SAN FRANCISCO, May 21, 2014: Morgan Lewis has partnered with Hewlett-Packard (HP) and OneJustice to host the North Bay Non-Profit Clinic on May 22, a free legal clinic for non-profits operating in underserved and economically disadvantage rural areas of California. The clinic was jointly developed by Morgan Lewis, HP and OneJustice, an organization dedicated to expanding access to legal assistance for Californians in need. During the clinic, legal teams from Morgan Lewis and HP will donate their time to assist more than a dozen rural non-profits based in the northernmost counties of the San Francisco Bay Area. The participating non-profit clients provide social services to the lowest income residents of these counties and support the arts and education in the region.
The first stage of the clinic will entail a comprehensive “audit” conducted by Morgan Lewis’s 60 summer associates to determine each non-profit’s most pressing legal priorities, including issues of tax and corporate governance, employment, contracts and real estate, and intellectual property. Senior lawyers from Morgan Lewis and from HP’s in-house legal department will then provide limited legal advice directly to the participating non-profits. The goal of the clinic is to help these non-profits to assess their legal needs, to understand next steps towards addressing these needs, and to provide them the opportunity to be referred to counsel.
OneJustice, through its Rural Justice Collaborative, connects urban pro bono resources to isolated rural communities and the legal non-profits that serve them. For the past three years, Morgan Lewis and HP have successfully partnered on rural justice clinics run by OneJustice. Prior projects include clinics for non-profits in the rural Central Valley of California and for young immigrants seeking legal status through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
“We embrace the opportunity to continue our partnership with HP to provide legal counsel to non-profits in need,” said Francis M. Milone, chair of Morgan Lewis. “We are honored to support and help advance OneJustice’s mission to provide invaluable legal services to those in underserved rural areas.”
For more than a century, Morgan Lewis attorneys have committed their time and resources to serving the public good. The firm has a diverse and innovative pro bono practice and devotes substantial resources to community services and charitable activities. In fiscal year 2013, Morgan Lewis lawyers contributed over 71,000 hours to pro bono representations, equaling an average of well over 50 hours per lawyer. These representations span all practice groups and Morgan Lewis offices worldwide.