Katten Knows and Katten Cares: 2022 Pro Bono Annual Review

Each year, Katten publishes a Pro Bono Annual Review featuring our firm's community service efforts and spirit of volunteerism throughout the year. Katten attorneys across the firm have collaborated and leveraged resources to serve individuals and organizations who need a good lawyer but can't afford to pay for one.

They take to heart that service is a responsibility and a reward. As Justice Sandra Day O'Connor once wrote, "Public service marks the difference between a business and a profession. While a business can afford to focus solely on profits, a profession cannot. It must devote itself first to the community it is responsible to serve. I can imagine no greater duty than fulfilling this obligation. And I can imagine no greater pleasure."

Katten's pro bono representations are incredibly diverse, from the identities of our clients and the subject matters of the work, to the skills required to do this work well. As Director of Pro Bono Services Jonathan Baum says, "Neither empathy nor legal acumen is sufficient for this service; it takes both."

This year's report covers how Katten attorneys navigated the complexities of the immigration system to secure asylum in the United States for individuals and families and how our attorneys applied their skills and compassion in settings from neighborhood legal clinics to appellate courts. The review also details how transactional attorneys render a full complement of legal services to nonprofit organizations fighting for racial justice, meeting the needs of our veterans, providing free delivery of groceries and prescription medicine to those in need, making sure that young people have safe, constructive activities, and guiding medical providers through the laws regulating reproductive health.

Read "Katten Knows and Katten Cares: 2022 Pro Bono Annual Review" here.