At Drinker Biddle, pro bono work is part of who we are and what we do, every day. We work for clients who cannot afford lawyers, and for causes that call out for the skilled advocacy that only the best lawyers can provide. We are fighting for the lives of inmates on death row; enforcing the constitutional rights of prisoners to freedom of worship and decent medical care; counseling small nonprofit organizations on their legal rights and responsibilities; and representing individual clients in need, from homeless tenants who were wrongly evicted, to victims of domestic violence and child abuse, to families of limited means trying to adopt hard-to-place children.
We provide the resources needed to serve our pro bono clients. We serve our pro bono clients with the same quality and attention, and the same resources and effort, we give to every client.
On January 1, 2007, Drinker Biddle merged with Chicago-based Gardner Carton & Douglas LLP. In 2006, the year prior to the merger, the two firms collectively devoted 26,737 hours to pro bono work, the equivalent of nearly 43 hours for every full-time lawyer in the two firms. Both firms also invested substantial funds in their pro bono practices, to cover costs in pro bono cases and to provide financial assistance to the public interest organizations with which they worked.
Drinker Biddle is a charter signatory to the Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge. Pursuing the goals set forth in the Challenge, we strive to devote the equivalent of three percent of our billable hours to pro bono work, to spend at least half of all our pro bono time on clients of limited means, and to involve at least half our partners and associates in pro bono work each year.
We are doing challenging and important work for pro bono clients. These are just a few of Drinker Biddle’s current or recent pro bono cases:
A team of Drinker Biddle lawyers is fighting for a death row inmate in Georgia who was denied assistance of counsel even though he asked for a lawyer after his arrest for murder. Our client was convicted on the basis of a false confession obtained while he was in custody, after his request for counsel was refused. Two other teams of Drinker litigators are working for death row inmates in Louisiana and Texas.
Drinker Biddle lawyers prevailed in a highly publicized appeal of a case involving issues of church and state, successfully defending the right of county authorities to maintain, as an act of historic preservation, an 80-year-old plaque on a county courthouse that contains the text of the Ten Commandments. The same team of lawyers successfully argued the same position in an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in Van Orden v. Perry.
The firm successfully opposed the Secretary's preliminary objections to the Petition brought by a nonpartisan group of plaintiffs from several Pennsylvania counties and both major political parties, challenging state certification of electronic voting machines that do not provide a paper record for audit and recount purposes.
A team of Drinker Biddle lawyers in New Jersey represents Native American inmates in several prisons in that state, who were denied the right to practice their religion while incarcerated. The U.S. Department of Justice intervened in that case to support our clients' position. Another team of lawyers in our Washington, D.C. office represents a group of Native American clients who are challenging federal trademark registration for the name of a professional sports team that incorporates a term considered racist and degrading by many Native Americans.
Our pro bono practice reflects the individual choices and interests of our lawyers, and the diversity of opportunities available to us in the communities in which we practice. Our lawyers are free to choose the pro bono opportunities that interest them and that appeal to their sense of justice. Their work covers a wide range of matters large and small, including:
Representing active duty military personnel and their families, including personnel deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, through the Assistance to Military Personnel Program, in a wide range of civil matters including support, custody and landlord/tenant cases.
Representing disabled veterans referred by the Veterans Pro Bono Consortium in appeals from denials or reductions of their veterans' benefits. A lawyer in the firm recently argued in the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on behalf of a Korean War-era veteran seeking to reopen a denied claim for benefits.
Counseling small nonprofit organizations on matters involving corporate formation, change and governance, applications for tax-exempt status, lending, real estate, intellectual property, and employment and regulatory issues. Transactional lawyers in the firm recently handled the merger of two nonprofit animal shelters in New Jersey; represented a Chicago-based community enterprise lender in connection with a $5 million administrative services agreement with the City of Chicago to provide funding to local minority-owned businesses; and counseled a Chicago-area organization that helps disadvantaged children in its purchase of a property and in arranging financing for the construction of a community center.
Representing prisoners as court-appointed counsel in federal civil rights cases. Cases recently handled by the firm include suits alleging excessive force and improper discipline, challenges to denials of adequate medical care, and requests for injunctive relief to address the deprivation of inmates’ right to practice their religious beliefs. Two of our prisoner cases recently went to trial before juries in federal court in Philadelphia, with both tried by mid-level associates.
Collaborating with local and regional legal services organizations to staff and operate monthly walk-in clinics, process intakes, and host and conduct training sessions for volunteers in immigration, political asylum, elder law, domestic violence, family law, landlord/tenant and other areas.
Defending the civil liberties and religious freedom of individuals from all walks of life, in cases referred by organizations as diverse as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Rutherford Institute.
Representing indigent and disadvantaged clients in a wide array of individual matters, from landlord/tenant disputes, to the representation of abused and neglected children, to adoption cases, to protection for victims of domestic violence and many others.
These are only a few examples of how Drinker Biddle lawyers serve the public interest and help address the unmet legal needs of the communities in which we practice. We maintain close relationships with the major pro bono organizations in all of those communities; this produces opportunities for our lawyers to do almost any kind of pro bono work. On this page you will find links to our recent pro bono annual reports that describe much of this work in greater detail.
Drinker Biddle attorneys have been recognized regionally and nationally for their devotion to pro bono. Pro bono work brings its own reward, in the satisfaction that we earn by serving the legal needs of our communities and by working as partners with the courts to improve the administration of justice for all. But we have won recognition outside the firm as well.
Lawrence J. Fox, a litigation partner in our Philadelphia office, was one of just five recipients nationwide of the ABA Pro Bono Publico Awards in 2005. This award recognized Larry’s distinguished career in pro bono work, including extensive advocacy for defendants on death row and a groundbreaking victory for residents of substandard public housing units in a lawsuit in federal court in Philadelphia that led to appointment of a receiver for a local housing agency.
In June 2007, Alicia Hickok, a litigation associate in our Philadelphia office, was one of just three recipients statewide of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s prestigious Louis J. Goffman Award, recognizing her sustained commitment to pro bono work, including thousands of hours devoted to the cause of justice for defendants in capital cases. Andrea D’Ambra, another litigation associate, won a “White Hat Award” in 2006 from Philadelphia’s Legal Clinic for the Disabled, for her emergency assistance to a woman with cancer in arranging standby guardianships for her children before her death. Ed Posner and Viktoriya Meyerov received the Human Relations Award from the Allentown Human Relations Commission in 2005 for their defense of Allentown’s ordinance protecting gays and lesbians from discrimination.
And our newest colleagues, from Gardner Cartner & Douglas in Chicago, also earned a number of recent honors for their commitment to public service, including Chicago Volunteer Legal Services’ Distinguished Service Award in 2005; entry on the Honor Roll of Chicago’s Public Interest Law Initiative in 2005 and 2006; and the “Law Firm of the Year” award in 2005 from the Chicago-based Center for Disability and Elder Law.
In addition to individual awards, Drinker Biddle received the New Jersey State Bar Association Service to the Community Award in 2006. The same year the firm was recognized by the board of judges of the U.S. District Court for New Jersey for its outstanding pro bono efforts.
Download a complete copy of our 2005-2006 Pro Bono Annual Report (approximately 3 MB in PDF format).
Download a complete copy of our 2004-2005 Pro Bono Annual Report (approximately 3 MB in PDF format).