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.

  • Dorsey was a 1993 charter signatory of the ABA Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge, which asks firms to contribute 3% of billable hours to pro bono work. Dorsey has exceeded the Challenge every year since 1993.
  • Dorsey was the recipient of Opportunity International’s Alfred Whittaker Founder’s Award. Opportunity International is a nonprofit organization that provides financial products and strategies to over five million people working their way out of poverty in the developing world. The Alfred Whittaker Founder’s award is presented each year to a “key partner who has not only helped break the cycle of poverty around the world, but inspired each of us to live purposefully and passionately.” Since 2010, thirteen Dorsey lawyers provided approximately 1,180 hours of pro bono legal support to Opportunity International on many important projects. These included reorganization of the Opportunity International loan guarantee fund, investment and funding transactions, and a worldwide governance restructuring initiative, among many others.
  • In 2012, Dorsey received the National Legal Aid & Defender Association’s Beacon of Justice Award for its partnership with Xcel Energy and Volunteer Lawyers Network (VLN) in creating and operating an “Expungement Clinic” – a legal aid clinic that helps low income people prepare petitions to have their criminal records expunged.
  • Dorsey was selected to receive the ABA 2011 Exceptional Service Award, which recognizes the Firm’s commitment to representing death row prisoners.
  • Dorsey was named 2011’s Law Firm of the Year by Tubman, an organization in the Twin Cities that promotes safe and healthy families, individuals and communities through evidence-based intervention, prevention and education.
  • In 2011, the New York Civil Liberties Union honored Dorsey’s pro bono work at its 60th anniversary celebration.