“I subscribe to the belief that each human life should be judged not by its duration
but by its donation. Each of us is duty bound to make our community, our state and our nation
a little bit better by our presence.”
– Charles L. Bacon, Shook, Hardy & Bacon L.L.P.
Shook, Hardy & Bacon is a leader in delivering pro bono legal services. SHB provides approximately 30,000 hours of free legal counsel on an annual basis, donating its expertise and resources to communities across the United States. In recent years, SHB attorneys have assisted unaccompanied minors in immigration proceedings, staffed legal clinics and advocated on behalf of disabled individuals. These pro bono efforts reflect the firm’s dedication to representing the underserved in matters as diverse in nature and scope as the attorneys who handle them.
To institutionalize this ongoing commitment, SHB has appointed a full-time director of pro bono services. The director is an of counsel position who partners with the Pro Bono Committee and a full-time pro bono staff to administer the program's day-to-day activities.
Director of Pro Bono Services: Jolie L. Justus 816-474-6550 
Kansas City — Kansas City attorneys currently represent abused or neglected children and juveniles charged with crimes in the Jackson County, Mo., Family Court, acting as guardians ad litem and assisting grandparents in obtaining legal guardianships of their grandchildren. SHB attorneys have also completed more than 400 adoptions of foster children by foster parents. All fees paid by the state for these adoptions are donated to a scholarship fund that has awarded more than 80 scholarships totaling $110,000 in recent years. SHB received the Kansas Bar Association’s Pro Bono Award in 2001.
Houston — Through a long-standing commitment to the Houston Volunteer Lawyer Program, SHB attorneys have represented indigent clients in consumer protection matters, divorces and contract claims.
Miami — SHB’s Miami lawyers actively work with the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center on individual detainment and asylum cases and provide assistance on impact cases in an attempt to change the system. These attorneys
are currently working on a case of first impression involving an abandoned minor whom the Department of Homeland Security wants to deport to Haiti. This apparently is the first time that the DHS has turned to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for a medical opinion to support a DHC deportation case.
Orange County — SHB attorneys participate in the Trial Attorney Partnership program with the Orange County, California, district attorney’s office, which allows experienced trial attorneys to prosecute crimes on a pro bono basis at no additional cost to taxpayers.
San Francisco — SHB participates in Pets Are Wonderful Support (PAWS), a disability advocacy group that helps clients seek reasonable accommodations to allow them to keep companion pets in their homes.
Tampa — Tampa attorneys have successfully litigated important free speech cases and provide regular assistance to individuals and families in need throughout the Tampa Bay Area.
Washington, D.C. — Washington, D.C., pro bono activities include representing a Guantanamo detainee; helping a religiously-persecuted Cameroon national obtain U.S. asylum; representing a grandmother in seeking custody of her grandchildren; assisting a homeless individual to obtain housing and other government assistance; and working with the D.C. attorney general to investigate and potentially prosecute a case involving the exploitation of immigrant workers.
SHB was among those private law firms honored with the 2007 Beacon of Justice Award by the National Legal Aid and Defender Association. The award recognized SHB’s commitment to equality and justice through its pro bono representation of a Guantanamo detainee.
SHB was honored in 2006 by the nonprofit organization Children’s Rights, Inc. for its work in E. C. v. Blunt, a case that national media outlets have called “a landmark civil rights victory for foster children,” and for the firm’s leadership within the legal profession in this area. “SHB’s dedication to helping abused and neglected children was critical to the success in the adoption subsidy case and to the long-standing federal foster care reform lawsuit in Jackson County [Mo.],” said Ira Lustbader, associate director of Children’s Rights. “We’re happy to recognize SHB’s long-standing commitment to helping children through their pro bono efforts — this is what private firms can and should be doing across the county.”
SHB was the 2004 law firm recipient of the Angels of Justice Award, presented by the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, for its pro bono work on behalf of unaccompanied minors caught up in the immigration system.
Representative Pro Bono Cases
Cruzan v. Missouri Department of Health — An early, leading U.S. Supreme Court case which dealt with the sensitive “right-to-die” issue.
Stevana Case, et al. v. Unified School District No. 233 — SHB successfully represented high school students objecting to a school district’s decision to remove a controversial book from the school library. The Court awarded attorney fees of $200,000, which was donated to create the First Amendment Foundation. The purpose of the Foundation is to promote a better understanding among high school students of constitutional rights. In appreciation, SHB received the American Library Association’s John Phillip Immroth Memorial Award.
G. L. v. Sherman — The court ended its long-standing oversight of the Jackson County, Missouri, child welfare system by approving a conditional dismissal of the class action civil rights lawsuit. Through the efforts of an SHB attorney, along with Children’s Rights, Inc., the court cited remarkable improvements in the Jackson County foster care system that has now become a model across the country.
E. C. v. Blunt — This case involved a civil rights complaint that sought to permanently enjoin the state of Missouri from enacting a senate bill that would have retroactively terminated adoption subsidy contracts between the state and thousands of parents of adopted foster children. District Court Judge Scott O. Wright entered an order prohibiting the implementation of the bill, observing that the suit was among the most important cases he had addressed in his 27-year career as a judge. SHB donated the attorneys’ fees awarded in this landmark case toward establishing Lawyers for Kids, a charitable fund created to support charities that provide services to foster and adopted children and their parents.
