The Apbco Impact Project

http://www.apbco.org/

THE APBCO IMPACT PROJECT

INTERIM REPORT TO THE VICE PRESIDENT

June, 2014

At the request of the Office of the Vice-President (“OVP”), APBCo is proud to provide this update regarding the APBCo IMPACT Project. In anticipation of the upcoming second year meeting that the Vice President has requested with APBCo, the following summary of the status and progress of this historic, nation-wide pro bono program is presented.

The language below, approved by the OVP following the initial White House meeting with the Vice President in September, 2012, provides the introduction for the IMPACT Project.

The Association of Pro Bono Counsel (“APBCo”) is a membership organization of full-time pro bono counsel and coordinators at major commercial law firms. APBCo has over 125 members from more than 85 law firms nationwide, including many AmLaw 200 firms. Founded in 2006, APBCo is dedicated to improving access to justice by advancing the model of the full-time law firm pro bono counsel, enhancing the professional development of pro bono counsel, and serving as a unified voice for the national law firm pro bono community.

Last September, the board of directors of APBCo, along with senior management from the board members’ firms, met with Vice President Joe Biden in Washington, DC. The meeting focused on issues of access to justice and the role of pro bono attorneys in the delivery of legal services to the poor, including innovative collaborations between law firms, legal services organizations, bar associations and the judiciary. The Vice President commended the participants for their commitment to improve and expand the delivery of legal services to the underserved.

With this backdrop, APBCo has initiated a long-term project to seed and launch a series of new collaborations across the country designed to expand national law firm efforts to increase access to justice. The APBCo IMPACT (Involving More Pro bono Attorneys in our Communities Together) Project is already taking root in eight urban centers, from Seattle to New York, and beyond. The objective is to design innovative and sustainable new solutions that will increase access to free legal services. With the Vice President’s enthusiasm for our mission, APBCO has convened community leaders, and is coordinating multiple participants, to put together innovative approaches to addressing issues as ingrained as housing, re-entry, homelessness and financial security, and offer solutions to restore opportunity to the disenfranchised, both to their benefit and the benefit of their communities. APBCo IMPACT leaders will update the Vice President annually about the progress of these various programs being launched around the nation.

As is detailed in the following report, the launch of this project has been historic. Never before, on such a scale, has the private bar undertaken to initiate, fund and lead such an ambitious pro bono program. Due to the severe economic crisis that has struck the legal aid community, few non-profit organizations today are able to build new projects to meet the increasing needs of the low-income communities that are similarly impacted by the changing dynamics of the national economy. Instead, through the APBCo IMPACT Project, private law firms are turning upside-down this traditional model of addressing need and themselves are gathering stakeholders in their communities, and assessing how best to assist the legal aid community in meeting the needs of the client populations they serve. APBCo-member law firms are then building programs to address the issues of the communities in which they live and work, crafting agendas by which to provide the platforms through which unique public/private collaborations can support their local legal aid organizations in ways that never before have been done. In recognition of the unique and effective launch of these efforts, the APBCo IMPACT Project, and several APBCo-member firms, have been named recipients of a Beacon of Justice Award by the National Legal Aid and Defenders Association. The successes achieved grow entirely out of the Vice-President’s meeting with APBCo representatives and his encouragement by which this nation-wide program has grown.

ABPCO IMPACT PROJECT CO-CHAIRS

DAVID LASH
O'Melveny & Meyers LLP
400 South Hope Street, Los Angeles, CA 90071
(213) 430-8366
dlash@ omm.com / AL WALLIS
Brown Rudnick LLP
One Financial Center, Boston, MA 02111
(617) 856-8119

THE APBCO IMPACT PROJECT

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Status of Original Pilot Projects Commenced in 2012-4

following APBCo's Meeting with the Vice President.

I.  PROJECT DESCRIPTIONS/STATUS

Location: BOSTON

Project Description: / REFRESHING THE POVERTY LAW INTAKE, REFERRAL & DELIVERY SYSTEM.
Organizations in the greater Boston area providing legal assistance to the poor are experiencing increasing and overwhelming requests for legal help at the same time that their resources have been severely diminished by budget cuts and reduced charitable contributions. In response, APBCo firms in Boston, in conjunction with Greater Boston Legal Services ("GBLS"), the Volunteer Lawyers Project of the Boston Bar Association ("VLP"), and the Legal Advocacy and Resource Center Inc. ("LARC"), launched an initial APBCo IMPACT Project, Boston edition.
APBCo Boston members coordinated participation by ten attorneys from nine law firms and approximately 40 summer associates in the project. They were provided substantive and practical training on staffing the legal assistance “hot line” at LARC and then staffed shifts at LARC, fielding calls for legal assistance, providing brief advice and referrals. Waiting times for clients calling the hot line were reduced by 20 minutes during the time of the APBCo staffing, greatly enhancing the efficiency of the program and enabling greater access to assistance for the many clients of the hot line. At the end of the summer the project was evaluated by the APBCo/Boston team, and Executive Directors of LARC, GBLS and VLP.
Consideration of the future course of this effort currently is in progress, but a principal reason for doing this as a first project – to better assess from the experience with this intake & screening program where the unmet and under-met legal needs are presently in the community – has prompted collective work on identifying and developing the next IMPACT Project in Boston.
Key Participants / ·  Firms participating: Brown Rudnick LLP; WilmerHale; Goodwin Procter LLP; Foley Hoag LLP; Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.; Holland and Knight LLP; Ropes & Gray LLP; Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP.
·  Key partners: GBLS; VLP; LARC.
·  Additional resources invested: Partners absorbing related costs.
Status/Results / ·  Project launched: Summer 2013
·  Deliverables:
o  8 Firms participating
o  50 Attorneys participating (approximately, including summer assoc.)
o  3 Legal Services & nonprofits participating
o  363 Clients assisted
o  56 Clients transferred to field programs for further representation

Location: CHICAGO

Project Description: / SECOND CHANCE PROJECT.
APBCo members coordinated with legal community leaders from a variety of law firms and legal services providers to jointly create the Second Chance Project. The Project focuses efforts on providing individuals (adults and juveniles) with criminal records support to move forward in their lives despite past involvement in the criminal justice system and, for some, past mistakes.
Thirteen prominent Chicago law firms with APBCo members are working closely with 18 legal aid organizations in implementing this project.
The first clinic event was held on September 20, 2013. More than 60 volunteers from APBCo-member law firms attended the Second Chance Project clinic. Teams of two attorneys met with and advised two separate clients. Cabrini Green Legal Aid is the lead legal aid entity. A fellow funded by seven firms and the Chicago Bar Foundation has been hired and is helping to direct the project. The clinics address alternative remedies such as certificates of good conduct, health care issues, court certification of completion of rehabilitation programs, job placement assistance, licenses and expungements. In the spring, the program was expanded to do similar work with juvenile who have criminal records. This is one of Chicago’s first and best-ever efforts to enhance communication and collaboration among the city’s legal services organizations, a valuable result of the APBCo IMPACT project in and of itself.
Additional adult clinics were held in 2013 on November 15 and December 20, and in 2014 on, February 21, February 28 and March 14. Two juvenile clinics were held on April 2 and 4. The next clinic is scheduled for June 20, 2014.
Participants & Resources. / ·  Law firms participating : in the pilot phase of the Chicago IMPACT/Second Chance project financial or pro bono contributions have been provided by: Baker & McKenzie LLP; Dentons; DLA Piper; Dykema; Jones Day; Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP; Kirkland & Ellis; Mayer Brown LLP; McDermott, Will & Emory LLP; Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP; Perkins Coie; Seyfarth Shaw LLP; Sidley Austin LLP; Winston & Strawn LLP.
In house corporate law departments participating:
Allstate Insurance Company; Aon Corporation; Exelon; Green Planet Group; McDonald’s Corporation; United Airlines; CME Group; ADP, Inc.; Truven Health Analytics; Zurich Insurance Company Ltd.; Walgreen Co.; Jones Lang LaSalle
Key partners: Cabrini Green Legal Aid; Chicago Bar Foundation; Chicago Legal Clinic; James B. Moran Center for Youth Advocacy; Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago; and Shriver Center. Other key stakeholders/ agencies working on the juvenile expungement issue include: Chicago Public Schools; Mikva Challenge; Northwestern University School of Law, Bluhm Legal Clinic; Illinois Department of Employment Security; Loyola University Law School; Enlace Chicago; United Congress; Juvenile Justice Initiative; Woodlawn Children’s Promise Community.
·  Additional resources invested: Firms have voluntary donated more than $40,000 to support the project, used largely to underwrite the full-time fellowship position, with funds being managed by Cabrini Green.
Status/Results / ·  Project launched: Summer, 2013; ongoing
·  Deliverables:
o  13 Firms participating
o  164 Attorneys participating
o  12 Law Students participating
o  18 Legal Services & nonprofits participating
o  115 Clients assisted (*All clients received follow up representation after the clinics. )
·  Outcomes:
o  21 Certificates granted
o  8 Health care waivers granted

Location: LOS ANGELES

Project Description: / IMPACT LA: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE “WRAP-AROUND” LEGAL CLINICS
In an effort to provide currently unavailable services to the survivors of domestic violence in Los Angeles, a collaboration of law firms and legal services providers convened by APBCo has created a program to conduct intake at a local leading domestic violence shelter. The group has conducted a legal needs assessment and, based on the data collected, has crafted a clinic program that provides “wrap around” legal advice and representation focused on housing, immigration, public benefits and economic stability issues. Domestic violence survivors often access legal aid for their immediate, emergency safety needs. Their entry into the system can be better utilized to assess other legal needs that may be contributing to the poverty and instability that has led to their current situation. Planning and training was conducted and the clinic is now underway. The first clinic was held on November 15, 2013. Clinics have been held on a monthly basis since that time, with a formal launch in January that was attended by the elected Los Angeles City Attorney.
A Loyola Law School two-year post-graduate fellow has been awarded to the Los Angeles IMPACT Project. The fellow began work on September 1, 2013, and was given 6 weeks of intensive training in the relevant areas of law by several of the participating legal aid agencies. She now is helping to administer and lead this edition of the IMPACT project. She is formally employed by OneJustice, a state-wide legal aid support organization, where she is being supervised by experienced legal aid attorneys. Fund-raising to secure required supplemental support is underway, with commitments already received from the national law firms of O’Melveny & Myers and Manatt Phelps. Each "wrap around" clinic session is supervised by one or two experienced legal services attorneys, along with the trained fellow, and is staffed by two different APBCo member law firms on a rotating basis.
Participants & Resources. / ·  Law firms participating: (As of May 2014)
O'Melveny & Myers LLP, Manatt Phelps LLP, Jones Day, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, Morrison & Foerster, Latham & Watkins LLP, Nixon Peabody, Morgan Lewis & Bockius, Winston & Strawn, White & Case, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, DLA Piper.
·  Key partners: OneJustice, Bet Tzedek, Public Counsel, Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, Inner City Law Center; Neighborhood Legal Services; Jenesse Center.
·  Additional resources invested: Partners absorbing costs and law firms are providing funding for OneJustice fellow.
Status/Results / ·  Project launched: Autumn, 2013; first clinic November, 2013; clinics ongoing.
·  Deliverables (as of March 3, 2014)
o  13 Firms participating
o  52 Attorneys participating in Legal Clinics
o  7 Legal Services & nonprofits participating
o  56 Clients assisted
o  8 Clients receiving full representation

Location: NEW YORK CITY (2 projects)

NEW YORK CITY (1st project)

Project Description: / # 1: SMALL BUSINESS LEGAL ACADEMY PROJECT
Held on October 29, 2013 at the renowned Apollo Theater in Harlem, the New York IMPACT Project was the first of its kind day-long workshop for start-up low-income entrepreneurs and regional non-profit organizations. More than 200 small businesses and non-profits attended the clinic seeking various types of corporate advice and transactional assistance. The clinic was staffed by more than 150 attorneys from APBCo-member firms. Requests for replication have been received from numerous other cities around the country and plans are underway to bring this unique service to other communities.
Participants & Resources. / Law Firms participating: Akin Gump; Baker & McKenzie; Chadbourne & Parke; Cleary; Covington & Burling; Davis Polk; Dechert; Dentons; DLA Piper; Dorsey & Whitney; Fish & Richardson; Fried Frank; Hogan Lovels; Katten Muchin Roseman; Kaye Scholer LLP; Kelley Drye; Kirkland & Ellis; Latham & Watkins; Manatt; Mintz Levin; Morrison & Foerster; Morgan Lewis; O'Melveny & Myers; Proskauer; Reed Smith; Ropes & Gray; Seyfarth Shaw; Shearman & Sterling; Simpson Thacher; Skadden; Stroock; Weil Gotschal; White & Case; Wilmer Hale.
·  Key partners: Urban Justice Center; Lawyers Alliance; Start Small Think Big; New York Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYLPI); City Bar Justice Center; Legal Aid; VOLS, Brooklyn Legal Services; ProBono.Net
·  Additional resources invested: Participating firms have voluntarily donated approximately $13,000 to support the Legal Academy project at the Apollo.
RESULTS thus far / ·  Project launched: Autumn, 2013; first clinic held Oct. 29, 2013
·  Deliverables:
o  33 Firms participating
o  157 Attorneys participating
o  10 Legal services providers
o  11 Financial services providers
o  215 Small businesses served
o  71 Small businesses received follow-up services
o  29 Small businesses received additional legal support
o  SECOND CLINIC scheduled for November 19, 2014

NEW YORK CITY (2nd project)