Connected to the Community

Pro Bono, Community Service and Charitable Giving

Faegre & Benson has a long and rich tradition of public service to the community, and that tradition continues today in all of the firm's offices. Faegre & Benson is deeply committed to the communities in which we live and work. The firm connects to the community through the pro bono legal services it provides to persons of limited means, the community service activities it undertakes to build and strengthen the community, and the generous financial support it provides to a wide range of charitable and cultural organizations.

The firm strongly encourages its lawyers and staff to participate in community activities, including volunteering with legal service, social service, environmental, educational, civic, religious and other community organizations. This year, the firm was pleased to recognize partner John P. Mandler with the John C. Benson Pro Bono Award and paralegal Darla J. Copeland with the Community Service Award for their outstanding commitment to serving the community and improving the quality of life of disadvantaged people.

Please click here to view Faegre & Benson's 2007 “Voices of Pro Bono” video.

Pro Bono Spotlight: Protecting Human Rights and the Rule of Law

Faegre & Benson serves as the lead administrative firm for the Liberian Truth & Reconciliation Commission Pro Bono Project, a unique undertaking to collect personal statements from Liberian refugees in the United States documenting human rights violations suffered during the country's brutal 26-year civil conflict.

The firm's pro bono asylum practice in Colorado has expanded significantly in the past two years. Our lawyers have assisted adults and children from several countries. Many of our clients have escaped persecution based on their political or religious beliefs—and many of them would face grave danger or death if returned to their native countries.

Please click here for the full story.

Pro Bono
 

Faegre & Benson is a founding member of the American Bar Association Law Firm Pro Bono Project. The firm also participates in the Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge by committing annually to provide pro bono legal representation equivalent to at least 3 percent of its total billable hours, and to direct a majority of its pro bono hours to serving persons of limited means. The firm has met or exceeded the Challenge every year since its inception in 1994.

In 2006, Faegre & Benson contributed pro bono legal services equivalent to 4 percent of the firm's total billable hours for the year. In the course of 2006, 87 percent of the firm's U.S.-based lawyers and summer associates participated in pro bono service to the community.

Pro Bono Practice Areas
Major areas of pro bono practice at Faegre & Benson include:

• Lawyers provide pro bono representation through the JUSTice for KIDS initiative to meet the legal needs of abused and neglected children, including the Guardian ad Litem Trial and Appellate Projects, the Children's Asylum & Immigration Project and the Grandparent Custody Project. The firm is also active with the Colorado Lawyers Committee Children's Task Force to address the needs of undocumented children.

• Volunteers provide legal support for persons of limited means served by community legal clinics. Projects include the Minnesota Indian Women's Resource Center Clinic, Youth Law Clinic at YouthLink, Project Homeless Connect, the Denver and Jefferson Counties Post-Decree Family Law Clinics, and Legal Night at the Sister Carmen Community Center. Areas of support include family law, housing advocacy, and consumer law.

• The firm maintains a national environmental public interest litigation practice to preserve wilderness areas and protect endangered species. Matters include arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court on applications of the Endangered Species Act and litigation to preserve wilderness areas in Minnesota and Wyoming. Clients have included the Sierra Club, Izaak Walton League, Nature Conservancy, Humane Society, Wilderness Watch and the Prairie Island Indian Community.

• The firm's varied practice includes pro bono work to protect human rights and the rule of law in the United States and abroad. Activities include individual asylum, refugee, and immigration cases, death penalty appeals, research on the use of torture in the war on terror, international human rights documentation and monitoring projects, transitional justice projects in Sierra Leone and Liberia, and assistance in war crimes prosecutions.

• Firm volunteers offer a variety of transactional legal services to non-profit organizations in corporate, trademark, employment, real estate and other forms of civil law. The firm represents many organizations involved in community economic development, including WomenVenture, Milestone Growth Fund, White Earth Land Recovery Project, Boulder Innovation Center and Providence LLC Jobs for Humanity.

Community Service and Charitable Giving
 

Faegre & Benson volunteers participate in a wide range of firm-sponsored community service activities, including Habitat for Humanity, Minneapolis Business Partners, Denver Race for the Cure, Hospice Care of Boulder, and the Iowa Latino Heritage Festival.

In addition, the firm has established a charitable foundation to support non-profit organizations in all of the communities it serves. Each year, the firm donates a minimum of 2 percent of its net profits to organizations that provide legal aid to indigent persons or that help the community through social service, cultural, environmental or educational activities (see Faegre & Benson Foundation Charitable Contribution Policy).

Each year, Faegre & Benson supports more than 100 different non-profit community agencies, including United Way, the Fund for the Legal Aid Society, Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights, Volunteer Lawyers Network, Rocky Mountain Survivors Center, Metro Volunteer Lawyers, Boulder Emergency Family Association, the Des Moines Public Library and many other leading non-profits in Minnesota, Colorado and Iowa.

In addition, lawyers from Faegre & Benson serve on the boards of numerous non-profit and civic organizations in each of the communities in which the firm maintains an office.

Downloadable Files: Faegre & Benson Foundation Charitable Contribution Policy
© 2001 Faegre & Benson LLP. All Rights Reserved.

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