of those because that
takes up a lot of time. "
" The main push for accountability is just
creating a public platform for this initiative, "
says Lee. " We have over 30 law firms and legal
employers who signed up for this initiative. The
goal is to be accountable to each other in the
public's eye. "
To learn more about D.C. Represents and to sign
on to the campaign, visit dcaccesstojustice.org/
dcrepresents.
JULY/AUGUST 2021
* WASHINGTON LAWYER 55
Perkins Coie LLP
Quality Trust for Individuals
With Disabilities
Rising for Justice
Steptoe & Johnson LLP
Squire Patton Boggs
The Catholic University of
America Columbus School
of Law Pro Bono Program
Tzedek DC
U.S. Department of Justice
Pro Bono Program
Venable LLP
Washington Lawyers'
Committee for Civil Rights
and Urban Affairs
Washington Legal Clinic
for the Homeless
White & Case LLP
Wiley Rein LLP
Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale
& Door LLP
Zuckerman Spaeder LLP
Hogan Lovells
http://www.dcaccesstojustice.org/dcrepresents http://www.dcaccesstojustice.org/dcrepresents
Washington Lawyer - July/August 2021

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