2009 Pro Bono Package

Going In Deep

The cases are as diverse as the firms. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher advised an Olympic caliber windsurfer in a dispute with U.S. Sailing. Chadbourne & Parke helped a Colombian woman reunite with her 9-year-old daughter. Boies, Schiller & Flexner spent more than 7,000 pro bono hours on litigation to force the state of Florida to provide health care for poor kids. Shearman & Sterling continues its multiyear effort to act as the de facto clerk at the Rwanda genocide trials (the firm has devoted roughly 40,000 hours to the cause).

Our first Am Law Pro Bono 100 project takes an in depth look at firms’ pro bono matters. We ranked the firms based on their pro bono scores. (Half of the score comes from the average pro bono hours per lawyer; the other half represents the percentage of lawyers who perform more than 20 hours of pro bono work.) Then we talked to each of the top 100 firms about one particular cause they worked on in 2008. To read their stories, click on the firm names in the list below.