Welcome to the next post in our series on the results of the 2010 ATL/Career Center Associate Satisfaction survey. We’ve used the survey results to revamp the Career Center, powered by Lateral Link, with completely updated profiles, and we are highlighting insider information that Members shared about their firms in the eight key areas of associate satisfaction covered by the Career Center.
Today, it’s about doing good for everyone: PRO BONO.
- This firm’s significant commitment to pro bono includes its “rotation” or “loaned associate” program, which allows associates to spend six months working full time for a poverty law or public interest organization.
- An impressively high 97% of associates at this Chicago-based firm perform an average of 111 pro bono hours each annually.
- Pro bono work has grown along with headcount at this ever-expanding firm – headcount has increased from 225 lawyers in 1995 to approximately 1,100 attorneys today, and the firm’s pro bono hours per attorney have nearly doubled since 2003 to 74 hours annually per associate.
- An "unlimited" number of pro bono hours are counted towards billable hours at this firm, and some Members reported billing as much as 400-500 pro bono hours in 2009.
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Additional pro bono highlights, after the jump.
- This Chicago-based firm has been recognized for the past two years by The American Lawyer as the number-one law firm in the country for pro bono service.
- This firm, one of the world’s largest, with 1,800 attorneys in 36 offices across three continents, allows first-year associates to count up to100 pro bono hours toward their billables, second-year associates up to 75 hours, and third-year and more senior associates up to 50 hours.
- One of this firm’s 100-plus practice areas is a Community Services Team of lawyers, whose practices are devoted entirely to pro bono work.
- New associates in two of this firm’s 21 offices (Chicago and Washington, D.C.) are offered the opportunity to spend 10 weeks at a legal services organization prior to starting at the firm.
- This Los Angeles-based firm devotes over 5% of its total hours to pro bono work and new attorneys in all U.S. offices are required to handle at least one pro bono matter in their first year;
- Members give this firm an “A++” for pro bono commitment, noting that there is no cap on billable hours, all pro bono work is credited towards the hours target and associates average over 83 pro bono hours annually.
For more on pro bono and everything else you wanted to know about large law firms, visit the Career Center, powered by Lateral Link.