International law firm Dorsey & Whitney LLP announced today that Lawrence Reed McDonough has joined the Firm as its new Pro Bono Counsel. Mr. McDonough joins Dorsey from Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid (formerly, the Legal Aid Society of Minneapolis) where he served most recently as Managing Attorney of the Housing Unit, supervising attorneys and legal assistants representing low income tenants in Hennepin County in matters relating to landlord-tenant and housing law. Mr. McDonough has been a legal aid attorney in Minnesota since 1983. During his career, he has been involved in court cases, legislation, rulemaking and committee studies that have shaped landlord-tenant and housing law in the state and promoted availability of affordable housing. Mr. McDonough has also regularly taught clinical, evidence, and poverty law courses in all four of the state’s law schools and has been a frequent speaker on such topics at continuing legal education programs and institutes. He is a prolific writer of articles, handbooks and other materials on landlord-tenant and housing law issues.

As Pro Bono Counsel at Dorsey & Whitney, Mr. McDonough will join the team of four full-time lawyers and staff who help coordinate pro bono work performed by Dorsey lawyers across the Firm’s 19 offices worldwide. Dorsey was an original signatory of the American Bar Association Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge back in 1993. Every year since then, Dorsey has surpassed the Challenge by devoting more than 3 percent of the Firm’s total billable hours to pro bono. In 2012, more than 390 Dorsey lawyers across the Firm performed a total of nearly 30,000 hours of Challenge pro bono work, serving the disadvantaged and those unable to afford legal counsel in a wide variety of areas of law. The Firm and its lawyers have been widely recognized for leadership in pro bono service to the community.

“Dorsey’s commitment to pro bono service can be measured in part by the full-time lawyers and staff we devote to coordinating our Firm-wide efforts,” said Dorsey partner Perry Wilson, who oversees the program as Pro Bono Partner. “We are incredibly lucky to add a legal aid veteran like Larry McDonough to the Dorsey pro bono team. He will be taking over the position left by the death of Dorsey pro bono counsel Bricker Lavik earlier this year, and it will take the kind of deep experience and personal commitment and energy that Larry brings to pick up where our friend Bricker left off.”

Mr. McDonough noted, “I am delighted to be joining Dorsey & Whitney, a great law firm with a true commitment to helping the disadvantaged through pro bono. It is a privilege to take up where a pro bono legend like Bricker Lavik left off and to help lead the Dorsey program to new heights of service to the community.”