Deadline Extended for 2023 Bloomberg Law Pro Bono Innovators

We’re thrilled to announce our call for nominations for the 2023 Bloomberg Law Pro Bono Innovators.

Purpose

We seek to recognize a selection of law firms, companies, non-profit organizations, universities and other entities that are successfully innovating in their approaches to pro bono client service. We seek to celebrate lawyers across the U.S. and beyond working to uphold the rule of law for underserved communities. (Want more background? Check out our 2022 Pro Bono Innovators special report.)

We’re looking for weighty, impactful pro bono client matters across a range of practice areas.

The successful resolution of these matters should include all or most of these elements:

• The innovative approach resulted in broad societal impact, through a legal or policy change.
• The legal teams expended a significant amount of time, strategy and ingenuity to solve the issues presented.
• The innovation and successful client outcomes were the result of fruitful partnerships between law firms, companies and/or non-profits.
• The successful resolution of the matter(s) benefited from the perspectives of diverse legal teams. (Those teams may include lawyers who are diverse in gender, geography, race, culture, ability, orientation or other life experiences.)

To Apply

• Include a brief summary of the pro bono history of your firm, company, non profit, university or other entity. (Word count: Do not exceed 500 words for this summary.)
• Include brief descriptions of at least four significant pro bono client matters that your team(s) resolved between Nov. 18, 2021 and April 18, 2023.
• For each client matter, list the lawyers involved and identify the lead attorneys. Detail if outside co-counsel participated, and if so, indicate the respective percentage of work handled by each firm, company, non-profit or other entity. (Word count: Do not exceed 1500 words total for the pro bono client matter descriptions and counsel listings.)
• Optional: You may also include descriptions of up to two matters that are ongoing. In that event, label these matters “ongoing” in your submission and include a description of any interim successes your team achieved for your client(s) as of your Pro Bono Innovators submission date. (Note: If you choose to include optional descriptions of ongoing matters, they will be included in the 1500-word count limit noted above.)
• Include the answers to the following questions. Select two of the four concluded matters you detail in the 1500-word description above. Select the same two matters for each of your responses to the questions below.
  • What were the most innovative aspects of two of your client matters in your view? And who took the lead on driving innovation with the work? Word count: 400 words.
  • Tell us more about the impact of these two matters on the local, national, and/or global level. Word count: 300 words.
  • Why do you think your team ultimately achieved successful results in these two matters? Word count: 300 words.

Other Details

• Additional Optional Materials: You may also submit supporting documents such as news clips or brief recommendation letters from pro bono clients. Word count: Letters from clients should not exceed 500 words each. Please also limit the length of supplemental documents to a maximum of four pages total.
• For the answers to the three questions above, please compose submission answers from the perspectives of the attorneys who completed the work. Do not write in the third-person. (Feel free to write in the third-person for other aspects of the application, such as the pro bono history summary, if you so choose.)
• Nomination Limits: A law firm, company or non-profit may send in one submission representative of the pro bono work of that entity from Nov. 18, 2021 to April 18, 2023.
• Word count: Please note, word count will be strictly observed.

Deadline

Deadline Extended: To apply, please send your submissions to submissions@bloombergindustry.com by 11:59 p.m. EST on Wednesday, June 7, 2023.

Questions?

For questions about Pro Bono Innovators, please closely review the rules listed above, then feel free to contact our team at submissions@bloombergindustry.com. Good luck!