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Pro Bono Contact |
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| Pro Bono Contact Name | Theresa Hughes |
| Pro Bono Contact Title | Pro Bono Director |
| Pro Bono Contact Phone | 612-335-1954 |
| Pro Bono Contact Email | [email protected] |
| Is the pro bono information indicated here firm-wide or specific to one office? | Firm-wide |
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| % Firm Billable Hours last year | 3.18% |
| Average Hours per Attorney last year | 58.8 |
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Pro Bono Participation |
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| Percent of associates participating last year | 100% |
| Percent of partners participating last year | 75% |
| Percent of other lawyers participating last year | 72% |
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Average hours |
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| Average hours per associate last year | 53.32 |
| Average hours per partner last year | 54.95 |
| Average hours per other lawyer last year | 93.28 |
| What percentage of attorneys performed more than 20 hours? | 60% |
| What was the number of actual pro bono hours contributed by the organization in the prior calendar year? | 22,405 |
| Does the organization maintain a written pro bono policy that sets forth the organization's commitment to pro bono? | Yes |
| How does the organization define what constitutes pro bono legal work? |
Pro bono service refers to activities of the firm undertaken normally without expectation of fee and not in the course of ordinary commercial practice and consisting of: (i) the delivery of legal services to persons of limited means or to charitable, religious, civic, community, governmental and educational organizations in matters which are designed primarily to address the needs of persons of limited means; (ii) the provision of legal assistance to individuals, groups or organizations seeking to secure or protect civil rights, civil liberties or public rights; and (iii) the provision of legal assistance to charitable, religious, civic, community, governmental or educational organizations in matters in furtherance of their organizational purposes, where the payment of standard legal fees would significantly deplete the organization's economic resources or would otherwise be inappropriate. |
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Organization pro bono hours goals |
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| Does the organization set annual goals regarding the minimum number of pro bono hours to be contributed by the organization? | Yes |
| If yes, what is that annual goal? | 3% of the firm's total billable hours or 60 hours per attorney (consistent with the expectations of a signatory to Pro Bono Institute’s Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge) |
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Attorney pro bono goals |
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| Does the organization set individual attorney goals regarding the minimum number of pro bono hours to be contributed? | Yes |
| If yes, what is that annual goal? | 60 hours per attorney |
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Advancement/compensation |
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| Is an attorney's commitment to pro bono activity considered a favorable factor in advancement and compensation decisions? | Yes |
| If yes, to what extent? | Each Associate may count up to 50 hours on credible pro bono projects per year towards the credit hours target. The total number of pro bono hours is a factor in discretionary bonuses. |
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Pro bono support services |
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| Are full-time support services (word processing, online research Lexis/Westlaw, out of pocket costs) available for pro bono representation? | Yes |
| If so, are there any limitations? |
None |
| Are associates provided written evaluations of their work on pro bono matters? | Yes |
| Does the organization employ one or more of the following structures to manage its pro bono program and to provide training and guidance to participating attorneys? (Check all that apply): |
Full-time attorney in a dedicated pro bono coordination/oversight role Pro Bono Committee Other: Two full-time attorneys in a dedicated pro bono coordination/oversight role & a part-time Pro Bono Specialist to help manage and distribute pro bono training resources for participating attorneys |
| How is pro bono work assigned/distributed? |
Our Pro Bono Director and Pro Bono Senior Manager assign work from the firm's legal clinic and community economic development partnerships in Kansas City, MO, Minneapolis, MN, and St. Louis. MO. Other work comes to various offices and is administered by the pro bono staff and Pro Bono Committee. |
| If an attorney is permitted to bring a pro bono case for possible consideration by the firm, who makes decisions about whether the firm will handle the matter? (check all that apply) | Other: The Pro Bono Director or Pro Bono Senior Manager pursuant to the firm's Pro Bono Policy. Members of the firm's Pro Bono Committee are consulted in some cases as well. Final determinations as to a large impact case or matters of high community visibility are made by firm leadership. |
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Enabling pro bono or public interest work |
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| Does the organization provide any of the following to enable its attorneys to participate in pro bono activities or work in a public interest setting? (Check all that apply): | Other |
| If so please describe |
Associates in the Minneapolis office can participate in an Eviction Representation Project (ERP) with the Volunteer Lawyers Network (VLN) in housing court twice a month. Associates in the Kansas City and St. Louis offices are handling Missouri Public Defender cases. |
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Summer associate pro bono opportunities |
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| Are pro bono opportunities available for summer associates? | Yes |
| Additional comments (Please use this space to provide any additional information about your organization's pro bono program including any special recognition or awards the organization has received for its pro bono work.) |
Stinson has a historic and longstanding commitment to pro bono legal service to our communities. In June 2020, Stinson was an inaugural signatory to the Law Firm Antiracism Alliance (LFAA) and has 17 partners serving on 16 LFAA working groups to identify structural racism in the law. The firm is currently involved in a number of large antiracism legal cases. Additionally, we have numerous pro bono partnerships in place, including a 29-year medical/legal partnership with the Deinard Legal Clinic in the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis, a community redevelopment partnership with the Marlborough neighborhood of Kansas City for over 13 years and a three-year community development and housing partnership with Legal Services of Eastern Missouri in the Hyde Park neighborhood of St. Louis. Firm attorneys serve low-income clients with a variety of legal needs: family law, immigration, housing, government benefits, consumer and other issues. Firm attorneys also volunteer legal services to organizations such as the Volunteer Lawyers Network, Advocates for Human Rights, The Minnesota Disability Law Center, the Children's Law Center of Minnesota, Volunteer Lawyers & Accountants for the Arts, Legal Aid, Midwest Innocence Project, Kansas Legal Services, D.C. Bar's Advocacy & Justice Clinic, Great Circle, Arizona Volunteer Attorney Program and ACLU programs in Arizona, Kansas, Minnesota and Missouri. 2021 Awards and Recognitions
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| What are some of the areas in which your organization has performed pro bono work in the past year? |
Stinson's pro bono work spans the entire spectrum of litigation and transactional legal work. In 2021, Stinson attorneys and summer associates worked on the following types of pro bono matters: criminal expungements, guardianships, family law, asylum and immigration, housing and real estate work, civil liberties work, innocence projects in three states, gender-based violence research for a human rights group, employment law issues, survivor reentry work, patent pro bono (for those interested in IP practice), legislative reports and background papers on a broad array of issues, nonprofit formation and work for minority-owned businesses.
Stinson's pro bono work breaks down as follows: 13% women and children, and family stability issues 19% asylum and immigration work 4% probate, advanced care planning and tax 4% consumer 1% other (arbitration, children's law and education) 3% public benefits, ID documents and veteran's benefits 5% community economic development 8% civil liberties 3% housing (this will increase in 2022 once the eviction moratoriums related to COVID are lifted) 20% nonprofit/small business operations, IP and employment (transactional work) 20% criminal defense, expungement and innocence work |
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Fellowship sponsorship |
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| Does your organization sponsor split public interest summer and/or post-graduate fellowships? | Case-by-case |
| Public Interest Fellowship Comments | |