PROBONO Bulletin - Winter 2008 - (Page 4)

CovER SToRy Bar Association’s 2008 Pro Bono Publico Award, which is given annually to a firm that has made an outstanding commitment to pro bono. The ABA acknowledged that our Signature Project model was key to its decision and that it was particularly impressed by the scope and results of Chicago’s Signature Project in Juvenile Justice, the firm’s largest project to date. Room foR GRoWTH Despite positive recognition, we keep a critical eye on our Signature Project model. Project leaders regularly report to the national Pro Bono Committee and to members of our Pro Bono Department as individual projects are developed, carried out and completed, so that each project team can learn and grow. Upon the conclusion of Chicago’s Signature Project in Juvenile Justice, for example, project fellow Carolyn Frazier drafted a reflective report on her three years working with the project, focusing not only on its tremendous successes, but also offering advice for those who are developing new projects. Such advice has proved invaluable to those in the beginning stages of Signature Project development. our Newest Signature Project: Baltimore, Empowering Students and families Signature Projects always start with two questions: what is the problem, and how can we help? To answer the first question, lawyers developing our newest Signature Project in Baltimore drew from previous experience with public education in the city, where the graduation rate is only 34.6 percent (well below the national average of 50 percent). In response to the second question, the office decided to adopt a charter school, the Baltimore Freedom Academy (BFA), which recently defied the city’s poor graduation rate by graduating 75 percent of the students who had entered in the ninth grade. Although tremendously successful, BFA still lost 25 percent of its class, presumably because its students, like many inner-city pupils, faced problems unrelated to the quality of their school. The Signature Project steering committee wanted to help BFA families find solutions to those problems and thereby increase the students’ chances of success. Hence the Signature Project’s name: “Empowering Students and Families.” Launched this fall, the project features an in-school clinic at which our lawyers provide free legal services to the students, families and employees of the school. Our attorneys also are presenting street law workshops for parents and students, helping faculty design a student judiciary based on restorative justice, and coteaching courses related to the school’s mission, preparing students to be advocates for social justice in their communities. These courses range from the traditional Criminal Law to the more exotic Hip Hop & Civil Rights. Finally, Baltimore lawyers, paralegals and staff are involved in several after-school activities. Empowering Students and Families leadership team with leaders and students from Baltimore Freedom Academy at the project’s launch. 04 | PRO BONO BULLETIN

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of PROBONO Bulletin - Winter 2008

PROBONO Bulletin - Winter 2008 Contents Cover Story: Digging Deep: DLA Piper’s Signature Project Model CSR Report Feature Story: DLA Piper Assists with German Ghetto Work Payment Program Clinics National News Mapping Impact An Interview With Jeff Coopersmith FourThought New Perimeter Update Awards and Recognition

PROBONO Bulletin - Winter 2008

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