Pro Bono

Katten has a long-term commitment to helping the poor, the powerless and the disenfranchised obtain first-rate representation without charge. Attorneys and other legal professionals give their time, resources and talent to serve individuals and organizations in need, to engage in important national litigation, and to partner with local legal service providers to ensure access to the justice system.

Chicago Partner Jonathan Baum serves as our Director of Pro Bono Services. In 1993, Katten became one of the first law firms to employ a partner to lead the pro bono program on a full-time basis.

Our pro bono program is particularly noteworthy for the breadth of services it offers. These include litigation, both on behalf of individuals and groups, in matters of housing and public accommodations discrimination, civil liberties, immigration, criminal defense, prisoners' rights, consumer matters, and also transactional pro bono work, in such areas as corporate and tax assistance for nonprofit organizations, intellectual property law, employee benefits and international trade law.

At Katten, we encourage our attorneys to become involved in pro bono projects with the same unwavering dedication, commitment to hard work and legal excellence that they bring to all matters handled by the firm. Specific pro bono opportunities are directed to attorneys who have expressed interest, through periodic surveys, in related matters. The firm arranges training for attorneys interested in specialized areas of pro bono law as well as credit for pro bono work toward billable hour requirements. We also provide special hands-on pro bono programs for summer associates and support incoming associates at public interest agencies through the Public Interest Law Initiative (PILI) fellowship program.

Each year, the firm recognizes outstanding pro bono service with its Pro Bono Service Awards. The awards are presented annually to partners and associates across the firm who have made valuable contributions to their communities and those in need of legal representation. The awards include $1,000 honoraria that the recipients donate to charities of their choice.

Katten’s pro bono program has been honored with the National Public Service Award, presented by the American Bar Association Section of Business Law, and recognized by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund in Chicago, the Lawyers Alliance for New York, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and numerous other organizations.

Katten routinely works with a number of different organizations through its pro bono program, including the following:

• Alliance for Children's Rights (Los Angeles)
• Bet Tzedek (Los Angeles)
• Cabrini Green Legal Aid Clinic (Chicago)
• Center for Disability & Elder Law (Chicago)
• Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
• Constitutional Rights Foundation (Los Angeles)
• Domestic Violence Legal Clinic (Chicago)
• Lawyers Alliance for New York
• Lawyers for the Creative Arts (Chicago)
• Legal Aid Society (New York)
• Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago
• Legal Aid of North Carolina
• National Center for Children's Rights (Los Angeles)
• National Immigrant Justice Center (Chicago)
• National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty (Washington, D.C.)
• New York Lawyers for the Public Interest
• Public Counsel Law Center (Los Angeles)
• South Brooklyn Legal Services
• Volunteers of Legal Services (New York)
• Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs

Each of the firm's offices has a Pro Bono Committee chaired by a partner. The following Committee Chairs, together with the Director of Pro Bono Services, make up the National Pro Bono Committee:

• Karen Artz Ash (New York, National Co-Chair)
• Kristin L. Holland (Los Angeles)
• Reid A. Mandel (Chicago, National Co-Chair)
• John D. Muir, Jr. (Washington, D.C.)
• Bradley E. Pearce (Charlotte)

• July 2008:  Katten Announces Recipients of Ninth Annual Pro Bono Service Awards
• February 2008: Katten Continues Pro Bono Leadership with Charter Membership in New Chicago Bar Foundation Law Firm Leadership Circle
• August 2007: $1.3 Million Awarded to Victims of Post-9/11 Hate Crime
• July 2007: Katten Announces Recipients of Eighth Annual Pro Bono Service Awards
• May 2007: Katten’s Heather O’Toole Named Pro Bono Attorney of the Month by Illinois Pro Bono
• April 2006: Katten Receives Center for Disability and Elder Law’s 2006 Distinguished Service Award
• December 2005: Turkish Couple Fleeing Persecution Wins Appeal of Asylum Ruling.
• October 2005: Lawyers for the Creative Arts presented the Firm and Firm Founders Melvin L. Katten and Allan B. Muchin with the Distinguished Service to the Arts Award.
• July 2005: The Firm was awarded the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law’s 2005 Pro Bono Award, for its outstanding pro bono service to the Chicago legal community, as well as its First Year Public Service Fellowship Program.
• February 2005: Northwestern University School of Law's Children and Family Justice Center honored the Firm with its Children's Law Pro Bono Project Award.
• October 2004: Mr. Jonathan K. Baum, Director of Pro Bono Services, received the "Unsung Hero" Award by Action for Children, in recognition of his victory in a 2003 Illinois Supreme Court case which denied local governments the authority to interfere with the operation of day care homes licensed in Illinois.