Shoshanah Brown, executive director of the Harlem Children’s Zone Asthma Initiative, knows surprises are a natural occurrence in the nonprofit realm. But earlier this year, even she was shocked when Dewey & LeBoeuf, the initiative’s primary pro bono counsel for nearly a decade, filed for bankruptcy in May.
“We never thought Dewey would be the thing to cave,” says Brown, whose organizationwhich aims to ease the potentially debilitating effects asthma can have on school-aged childrenwas one of several groups that lost a major resource when the firm closed its doors. “We thought it would be everybody else before Dewey.”
Although other law firm collapsesincluding those of Coudert Brothers, Heller Ehrman, Howrey, and Thelenhave left organizations scrambling to reassign pro bono work, Dewey’s disappearance has struck a particularly significant blow given the extent of its contributions. In 2011 The American Lawyer ranked the firm fifth among the nation’s largest law firms for its commitment to pro bono.
