Message from the Chairs

Welcome to the Pro Bono and Public Interest Litigation Committee Website! Use this site as your gateway to pro bono and public interest litigation resources. Join the Committee and you can also enjoy receiving quarterly listserv messages and our newsletter. Both will keep you up to date on pro bono and public interest developments. Once you to join our committee, we encourage you to get involved! Join a subcommittee, publish an article in the newsletter, author other content for the website or sign up for one of our volunteer projects. We are always looking for new members to help out with the work of our Committee.

We have three active sub-committees : (1) the LAPP (Litigation Assistance Partnership Project) Subcommittee, which screens cases for our signature project, LAPP; (2) our John Minor Wisdom Award Subcommittee, which annually reviews nominations and selects the recipient for this prestigious award; and, (3) our Communication Subcommittee, which handles our newsletter and web page. Please contact one of the Committee Chairs of you would like to join any of these subcommittees.

Please be on the look out for the next edition of our newsletter which should be mailed shortly. The whole issue is devoted to the cutting edge theme of Civil Gideon. We are still accepting article submissions for our next issue of the newsletter, as well as proposals for subsequent issues. Contact Stephen Arner and Richard Clarkson if you have ideas or would like to contribute.

Please also take a moment to review our Committee’s website and send Lynn Y. Lee your thoughts and any suggestions for additional content.

There are also additional ways you can help us out with our Committee’s most important project. Heather Oberrieder is our consultant for LAPP, and she is responsible for placement of our LAPP cases. Please answer her calls when she is looking to place one of these cases, and contact Heather if you have suggestions of organizations that might refer us cases for LAPP or firms who might want to take LAPP referrals. Also, if you are interested in joining our small group of Committee members currently updating our LAPP mailing lists, please let Heather know.

Lastly, please contact Lisa Wood if you would be interested in helping out with a new small group project we are just initiating. We need an eager group of Committee members who would be willing to monitor news articles on pro bono and public interest issues, and identify articles that would be of interest to fellow members of the Committee. This group would then work with the ABA staff to post links to particularly newsworthy articles on our website, and use other articles as stimulus for program and newsletter content. Even if you do not have the time to join this new group, please let us know if you have an idea for a program, regional conference, article, emerging issue. We and your other committee colleagues would like to know and tell others

As always, please email us with your suggestions for ways to make your committee membership more valuable. This year, as in the past, the Committee wants your input so that we can organize our member benefits (newsletters, programs, website, content, etc.) around cutting edge issues of concern to our members. If you would like to participate in any Committee activity in 2007, it is not too late – please contact one of the Committee chairs and let them know of your interest. We are eager to involve others in our work, so please do not be shy about speaking up in your area of interest

We look forward to hearing from you and hope you will become active.

Laura Brill
Bob Sohns
Lisa Wood
Co-Chairs, Pro Bono & Public Interest Committee