LAWYERS FOR ONE AMERICA

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BusinessLINC
BusinessLINC is a program through which major corporations, acting through local coalitions, partner with aspiring business people in communities of color and low-income communities. Each local coalition adopts its own objectives and mode of relationships between the major corporations and the aspiring entrepreneurs. Originally sponsored by the Department of the Treasury and the Small Business Administration, BusinessLINC is run nationally by the Business Roundtable, and is chaired nationally by the CEO of Texaco. BusinessLINC is working with LFOA on plans for organizing lawyers' organizations to complement and participate in local BusinessLINC programs. These include:

The BusinessLINC coalition in New York, led by Chase Manhattan, runs programs including an "entrepreneurial incubator" to provide business mentoring to business people of color. It is creating three new programs in partnership with the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.
In Atlanta, LFOA is working with Bank of America, which is responsible for organizing the local BusinessLINC coalition. The Atlanta Bar Association and the State Bar of Georgia are organizing ways for lawyers to provide, on a pro bono basis, the legal components of an entrepreneurial incubator program for minority business people.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, established pro bono programs are being expanded to work hand-in-hand with a public service venture fund-providing both capital funding and legal assistance for low income, women, and minority businesses.
In Washington, D.C., the local BusinessLINC coalition focuses on establishing vendor/ customer relationships between new businesses and major corporations. Initial contacts have been made to include law firms in the program for creating such relationships.
The plans for BusinessLINC in the Mississippi Delta are for equity funding. As in the San Francisco Bay Area, such a program could be organized hand-in-hand with a pro bono legal service program staffed by volunteer business lawyers.
A pioneering program, Professional Partners, is starting this year in Columbus, Ohio. Created by the Columbus Bar Association as part of LFOA, this program selects promising minority businesses and partners them with lawyers and certified public accountants for a one-year start-up effort on a pro bono basis. This program could be the basis for establishment of a BusinessLINC local coalition. The same is true of the entrepreneurial incubator pro bono program that is well-established in Minneapolis/St. Paul.
With the American Bar Association LFOA is engaged in planning a possible permanent clearinghouse within the ABA encouraging the establishment of legal pro bono programs in cooperation with the BusinessLINC program.

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Gulf Area Neighborhood Organization/Central American Refugee Center
Our Organization
GANO/CARECEN was founded in 1993 as a non-profit corporation, and is based in the Gulfton area of Houston, and while its influence is felt throughout the Houston-Harris county area, GANO/CARECEN has focused its main attention on community and youth development, health, education, and the legal concerns of the residents of Southwest Houston. With roots in the struggle for justice, GANO/CARECEN has provided leadership in networking, community service, economic development, and community advocacy.

GANO/CARECEN has taken a multi-faceted approach to address the most pressing concerns facing the community. These concerns include: unemployment, health care, crime, poor infrastructure, lack of affordable housing, and anti-immigrant sentiments. To tackle these issues, GANO/CARECEN has undertaken a major community organizing effort, especially targeting, but not limited to, Latinos, immigrants, youth, and apartment residents of the Gulfton area.

GANO's recent merger with the Central American Refugee Center, CARECEN, has provided the community with additional resources in the area of legal services, a Rights Promoters program, a Citizenship program, and the City of Houston Day Labor Site.

GANO/CARECEN is in the process of diversifying and expanding its legal and social services in order to meet the growing and changing needs of the Gulfton and Southwest communities.

Our Program

AMERICA NOW-provides immigration information to high school students and assists undocumented students with their immigration possibilities.
CITIZENSHIP PROGRAM-provides ESL referrals, history and government classes and exams, and citizenship application processing.
COMMUNITY HEALTH COMMITTEE-targets and addresses community health concerns such as lack of appropriate health care facilities.
COMMUNITY THAT CARES-high-risk youth intervention.
DAY LABOR SITE-area where workers can contact contractors for day labor.
HACER CULTURAL ARTS PROGRAM-Cultural arts for youth to 18 yrs. old; teaches drama, art, music, and dance.
IMMIGRATION LEGAL SERVICES-Provide education, application processing, and representation in deportation proceedings, family visas, citizenship, and adjustment of status.
RIGHTS PROMOTERS-organize, educate, and advocate for worker, tenant, and consumer rights.
SERVICE PROVIDERS LUNCHEON-provides a monthly opportunity for area service providers to network and collaborate on community issues.

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Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Lawyers' Committee Action Plan, Letter to the Board
In response to the President's July 20th Call to the Bar, it is appropriate to ask each of the Directors and Trustees who represent law firms on the Lawyers' Committee Board, to take steps to assure that their partners are aware of the President's Call and it's objectives, and also to make a number of specific requests of their firms. Among other things, it is our sincere hope that through our Directors and Trustees we can effectively communicate to the partners of our Member firms how much effort on the part of lawyers is still needed to promote equality among the races, notwithstanding all that has been achieved in the last four decades. We also believe that this approach affords an excellent opportunity for Board Members to reinforce the ties of their firm to the Lawyers' Committee.

We would ask that the Directors and Trustees describe for their partners the Call to the Bar, provide them with a number of statistics reflecting the continuing absence of equal opportunity in the United States, and remind them also of the strong position of corporate law departments, as represented by the American Corporate Counsel Association, in pressing private law firms both to assure that there is full racial diversity within their firms and to perform an appropriate level of pro bono work. It is our hope that law firms will see the hiring and promotion of minorities and pro bono efforts as not only the right thing to do but essential to assuring the continuing good will of clients.

In addition we would request that Directors and Trustees ask that their firms do the following: (1) that in addition to its other pro bono commitments, in the next year their firm undertake at least one additional significant non-litigation project aimed at furthering entrepreneurial opportunities for minorities or economic revitalization in the firm's geographic area; (2) that in addition to its other pro bono commitments their firm undertake in the next year one additional significant litigation matter having as its objective the advancement of civil rights; and (3) that the firm engage in an internal dialogue considering additional ways to promote racial diversity within the firm. We would urge that that dialogue on diversity include at least each of the following points: (a) whether the firm and its partners individually should consider contributing to the ABA scholarship program, or other local bar minority scholarship programs, aimed at increasing the number of worthy minority law students entering and progressing through law schools; (b) whether the firm should consider focusing on recruiting minority students after their first year in law school, and possibly after two or three years in practice, so that their talents may fully develop; (3) whether there are additional ways to mentor and support minorities in the law firm; and (4) whether they have identified successful approaches to enhancing law firm diversity that might be passed on to the legal community either through the Lawyers' Committee or the Lawyers For One America coalition.

It is our anticipation that during the coming year we will communicate with each Trustee to ask about the pursuit of these matters with their firms, so as to ascertain whether they have been successful in both assuring progress by their firms and also to get a report from them as to any ideas that have emerged as a result of intra-firm discussions of racial diversity.

We would note the following: (1) it is important that this effort is non-partisan, (2) that in asking for tangible non-litigation and litigation contributions from each firm, we recognize that it is not the number of matters handled but achievement of racial equality throughout the United States that is the ultimate goal; and (3) that the objective is not only for lawyers to do more of what they have done well in the past in using their skills to promote equal opportunity, but also to stimulate new, creative thinking that will move the country closer to the goal of full racial diversity.

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"Asian Americans do not have equal access to justice. Asian immigrants face language, knowledge and cultural barriers to accessing appropriate legal assistance. Lack of language assistance and culturally competent assistance are among the most significant barriers for Asian Americans seeking to access the legal process."

National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium
"The Search for Equal Access To Justice"

Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia
The Legal Aid Society is the oldest and largest provider of free civil legal services to the poor in Washington, D.C. Each year we handle over 20,000 calls for assistance, conduct over 2,000 lawyer interviews in our office with applicants for our services, and represent nearly 500 clients in adjudicatory proceedings. We receive no government funding. We emphasize diversity in our office. Nearly 50% of our permanent staff are of color, and we currently have six full-time lawyers who are fluent in Spanish. The fact that over 80% of our clients are African American is the best evidence of our expanding access to legal resources for people of color. Our programs are also designed to involve young lawyers from private law firms and elsewhere in extending legal services to people of color. Three notable examples are our rotation program, our pro bono program and our fellowship program.

Our rotation program is the most extensive in D.C., and brings associates loaned from four private law firms to work on our staff full-time for periods of six months. Steptoe & Johnson, Skadden Arps, and Arnold & Porter provide us loaned associates year-round, and Shaw Pittman does so on a more irregular basis. Our pro bono program is also the most active among Washington providers. We screen applicants, provide firm pro bono coordinators with case summaries and assessments of experience required in regular online communications, and mentor the lawyers who agree to take these cases (over 80 last year). We seek to expand with fellowships the type of services we provide. By this summer, we will have two simultaneous Skadden fellows (working on neighborhood collaborative and housing reform), and our current NAPIL fellow working on domestic violence will be replaced by one focusing on special education. We have recently had two consecutive Georgetown Women's Law Public Policy fellows developing our expertise in welfare reform.

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Legal Services for Entrepreneurs
Legal Services for Entrepreneurs (LSE) was formed in 1997 by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area and 15 Bay Area law firms. LSE provides free legal services to low-income individuals who want to start or expand for-profit businesses, and to businesses that want to start operations in distressed neighborhoods. Through LSE, lawyers from almost every major Northern California law firm work with community economic development organizations to provide this assistance. Most clients are referred by community development organizations, such as San Francisco Renaissance, Urban Economic Development Corporation, Women's Initiative, and Start-Up in East Palo Alto.

In its first two years of operation, Legal Services for Entrepreneurs assisted over sixty clients with a wide variety of pro bono legal services, including forming corporations and LLC's, negotiating contract terms with landlords and lenders, and putting clients in touch with other professionals, all with a view toward helping these clients to grow and develop their businesses. Since good legal representation is only one aspect of creating strong and successful new ventures, the project, along with fourteen other community development organizations has formed a limited liability company that seeks to raise $75 million from banks, insurance companies and corporations to make equity investments in these businesses.

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NAACP-Houston Branch
We recognize the importance of eradicating the many forms of social and economic ills that continue to oppress disadvantaged and disenfranchised members of our community. The battle in many circumstances takes place in the courtroom, but ultimately the war against inequality must be waged within the confines of America's conscience. Two innovative and reformative programs operated by the NAACP are the Legal Redress Program and the AIDS/HIV Legal Assistance Program.

The NAACP-Houston Branch Legal Redress Program (LRP) operates a Saturday Pro Bono Clinic aimed at providing quality legal services to individuals subjugated by social and economic hardships. The program, funded by an IOLTA grant through the Texas Equal Access To Justice Foundation, has been in operation for ten years. This year, we expect to provide greater legal services with the added attraction of Private Corporate Law Firm involvement at the Saturday Clinic. The proposed client population served by the NAACP-Houston Branch Legal Redress Program (LRP) is any citizen with a legitimate legal redress concern. A large percentage of the clients served are low-income citizens seeking assistance in the filing of Employment Discrimination complaints. Specific areas of frequent concern to our clients include: Perceived wrongful discharge from employment, unfair hiring practices, alleged discrimination against the disabled and the handicapped, perceived undeserved retaliation, government entitlement problems, and consumer rights problems. Legal issues to be addressed at the Legal Redress Program include, but are not limited to: Civil and individual rights, consumer problems, labor law problems, administrative agency advocacy, and domestic problems.

The NAACP-Houston Branch AIDS/HIV Legal Aide Program provides pro bono legal assistance to those persons living with AIDS or the HIV virus. Our goal is to provide quality legal assistance in the form of lawyers, client consultation and educational seminars to individuals affected by this epidemic. The program, initially funded by a Texas Health Department grant, has been in operation for eight years. Citizens faced with this debilitating illness are often in need of legal assistance. Many lack the resources necessary to adequately access the legal system regarding insurance, employment and social security concerns. Legal issues to be addressed by the NAACP-Houston Branch AIDS/HIV Legal Aid Program (Legal Assistance Program) include, but are not limited to: Probate matters involving assistance with simple wills, power of attorney, estate planning and directives to physicians, insurance matters, employment discrimination, Social Security Administration matters, and housing and real estate issues.

Both the Legal Redress Program and the AIDS/HIV Legal Aide Program depend upon the commitment of volunteer students, attorneys, judges, and concerned members of the community who share a tremendous dedication to the eradication of social and economic injustice. Our volunteers pledge their time and attention to being a part of the solution to the multifaceted equation of life, which often adds up to subjugation, oppression, discrimination, and displacement. Because our programs require an overwhelming amount of effort, we strongly encourage and invite other attorneys, law-students, paralegals and concerned members of the community to join us in our endeavors. There is no obstacle too large to overcome and no goal we can't achieve together!

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National Association For Public Interest Law
NAPIL is the country's largest organization training and developing the next generation of lawyers to provide legal assistance for low-income and other underserved people and communities. Founded in 1986 by law students on 15 campuses, NAPIL today is a national coalition of 157 student groups at more than 85 percent of all American Bar Association-approved law schools. NAPIL is committed to the principle that all Americans should have equal access to the justice system. For many, that principle is out of reach: The ABA estimates that millions of indigent and moderate-income Americans lack access to civil legal services. Despite their pressing needs, federal funding for legal services for the poor has been cut by 30 percent since 1995. NAPIL helps future lawyers recognize the potential for equal access to our legal system and the need for them to dedicate their professional lives to developing a more just society. NAPIL works to create public interest legal employment and training opportunities, and to finance and inspire the expansion of legal resources for underserved communities.

To work toward equal justice, NAPIL focuses on two key areas: Organizing, training and supporting public service-minded law students; and creating summer and post-graduate public interest jobs.

Student Organization and Training
NAPIL's national office works with its 157 student chapters to organize and support law students who want to devote their careers to public service. In addition to their fundraising efforts to support summer jobs, our member groups and student organizers coordinate multiple activities on a local, regional and national scale:

National Career Fair and Conference: NAPIL sponsors an annual public interest law career fair and conference, the largest of its kind in the country, which typically draws more than 1,000 law students and 150 public interest employers.
Leadership Training: NAPIL coordinates a series of intensive leadership trainings in cities across the country every spring to support student leaders and share organizing models, strategies and successes. National staff and student leaders focus on building skills in fundraising, organizational development and leadership development.
Loan Repayment Assistance: Working with others at their law schools, NAPIL member groups have helped create and expand loan repayment assistance programs (LRAPs) at more than 50 law schools and in six states. These LRAPs provide debt relief from student loans for lawyers pursuing low--paying public service jobs.
Pro Bono Projects/Curricular Reform: Some NAPIL member groups administer local pro bono legal service projects in their communities. A number of member groups also are working to incorporate public service into law school curricula. Public service graduation requirements have been adopted at 15 law schools, and more than 100 law schools have implemented a structured voluntary pro bono program.

Creating Opportunities-NAPIL's Equal Justice Corps
NAPIL's Equal Justice Corps is a series of summer and postgraduate public service initiatives coordinated by NAPIL and its 157 law student chapters. Equal Justice Corps programs are designed to create public service jobs and opportunities and cultivate a lifelong commitment to public service. In the past year, Corps programs have deployed more than 1,600 law students and lawyers nationwide to work for traditionally underserved communities and other Americans increasingly in need of legal assistance.

Summer Justice Corps
Through campus-based fundraising, NAPIL member groups support the efforts of law students at a wide variety of nonprofit organizations, including community Iegal services offices, consumer advocacy groups, and civil justice agencies. In 1997, NAPIL chapters raised $2.1 million to fund more than 1,200 public interest summer internships. On the national level, nearly 100 law firms have joined NAPIL's Public Service Challenge, contributing more than $1 million to support summer public interest jobs.

Law Students and Lawyers In National Service
NAPIL coordinates the National Service Legal Corps (NSLC), a federally funded, AmeriCorps national service initiative for public service lawyers. The NSLC involves 54 members - 42 attorneys and 12 social workers, paralegals and community educators-working at 12 sites nationwide on innovative projects to combat homelessness and domestic violence, create jobs and affordable housing, and initiate job training and education. It also has a summer component with 98 law students serving throughout the country in the summer. The students provide direct services to low--income individuals and communities to address unmet legal needs. Since its inception in 1994, the NSLC has provided legal services to more than 30,000 low-income people.

The NAPIL/VISTA Summer Legal Corps (NVSLC) is an opportunity for law students to spend the summer in paid fellowships at VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) and legal services programs around the country. This program represents a unique collaboration between NAPIL and AmeriCorps*VISTA to link the talents and energy of law students with VISTA's community-based efforts. With a grant from AmeriCorps*VISTA, NAPIL also works to educate law students and the legal community about opportunities for law graduates to gain experience as VISTA attorneys.

NAPIL Fellowships for Equal Justice (NFEJ)
NAPIL administers a two-year fellowship program for recent law graduates who, typically in conjunction with a sponsoring nonprofit organization, launch effective, creative projects on behalf of low-income and other underserved communities. Equal Justice fellows have targeted homelessness, access to health care, children's rights, domestic violence, Native American and civil rights, community economic development, and many other fundamental issues affecting communities.

Now the nation's top post-graduate legal fellowship program, NFEJ was established in 1992 when two federal judges gave NAPIL more than $3.1 million in unclaimed funds from class-action settlements. Today, in response to a matching grant from George Soros and his foundation, the Open Society Institute, more than 100 law firms, corporations and bar associations nationwide have become fellowship sponsors. As a result, NAPIL will have 140 Equal Justice fellows in the field by fall 1999, up from 23 in the field in 1997.

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Practicing Attorneys for Law Students Program
The mission of PALS®, a not-for-profit 501c(3) organization, is to help law school students enhance their career opportunities across the spectrum of legal fields and practice environments.

PALS® matches minority law students with volunteer lawyers who serve as mentors to provide career guidance for minorities in the legal profession. Services are offered free of charge to law students attending any of thirteen New York metropolitan area law schools. Mentors are attorneys working in the public interest and public service sectors, and those in the private sector who practice on their own, with small law firms in their communities, and with major law firms. Mentors provide support and advice on how to handle the unique challenges confronting minority law students during their law school tenure and early career development. Generally, law students are matched with mentors at the beginning of the fall semester. PALS® has also instituted Supplemental Bar Tutorials, and a Town Hall Meeting program whereby law school students can organize and host PALS® attorneys for on-campus discussions of relevant career development subjects.

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Pro Bono Institute
The Pro Bono Institute (PBI) is committed to communicating and updating information on the goals and activities of LFOA and the President's message to its audience of leaders (managing partners, senior partners, pro bono leaders) of the nation's 850 largest law firms through its newsletters, website, other publications, and its annual law firm pro bono seminar. In addition, at the Project's annual seminar, which attracted almost 200 attendees, LFOA leaders spoke concerning LFOA and its goals. PBI will continue to serve as a clearinghouse and disseminator of best practices in law firm pro bono and particularly, transactional pro bono projects that benefit low-income communities and communities of color.

PBI is committed to compiling and presenting a 600-page law firm pro bono best practices volume, which is now available in print and on a searchable CD-Rom disk. In addition, we updated and produced a 200-page publication on transactional pro bono work, also available on CD-Rom. Finally, we committed one day of our annual Pro Bono Seminar to "the new paradigm/transactional pro bono work" and brought together law firm leaders, representatives of civil rights groups and other public interest groups, and heads of all identified transactional pro bono projects to learn and discuss how better to use the transactional skills of lawyers in firms and legal departments to serve communities in need.

PBI is committed to renewing its efforts to recruit additional law firms as signatories to the Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge, which requires that firms spend 3% or 5% of billable hours (or, as an alternative, 60 or 100 hours per lawyer per year) on pro bono work, including transactional work and public interest work and civil rights advocacy. Approximately 160 of the nation's largest law firms file an annual report with PBI on their pro bono work. PBI added a new LFOA-inspired query to our annual Challenge reporting form asking firms for information on successful initiatives to serve individuals and communities of color.

PBI is committed to, in partnership with the American Corporate Counsel Association, creating a new national corporate counsel pro bono initiative, CorporateProBono.Org, designed to exponentially increase the amount of pro bono work undertaken by in-house lawyers. That initiative will be formally launched in early October in conjunction with ACCA's annual meeting, but we are already very actively developing the project. This activity includes recruitment of an Advisory Board composed of highly respected General Counsel from a wide variety of industries and legal departments, including General Motors, Colgate-Palmolive, Comerica Bank, Merck, Philip Morris, and Sears Roebuck; providing technical assistance and support to a number of legal departments that are establishing pro bono programs for the first time, and other departments seeking to fine-tune their pro bono programs; compiling for the first time a comprehensive listing of corporate in-house pro bono projects and efforts; working with a number of groups to foster greater in-house involvement in transactional pro bono matters; and making presentations on pro bono at ACCA chapters.

PBI is committed to providing technical assistance, successful models, materials and other guidance to enable public interest organizations and civil rights groups to more effectively tap into the pro bono resources of major law firms. For example, we are working with the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium to design a formal pro bono component of NAPALC's work. Similarly, we are providing technical assistance to the Advancement Project so that it can involve law firms in a wide range of civil rights matters, including redistricting issues, racial profiling and police brutality.

PBI is committed to establishing ProbonoLink, a push technology project that will enable civil rights groups and other public interest and legal advocacy groups to electronically "market" major cases, projects, and matters (including transactional matters) that they wish to place or co-counsel with law firms to an audience of 2500 law firm leaders, simply by completing one simple form.

PBI is committed to expanding opportunities for interaction between public interest/civil rights leaders and major law firms, to promote greater cooperative pro bono ventures between them. At our 2000 seminar, we had 75 public interest attendees, including representatives of MALDEF, the national and several local Lawyers' Committees, and the Native American Rights Fund (NARF). NARF, which has not involved law firms on a pro bono basis in the past, has now developed a joint pro bono endeavor with a major law firm whom its director of litigation encountered at the seminar.

Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge
The Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge is a unique institutional pro bono standard, tailored to the resources and structure of major law firms (those firms with more than fifty lawyers) throughout the United States. Issued by the Law Firm Pro Bono Project, a project administered by the Pro Bono Institute in cooperation with the American Bar Association, the challenge calls upon major law firms to annually contribute at least 3% of their total billable hours to pro bono legal services to individuals and nonprofit groups to secure basic rights, including civil rights. To date, more than 150 of the nation's major law firms have become signatories to the Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge, pledging 3% or 5% of their total billable time to pro bono and committing to structure their firm's evaluation, compensation and advancement policies and practices to ensure that they encourage pro bono participation by lawyers at these firms. During 1998, Challenge signatory law firms contributed almost two million hours of pro bono service to their communities.

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Public Interest Law Initiative
The Public Interest Law Initiative (PILI) recruits law students and recent law school graduates nationwide to work in public interest law agencies in Chicago. PILI also is strongly committed to increasing the involvement of the members of the bar in pro bono and public interest work. Despite the considerable efforts of legal service providers and private attorneys, eighty percent of the civil legal needs of low-income people are going unmet. Since repeated studies of the legal needs of low-income people indicate that the problem of inadequate representation is extreme, it is critical that members of the private bar engage in this important struggle. Yet, the ever increasing salaries and rising billable hour requirements seem to be causing a shift in attitude in some major law firms. Indeed, studies suggest that attorneys in metropolitan Chicago provide fewer pro bono hours than attorneys in other areas. At the same time, the level of federal funding for legal services has dropped dramatically. Therefore, it is imperative that attorneys, foundations, and local governments take measures to ensure adequate legal assistance, so that the concept of "equal justice for all" becomes a reality.

PILI's goals are to: Increase the amount of pro bono contributions made by members of the legal community, including lawyers at law firms and corporate legal departments as well as law students and government lawyers; and focus greater attention on the serious problem of the unmet legal needs of low-income people.

The November 3rd Pro Bono Summit
On November 3, 1999, for the first time, leaders of 22 Chicago law firms and 15 Chicago corporate legal departments assembled together to discuss the unmet legal needs of low-income people and issues related to pro bono work. PILI, with the significant assistance of the Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court, the managing partners of Sidley & Austin and Mayer, Brown & Platt, and the General Counsels of Bank One and Unicom, convened this Pro Bono Summit. At the end of the meeting, the attendees assigned representatives from their firms and legal departments to serve on the Pro Bono Initiative's Implementation Committee.

The Implementation Committee
The Pro Bono Initiative's (PBI) Implementation Committee includes over 50 attorneys from both law firms and corporate legal departments. Each attorney on the Committee participates in one of three working groups that addresses specific legal issues. The three working groups are: How to Meet the Unmet Legal Needs of the Poor; How to Design, Foster and Implement a Pro Bono Program; and How to Use Transactional Lawyers for Pro Bono Work.

The impact that the PBI has already had on the Chicago legal community includes:

Chicago law firms and a number of Chicago area corporate legal departments are exploring ways to set up a pro bono program.
Transactional attorneys from both law firms and corporate legal departments are working with legal service providers in Chicago to develop pro bono work for nonlitigators.
Attorneys at both corporations and law firms are exploring ways to increase federal, state and local funding for legal service providers.
Attorneys at both corporations and law firms are exploring innovative approaches to pro bono work, including externships and rotation programs.

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Street Law
Declaration of Access to Legal Resources
Street Law is practical, participatory education about law, democracy, and human rights. Through its philosophy and programs, Street Law empowers people to transform democratic ideals into citizen action. Street Law strives to bring the law to life for the general population by conducting programs in schools, juvenile justice facilities, prisons, and community settings. Each Street Law student gains lessons that can be used for life. Street Law's programs aim to:

Empower young and old to become active citizens-All of the Street Law programs, textbooks and manuals strive to educate individuals on how they can affect their own society. The Youth Vision program provides funding and technical assistance to youths who plan projects to address conflict, prejudice, or violence in their schools or communities. Youth Act! helps young people learn to advocate for change and influence public policy on a variety of issues, including human rights.
Promote an ethos of human rights and democracy-Texts such as Street Law: A Course in Practical Law and Human Rights for All help students understand the principles of human rights and democracy in the U.S. and around the world.
Provide leadership training to young people-The Teens, Crime, and Community program helps educate young people about crime and violence prevention and engages them in service to their communities. In addition to learning about the law and about crime, young people begin to develop their leadership skills by implementing community action projects.
Address the special needs of teen parents-Parents and the Law is a Street Law program designed to meet the needs of teen and young parents (both English and Spanish speaking) for practical legal information and access to community resources. By teaching parents their rights and responsibilities, the program aims to help strengthen families and prevent child abuse and neglect.
Find peaceful, creative solutions-We Can Work it Out, a conflict mediation program, helps young people learn to solve problems in a healthy, constructive manner. Another Street Law curriculum, Save Our Streets, is designed to help high-risk youth learn non-violent methods of resolving conflict and give participants a better understanding of gun legislation and public policy concerning weapons.
Promote respect for cultural diversity-Street Law's programs help students dissect critical concepts essential to respect for cultural diversity, such as human rights, equal protection, and due process. With programs in over seventeen countries, Street Law is connecting young people in the U.S. to their counterparts around the world.
Introduce a world of possibility-Through Street Law's law school programs, law students in over 40 schools around the U.S. teach Street Law classes in local high schools. Often, Street Law serves as a pipeline to carry disadvantaged high school students from their first piqued interest in the law to the day they graduate from law school and begin their careers.

Declaration of Action in Diversity
In addition to providing access to practical, legal information, Street Law's programs introduce participants to a myriad of law-related careers. The use of community resource people in the classroom is an integral feature of the Street Law teaching method. Besides adding a new dynamic to the lessons, legal professionals such as judges, lawyers, and police officers help students see their own potential for the future. In some cases, the classroom visits provide students with their only first-hand (and positive) experience with such professionals.

Patrick Campbell, a Street Law board member, recently wrote an article about how Street Law changed his life. An immigrant from Jamaica, Campbell recalled participating on the mock trial team as part of his high school Street Law class. His team made it to the mock trial championships, where he actually argued a case in front of a real judge and received coaching and encouragement from real lawyers. Today, Campbell is a senior associate in the Washington, DC office of Paul Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, a well-known New York Law firm. He credits Street Law for helping him discover that potential within himself.

By bringing community resources into the classroom, Street Law's programs present options for law related careers to students who may have never considered college or law school for their futures. Additionally, Street Law has a network of programs at over 40 law schools in the United States where law students teach Street Law classes and train mock trial teams at local high schools. Personal interaction with real law students, combined with the experience of stepping into a lawyer's shoes during mock trials, helps some high school students to see attending law school as a feasible goal for the first time. In fact, many of the students who teach Street Law in law school were also enrolled in a Street Law class as high school students.

Finally, as an international organization, Street Law is committed to diversity in all areas, including our staff hiring practices; volunteer, intern, and board member recruiting methods; and program dissemination. Since we serve vastly diverse populations, it is important to Street Law to have people from various backgrounds working behind the scenes to make sure our programs are appropriately meeting the needs of our constituents.

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Urban Business Initiative and Houston Volunteer Lawyers Program, Inc.
The Urban Business Initiative (UBI) provides pro bono consulting to small business entrepreneurs in underserved communities in Houston and the surrounding area. UBI is a nonprofit 501c(3) organization started in 1996 that has partnered with private and public organizations and professionals to provide small business consulting to more than 30 startup or expanding businesses. UBI has received financial support from Enron Corporation, Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation, and the Urban Business Initiative Volunteers.

UBI has formed a collaboration with the Houston Volunteer Lawyers Program, Inc. to provide legal services to underserved communities in the Houston area.

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