Pro Bono Overview

As a Firm and as individuals, our goal is to continue our long-term commitment to serve the unmet legal needs of disadvantaged individuals, and of organizations who cannot afford to pay for legal services, by providing a wide range of sophisticated, specialized and high quality legal services. Community involvement is a core value of Dorsey & Whitney culture.

The pro bono program enables our lawyers to help meet the great need of the disadvantaged in our community for legal services. Pro bono provides meaningful work experience for our lawyers, and it builds goodwill and satisfaction in the communities we serve. Pro bono binds the firm together.

In 1993 Dorsey & Whitney subscribed to  the Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge as a charter signatory. We are pleased to report that we met the Challenge once again in 2007, for the fifteenth consecutive year. In keeping with our ongoing commitment to Pro Bono and to encourage participation, we have hours and bonus polices for all of our attorneys. Our partners receive billable credit for their first 50 hours of pro bono services they provide annually. Our associate bonus policy counts up to 50 hours of pro bono time towards meeting the associate's hours requirement and once they have made their hours requirement, an additional 100 hours of pro bono time will be counted in the calculation of their productivity bonuses. Further, we work with our contract, staff, and senior attorneys to include pro bono hours as part of their work arrangement.