Managing Partner Statement|Pro Bono Partner Statement|Overview|Community Service|Contacts|Fellowships|Pro Bono Report
Statement from the Managing Partner
Steve Brogan
Managing Partner
Washington
Tel: 1.202.879.3926
Fax: 1.202.626.1700
Email: sjbrogan@jonesday.com
Jones Day has had a long history of pro bono work, public service and community involvement in all the locations in which we practice and we continue to increase year after year the pro bono legal services we provide to those in need. You will see within this year's annual report more examples of this tradition of giving back to the community. All 30 offices of the Firm now have a partner in charge of pro bono to further develop the reach of our pro bono program and to fulfill our commitments in all our locations. Our work has ranged from complex litigations with broad precedential impact to representations in local courts and administrative tribunals that are vital to so many needy individuals. Among our most important recent efforts has been litigation on behalf of clients who have unfairly become caught up in the "war on terror." These cases raise compelling issues about the balance between protecting our most basic constitutional principles and the executive branch's authority to declare and take unilateral action against claimed threats to our national security.
As we look to the future, we must see and respond to the new demands for service that will be presented by an increasingly integrated world. The process of globalization is transforming not only the world’s economy but the legal world as well. In fact, it is the single most important development in the practice of law in generations. But if globalization is to be the force for human development that we all hope it will be, the advancement of the rule of law must be at the center of that process.
Many of our legal institutions play a critical role not only protecting economic transactions but also ensuring that the costs and benefits of globalization are more equitably distributed. Although emerging markets are creating enormous new wealth, we have to recognize that only a small segment of the world's population is currently benefiting from globalization. The poor are becoming more numerous not only in underdeveloped countries but also in developed nations as people are displaced by the effects of globalization. This is true even in more mature economies, including in the Midwest of the United States, where our good fortune has its roots.
Jones Day has been at the forefront of the process of globalization and we have benefited enormously from the capital flows that it is creating. The opportunities ahead for the Firm around the globe are extremely exciting, both professionally and financially. But with privilege comes responsibility, and those responsibilities have now acquired a worldwide dimension. In a Firm governed by a commitment to teamwork and the advancement of institutional achievements, a mission of broad and deep service to all of the communities in which we practice -- including a focus on the authentic advancement of the rule of law -- is an essential part of our commitment to the profession and to law. The institutional opportunity and responsibility of the Firm are as critical to our character as are the professional achievements on behalf of paying clients that give us our financial strength. I hope that, as our global reach extends further and deeper, each lawyer will look for new and creative ways to increase our contribution to serving and improving all of the communities that are now being so good to the Firm.
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Statement from the Firmwide Partner in Charge of Pro Bono
Laura Tuell Parcher
Partner
Washington
Tel: 1.202.879.7648
Fax: 1.202.626.1700
Email: lparcher@jonesday.com
On January 1, 2008, I was named the first full-time Firmwide Partner-In-Charge of Pro Bono at Jones Day. For many years, Jones Day has had a partner serving as the Firmwide Pro Bono Chair who maintained a full-time billable practice. It was the determination of Managing Partner Steve Brogan that a greater commitment was needed to achieve Jones Day's goal of becoming a worldwide leader in pro bono and public service, as we are in other premier practice areas. He therefore asked me to dedicate all of my time to directing and building the Firmwide practice and I am very excited about the opportunity.
My first challenge is to become familiar with the pro bono work currently being pursued by all 30 of our worldwide offices, and to explore opportunities for further growth. Happily, I have a substantial platform from which to build this program. The preceding Pro Bono Chair, Don Ayer, made enormous strides in growing the practice over his years of service in this position. Moreover, for over 100 years Jones Day has demonstrated a strong commitment to pro bono and public service. Many of the Firm's most notable leaders, including Frank E. Joseph, Dean Erwin Griswold, Richard W. Pogue, Allen Holmes, Jack Reavis, H. Chapman Rose, Senator Charles Mathias, Herbert Hansell, and Lord Geoffrey Howe, dedicated substantial portions of their careers to pro bono and public service. As we often say at Jones Day, we will be standing on the shoulders of giants as we move forward to expand our worldwide pro bono effort. I look forward to this upcoming challenge and am excited about the prospects for growth over the next year.
Overview
Jones Day strongly encourages all of our professionals to participate in pro bono and other public service activities. Participation in pro bono work allows the Firm to assist individuals and organizations with unmet legal needs and to help seek solutions to societal problems. In pursuing these public service responsibilities, Jones Day professionals gain valuable experience, which is integral to professional development.
Jones Day is proud to allow our professionals the freedom to explore a variety of pro bono opportunities. The Firm does not place political or philosophical restrictions on the types of organizations we may represent or the causes we may champion. Jones Day has represented organizations supporting the right to die, assisted immigrants in obtaining asylum, fought for the rights of college students to vote, counseled churches and other religious organizations, and filed briefs on behalf of organizations to advance a remarkably broad range of views. The freedom to cultivate individual areas of interest inspires our professionals to become active members of the community and to develop lasting relationships with public service organizations and nonprofit corporations.
Our open approach to pro bono work results in an extraordinarily diverse and wide-ranging pro bono practice. The Firm represents pro bono clients at all levels of the federal judiciary, including the U.S. Supreme Court and the courts of appeals. We also practice before administrative agencies in litigation-like settings-for example, representing individuals seeking political asylum before the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services-as well as in many state courts.
Moreover, we provide a variety of less complex, but no less important, pro bono legal services directly to underprivileged members of the communities in which we practice. For example, we staff several legal clinics at the community level, offering free legal advice to the poor on issues such as landlord/tenant law, public benefits, immigration, and consumer fraud. The Firm’s transactional lawyers also play an important role in Jones Day's pro bono practice. We regularly provide services to nonprofit corporations, such as incorporating entities, obtaining Section 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, and advising them in mergers or dissolutions.
A number of Jones Day lawyers also act as primary outside general counsel to nonprofit organizations. Through those representations, we encounter a broad range of different issues that confront such organizations, including real estate purchases, employment disputes, contract negotiations, and fraud.
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Contacts
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Jones Day Fellowship Programs
Several U.S. offices sponsor associates in positions outside the Firm where they can contribute to a public interest organization on a full-time basis for extended periods before returning to Jones Day. The Firm has also granted fellowships to summer associates for a split summer between a Jones Day office and a public interest organization.
- Since 1995, attorneys in the Los Angeles office, including associates Erik Swanholt, Kate Hertel, Mike Morgan, and now-Partners Peter McAllen, Philip Cook, and Todd Miller, have spent five weeks prosecuting misdemeanors with the Los Angeles City Attorney's office as part of the County Bar Association's Trial Advocacy Program (TAP). After an intense evening and weekend training program, TAP participants are certified and spend one month with a local agency trying criminal cases. Jones Day mid-level and senior associates are eligible, and the opportunity TAP provides for first-chair experience in jury trials is unparalleled.
- In 2006 the Chicago Office of Jones Day announced the opening of its Public Interest Fellowship to members of its New Lawyers Group, beginning with the law school class of 2007. Each first-year associate who participates in the program will spend the year after graduation working for a Chicago public interest agency. Following completion of the fellowship year, the associate will return to Jones Day and, for purposes of seniority and advancement to partnership, will receive credit for the year spent at the pubic interest organization and be deemed a member of his or her graduating class.
- The San Francisco office has provided opportunities for senior associates to spend a three-month period with the San Francisco Public Defender's Office trying cases.
- In January 2007, the Appleseed Foundation hired Vicki Walcott-Edim as the Director of National Appleseed’s new regional office in New York, a position that Jones Day will fund for one year. Vicki will develop and advance Appleseed's pro bono efforts in New York, particularly in the area of public education.
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Associate Lillian Caudle of the Atlanta office served as the Jones Day Fellow at Atlanta Legal Aid Society, Inc. in 2007 Over the course of her four month fellowship, Lillian aided clients in various areas of poverty law and will help low income individuals protect themselves from domestic violence, obtain quality education for their children, and maintain access to safe and affordable housing.
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Contact(s)
Laura Tuell Parcher
Washington
Tel: 1.202.879.3939
E-mail