Pro Bono

Key Partnerships

This unique and trailblazing pro bono partnership to advance change, improve lives, and bring justice began in 1979 when Schiff Hardin adopted a CVLS neighborhood legal clinic in Rogers Park, a culturally vibrant, yet economically under-resourced community in Chicago. Our attorneys provide low-income residents access to legal assistance that helps protect their rights in landlord/tenant disputes, access government benefits, and mediate family law issues.

 

The DCALF – a joint venture among ArentFox Schiff, Georgetown Law Center, and DLA Piper – selects six lawyers each year from Georgetown’s graduating class for a fellowship program that starts with an intensive three-month training by Georgetown professors, law firm practitioners, and legal service organizations in the District of Columbia. Following the training, fellows spend one year as lawyers with DCALF advising on family, housing, and immigration law matters.

 

Organizations We Support

At ArentFox Schiff, we take pride in offering pro bono services to over 100 renowned nonprofits, bridging legal gaps and fostering an equitable, inclusive society. Here are some of our valued partners:

• Alliance for Children’s Rights
  Amica Center for Immigration Rights
  Black Swan Academy
  Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation
  Chicago Bar Foundation
  Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights
  Chicago Volunteer Legal Service
  Children’s Law Center (DC)
  Council for Court Excellence (DC)
  DC Access to Justice Commission
  DC Affordable Law Firm
  DC Appleseed Awards Dinner
  DC Bar Foundation
  DC Bar Pro Bono Center
  DC School of Law Foundation
  Inner City Law Center
  Kids in Need of Defense
  Law Firm Antiracism Alliance
  Lawndale Christian Leal Center
  Lawyers Alliance for NY
  Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area
  Legal Aid Chicago
  Legal Aid Society DC
  Legal Counsel for the Elderly
  Mass Appleseed
  Metropolitan Family Services, Legal Aid Society
  Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project
  National Appleseed Foundation
  National Health Law Program
  National Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
  Network for Victim Recovery of DC
  New York Legal Assistance Group
  Public Counsel
  Public Interest Law Initiative
  Read to a Child
  Soul Trak Outdoors
  Street Sense
  Washington Council of Lawyers
  Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs
  Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless
  Western Center on Law and Poverty

Our History

Giving back is both a strong commitment and chosen responsibility of the firm. In the early years, our lawyers presided over the Illinois Constitutional Convention that wrote the 1870 Constitution and signed the Articles of Incorporation for the Chicago Bar Association. In 1939, name partner Albert E. Arent was one of four lawyers who launched the Civil Liberties section in the Criminal Division at the US Department of Justice – what would later become the Civil Rights Division. At the time, it was widely interpreted that the protection of civil liberties and the prevention of violence were primarily the responsibility of state and local governments.

Arent sought to change that. He prosecuted two cases to test whether the federal government had jurisdiction over loosely enforced civil rights laws. Arent was successful in both cases and helped usher in a new era for the federal government in seeking to protect the rights of all Americans.

This legacy of public service endures. Today, we are proud to help immigrants who face persecution of all kinds stay in the United States. Our Task Force Melmastya provides free legal assistance to Afghans trying to escape to the US. We have worked on matters ranging from death penalty cases to class actions on behalf of women farmers to representing youth faced with expulsion from school or criminal prosecution.