Last week at the Rocket Aid virtual conference, someone addressed those of us on the media roundtable panel and said, “I’m tired of hearing about layoffs, is there any good news out there?” And the answer is… not much. But it’s not entirely nonexistent.
Over at Paul Weiss, the firm is tackling a number of projects related to the outbreak and placing themselves on the front lines of lawyerly efforts to bounce back. They served as an advisor and donated half-a-million dollars to NYC Healthcare Heroes, a program focused on getting food and supplies to more than 100,000 healthcare professionals throughout New York City.
The firm also set up a Coronavirus Relief Center to act as a clearinghouse for government and non-profit relief programs. It’s really a tremendous undertaking — scrolling through its pages provides a road map for anyone looking for help out there with instructions on how to apply and answers to frequently asked questions.
According to the firm, almost half of the firm’s legal staff are engaged in COVID-related pro bono work right now, exactly what socially responsible firms should be doing right now. There are no doubt other Biglaw pro bono efforts underway right now that deserve trumpeting. Even firms not currently engaged in public interest initiatives are eyeing opportunities to assist once the immediate crisis subsides and the work of picking up the pieces begins.
Keep us in the loop about these efforts. We can’t necessarily catalog them all, but we’ll do our best to let people know what your firm is doing and help other firms looking for something to do by providing a model to follow.
As the questioner from last week suggested, we should have a little good news these days.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.