2010 National Pro Bono Celebration Announced
Celebration set for Oct. 24-30; Start Planning NOW 
The ABA Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service sponsored the first-ever National Pro Bono Week celebration in October 2009. Pennsylvania was a leader in the celebration, with events at many sites across the commonwealth. Click here for more on Pennsylvania's participation in the 2009 celebration. Click here for a wrap-up of Pennsylvania's 2009 Pro Bono Week celebration. Click on the following link for the PowerPoint Presentation by Louis S. Rulli for the National Pro Bono Celebration, Oct. 25-31, 2009; “The Pro Bono Movement: Where have we been?” The Berks County Bar Association provided a model program other organizations might follow, bringing private attorneys, local legal aid providers, local and state bar leaders, and others from the community together for a special luncheon and an afternoon of seminars for Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2009 to celebrate 40 years of legal services in Berks County and to honor its pro bono program participants. Senior Judge Wettick, an early champion of legal aid, was the keynote speaker and federal Judge John Jones and PBA Pro Bono Coordinator joined others in presenting a special seminar on pro bono service. Also, Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray (one of the first executive directors of the local program) was on hand to MC the program. The Berks bar invited all of the Berks County alumni of Tri-County, Central Penn and MidPenn Legal Services to the event. Berks bar Executive Director Don Smith coordinated the event. For more information, contact Smith at smith@berksbar.org.

National Pro Bono Week is an opportunity to celebrate the difference lawyers make in communities, to recruit and train more pro bono volunteers and to acknowledge the partnerships that form the basis for so many of the private bar's successful pro bono efforts. Participants learned many lessons from the inaugural National Pro Bono Celebration, two of particular importance. First, work together whenever possible. Those groups who coordinated their activities and planned and scheduled collaboratively reported having the most overall success. Second, and a corollary to the first lesson, is to be diversified in planning in the context of what each community needs. Is recruitment a priority? Training? Client service through clinics? Reviewing and assessing each program's, court's and community's pro bono needs will result in a more dynamic overall celebration.

Immediately following the October 2009 Pro Bono Week Celebration, the ABA Standing Committee on Pro Bono  and Public Service surveyed its many constituents – those who participated in the 2009 Celebration and those who did not – to assess whether to go forward with the National Pro Bono Celebration on an annual basis and, if so, during what week.  The results of that survey showed an overwhelming consensus to go forward each year during the last week of October. Plans for the 2010 National Pro Bono Week celebration in Pennsylvania are in development under the auspices of the PBA’s Legal Services to the Public Committee.

In the next few weeks (from Jan. 14, 2010), the National Pro Bono Week celebration Web site – www.celebrateprobono.org – will be updated with new resources, materials, ideas and other tools that will help pro bono coordinators and organizations move forward with 2010 celebration planning. The revamped Web site will make available the following: additional planning tips; more samples of proclamations, press releases and op-eds; categorized access to last year’s celebration events; an upgraded celebration store; and much more. Also, keep checking www.pabar.org/public/probono/natpbceleb.asp for Pennsylvania statewide specifics, once those plans are set.

Thank you in advance for celebrating pro bono in 2010!