Pro Bono and Public Service at Day Pitney
Pro bono work is a priority at Day Pitney. We take great pride that our legal skills can benefit and protect individuals and deserving nonprofit organizations in our communities that might otherwise not be able to obtain representation of the high quality we provide. Below is a brief sample of the types of pro bono organizations and representative matters which our lawyers have handled recently. The diversity and sophistication of our pro bono work reflects the breadth and depth of our many practice areas.
Representative Pro Bono Matters
- Lawyers for Children America: We have represented numerous children in difficult domestic situations with impaired or abusive parents. We have worked with state agencies, handled litigation, monitored custody proceedings, and represented the interests of the children in negotiations and hearings with parents and agencies.
- Battered Women's Legal Advocacy Project: We founded this joint program in 1992 with the Morris County Bar Association and the New Jersey Battered Women's Service. We continue to administer the program and assign volunteers to represent abused women. Over the years, our efforts have assisted more than 1,400 victims to obtain final restraining orders against their abusers.
- Child Health Advocacy Partnership: Beginning in 2005, we partnered with the Boston Medical Center to staff a clinic at the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center, a medical facility servicing a low-income neighborhood. Our lawyers continue to assist patients at the Center by responding to "prescriptions" for legal services written by clinicians who identify legal causes for the medical problems they are addressing. For this work, the firm was recognized by the Boston Business Journal as a Corporate Philanthropy Partner of the Year.
- American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut: A team of our lawyers provide "intake" support at the ACLU office in Hartford, and have co-represented a class of inmates at Connecticut's prison for women, to monitor and enforce a consent decree designed to insure that inmates receive appropriate mental healthcare and medication.
- Bet Tzedek Project: Our lawyers assist Holocaust survivors with the application process for certain reparations payments. We also help manage northern New Jersey Bet Tzedek operations.
- Court-Appointed Special Advocate Program: Over the years, our lawyers have represented abused, neglected, and abandoned children in New Jersey.
- Human Rights Asylum Program: Our lawyers have defended the interests of immigrants seeking political asylum and refugee status.
- Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation: We have provided needed legal assistance to deserving social entrepreneurs in poor communities through the Foundation. For this work, the firm was recognized with the inaugural Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation Award for North America.
- Homeless Experience Legal Protection: We have assisted homeless individuals with a variety of legal problems through the HELP project. The firm also assisted in bringing the HELP project to the Hartford area.
- Criminal Matters: Our lawyers have represented numerous indigent criminal defendants in state and federal courts, at trial, and on appeal. In 2005, a team of lawyers in Hartford advocated that Michael Ross, the first Connecticut inmate to face the death penalty in more than 40 years, was not competent to waive his constitutional challenges to the death penalty.
Public Service
Day Pitney enjoys a long history of, and commitment to, public service in the communities where we live and work. Throughout the past century, our lawyers have served on numerous charitable and civic organizations, seeking to advance a wide range of educational, cultural, and humanitarian causes. We also count among our lawyers and alumni many who have served the public with distinction in various appointed and elected positions, including the state and federal judiciary and a wide range of federal, state, and local offices. Our lawyers and alumni have served as:
- Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court
- Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court
- United States District Court Judges
- United States Attorneys
- Mayors of major cities
- State legislators
- Members of numerous state and local boards, commissions, and authorities
A small sampling of the many civic and community organizations for which our attorneys serve or have served in leadership positions include:
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