WASHINGTON, DC, October 12, 2021: Closing its fiscal year on September 30, Morgan Lewis announced that 100% of its more than 2,000 lawyers across the firm’s 31 offices worldwide once again have met its annual Pro Bono Challenge to dedicate at least 20 hours to pro bono service.
In fiscal year 2021, Morgan Lewis lawyers contributed well over 100,000 hours to families, individuals, and nonprofit organizations confronting a number of the last year’s most urgent crises. These included the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, an increased focus on racial injustice, extreme weather disasters, and the Afghan refugee emergency. Among the firm’s pro bono impact litigation efforts were protecting voter rights in the lead up to and during the 2020 US election and ensuring access to hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency food benefits for struggling households.
“In a year of new and continued global challenges, there was a greater than ever need for more accessible legal services among the underrepresented communities worldwide,” Firm Chair Jami McKeon said. “I am proud that, despite significant demands across all of our practices and geographies, our culture of dedicated service to the most vulnerable among us remained unchanged to meet an enduring need for equal and affordable representation.”
Morgan Lewis’s primary pro bono focus is on helping economically disadvantaged individuals and families as well as nonprofit and nongovernmental groups that serve vulnerable populations. This important work, which occurs throughout the year at Morgan Lewis, includes the firm’s annual Community Impact Week, where lawyers and professional staff participate in a series of events—including legal clinics, legal trainings, panel discussions, charity drives, and more—across the firm’s offices in North America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. This year, Community Impact Week was extended to accommodate a month of programming and service opportunities to more adequately address homelessness and a lack of access to housing, which have been dramatically exacerbated by the pandemic.