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Dear Bar Commissioners:

We need your help again. From October24 through 30,2010, the Alabama State Bar and its Pro Bono Celebration Task Force are sponsoring Pro Bono Week 2010. Last year was the first year we celebrated Pro Bono Week across the State of Alabama, and you all helped make it a huge success. But, with 940,000 Alabamians currently living in poverty, and one in every four of these experiencing legal problems, there is certainly more work to be done.

As you know the goal for Pro Bono Celebration Week is to educate the public about the extensive work Alabama lawyers are doing donating their time to improve the lives of vulnerable members of our community, and we hope to encourage more individuals in the legal community to get involved in pro bono work and financially support the legal aid system.

Last year, Alabama’s aggregate Celebrate Pro Bono Week activities included it among the top celebrations in the country. With governmental proclamations in support of pro bono efforts, legal aid clinics, recruitment and recognition events, and service projects throughout the State helping lawyers and law students make volunteer connections with legal aid organizations serving Alabamians, every one of the forty-two judicial circuits of the State participated in the celebration.

This year the task force is working again with all segments of the legal community from law students to judges. Local bar associations, Alabama’s judicial associations, Alabama’s volunteer lawyer programs, LSA, Alabama’s law schools, individual lawyers and others will collaborate with the Alabama State Bar, through the task force, in publicizing and holding events locally as well as state wide.

During the Celebration, the task force will work with local bar presidents and Bar Commissioners to speak on the topic of pro bono and Access to Justice to various local civic organizations throughout the State. Other events planned include various advice and assistance clinics including Wills for Heroes events, events providing assistance to the elderly, events providing assistance on identity theft, and continuing legal education events.

We ask that each of you contact at least one civic group in your Judicial Circuit (Rotary Club, Kiwanis Club, Civitans, Lions Club, etc.), and speak to them about the pro bono services provided to needy Alabamians by yourselves and other Alabama lawyers. We ask that you speak to the group(s) sometime during the month of September or October. Please contact the organization(s), and then let Linda Lund know the organization(s) you are speaking to and the date you are speaking. The Pro Bono Celebration Task Force will be providing you with talking points and materials to assist you in speaking to the civic organization(s) you chose.

The Task Force has prepared a CD and materials for you and Local Bar Presidents to use that contain all the tools needed to put on an event to celebrate pro bono, including:

• Sample letters to city and county leaders with Proclamations to customize and present to local governments to recognize Alabama’s Celebrate Pro Bono Week 2010;

• Speeches, materials and handouts to give a presentation to your local civic clubs to raise awareness of Alabama’s pro bono activities;

• Recruitment drive materials, activities and enrollment forms to increase the number of Alabama’s volunteer lawyers;

• Materials to hold a Wills for Heroes Clinic, a Counsel & Advise Clinic, or hold a Family Law Community Education Clinic;

and,

• All inclusive materials to hold a continuing legal education program on Professional Responsibility in Pro Bono Practice, recognized by the State Bar for 1.0 hour ethics credit, for volunteer lawyers and those willing to volunteer through a VLP program.

We will be circulating a list at the Board of Bar Commissioners meeting in July in Sandestin, so please be prepared to submit your information at that time. You may provide it in advance of the State Bar Meeting by submitting it to Linda Lund, Director of the Alabama State Bar Volunteer Lawyer’s Program, 1inda.lund~alabar.org. Contact Linda at (888) 857-6154 with any questions, and continue to check the “Celebrate Pro Bono Week” section of the Alabama State Bar’s website at www.alabar.org for more information on events and how you can be a part of the celebration.

Thank you very much, and see you in Sandestin!

Royal C. Dumas
Hill, Hill, Carter, Franco, Cole & Black, P.C.

Richard J.R. Raleigh, Jr.
Wilmer & Lee, P.A.