Community Service

WilmerHale makes a decisive impact on issues facing our local communities by applying the principles of venture philanthropy to innovative partnerships with nonprofit organizations. 

Through our Youth and Education Initiative, the firm provides financial support, pro bono legal representation, in-kind donations and volunteer services to four Boston-based organizations—Cathedral High School, Citizen Schools, Discovering Justice and Teen Empowerment. An initiative in our Washington office provides the same comprehensive services to the Maya Angelou Public Charter School and Bread for the City. This signature WilmerHale model emphasizes long-term, involved relationships and capacity building.

The firm contributes regularly to the United Way and to law- and bar-related organizations in the communities where each of our offices is located. Our reputation for philanthropy has been recognized on several occasions, most recently by the Boston Business Journal, which in 2007 named WilmerHale the most generous law firm in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Throughout his career, our founder John H. Pickering inspired generations of lawyers with his lifelong and much-heralded commitment to public service. Today the firm pays tribute to his legacy and strengthens its commitment to the community through the annual presentation of the Pickering Fellowships. The WilmerHale Pickering Fellowships program allows selected associates to spend six months each working in a pro bono organization.

The firm also participates in the Boston Bar Association's Public Interest Leadership Program, which recognizes and honors newer lawyers who have demonstrated leadership in their community by engaging in public service, pro bono, and organized bar activities. Each year, the BBA selects up to twelve Public Interest Leaders to participate in the Program, and the firm has been proud to send one associate each year to advance the leadership role of lawyers in service to their community, the profession and the Commonwealth.

WilmerHale also hosts numerous volunteer events in its Boston, New York, Palo Alto and Washington offices, with firm lawyers and staff coming together to serve more than 170 students in the community, helping them to achieve academic success and preparing them for the future:

• Twice each year, attorneys and paralegals teach middle school students the basics of litigating a trial in preparation for their own mock trial presentations before sitting judges at courthouses in Boston, New York City and Palo Alto.
  
  
• Each fall, the firm hosts more than 40 high school seniors for College Application Workshops, in which lawyers and staff assist students with their applications and essays.
  
  
• The firm hires eight Boston-area high school students for seven weeks each year as part of our Summer Leadership Institute.
  
  
• Works with urban youth in New York and Washington through the Joseph Forgione Development School for Youth and Urban Alliance.