PRO BONO
 Learn more about Schiff Hardin's commitment to Pro Bono work |
Schiff Hardin has a proud tradition of representing clients in public interest matters on a pro bono publico basis. Our firm takes pro bono matters from a variety of sources, which include legal services organizations — such as the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and Chicago Volunteer Legal Services (CVLS) — judges, bar associations, civic groups, state and municipal agencies, and the litigants themselves. We encourage and support our lawyers in initiating new types of pro bono activities, and many of our most important pro bono ventures have stemmed from the personal initiative of individual lawyers.
We have a particular focus on pro bono cases involving:
- Civil rights and law reform
- Political asylum
- Death penalty litigation and other criminal defense and appeals
- Landlord-tenant disputes
- Public benefits
- Divorce
- Child custody
- Disability law
- Consumer contracts
- Homeless rights
- Low income housing
- Community development
- Corporate counseling of nonprofit businesses
- Debtors' rights
- Simple wills and estate matters
- All other civil legal needs of the indigent community
Schiff Hardin, as a "Privileged Member Firm" of The Practising Law Institute (PLI), supports PLI's partnership with the Chicago Bar Foundation (CBF) to provide free high-quality training to legal aid attorneys. Hundreds of legal aid attorneys in Chicago will benefit from this initiative, allowing them to better serve the more than one million low-income residents of Chicago who qualify for, and count on, their pro bono assistance.
Every year, pro bono matters engage significant time and talent of a substantial majority of our attorneys, and several of these cases have resulted in notable decisions and changes in the law.
