Legal News

Celebrating Pro Bono Efforts in Philadelphia and Beyond

By Gina Rubel

By Gina F. Rubel

In Philadelphia, the Delivery of Legal Services Committee of the Philadelphia Bar Association's Public Interest Section invites members of the Philadelphia legal community to participate in a range of pro bono recruitment events, legal clinics for low-income clients and continuing legal education programs from October 18-29 in honor of National Pro Bono Week.

The ABA Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service is sponsoring their Annual Pro Bono Week Celebration from October 24-30. The celebration is a coordinated national effort to meet the ever-growing needs of this country's most vulnerable citizens by encouraging and supporting local efforts to expand the delivery of pro bono legal services, and by showcasing the great difference that pro bono lawyers make to the nation, its system of justice, its communities and, most of all, to the clients they serve.

The Philadelphia Bar Association?s website provides a list of pro bono celebration events scheduled this week in Philadelphia along with a Directory of Public Interest Legal Organizations including:

• AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania
• American Civil Liberties Union
• Center for Disability Law & Policy
• Community Legal Services (CLS)
• Consumer Bankruptcy Assistance Project
• Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania (formerly Disabilities Law Project)
• Education Law Center - PA
• The Elderly Law Project - Temple University Beasley School of Law
• Equality Advocates Pennsylvania (formerly the Center for Lesbian & Gay Civil Rights)
• Face to Face Legal Center
• Friends of Farmworkers
• Good Shepherd Mediation Program
• HIAS and Council Migration Service of Philadelphia
• Homeless Advocacy Project
• Juvenile Law Center
• Legal Clinic for the Disabled
• Mazzoni Center, Legal Services Department
• National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women
• Nationalities Service Center
• Pennsylvania Capital Representation Project of the Philadelphia Federal Defender
• Pennsylvania Health Law Project
• Pennsylvania Immigration Resource Center
• Pennsylvania Innocence Project
• Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project
• Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts
• Philadelphia Legal Assistance
• Philadelphia Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts
• Philadelphia Volunteer for the Indigent Program (VIP)
• Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia
• Regional Housing Legal Services
• SeniorLAW Center
• Society Created to Reduce Urban Blight
• Support Center for Child Advocates
• Temple Legal Aid Office
• University of Pennsylvania Law School - Gittis Center for Clinical Legal Studies
• Villanova University School of Law -Villanova Clinical Programs
• Widener University School of Law Clinical Programs
• Women's Law Project

With more than 30 public interest law agencies that serve Philadelphia's neediest citizens, our community is replete with options. It is our duty as lawyers to support them. Here?s to a successful Pro Bono Week.

Gina F. Rubel, Esq., is the owner of Furia Rubel Communications Inc., a public relations and marketing agency with a niche in legal communications. A former Philadelphia trial attorney and public relations expert, Gina is the author of Everyday Public Relations for Lawyers. Gina and her PR and marketing firm have won numerous awards for legal communications, public relations, media relations, strategic planning, corporate philanthropy and leadership. She maintains a blog at www.ThePRLawyer.com, is a regular contributor to The Legal Intelligencer Blog and blogs for The Huffington Post. You can find her on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/ginafuriarubel or follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ginarubel.  For more information, go to www.FuriaRubel.com.

Full post as published by The Legal Intelligencer Blog on October 19, 2010 (boomark / email).