About ThompsonMcMullan

Pro Bono

ThompsonMcMullan is pleased to be a member of Firms in Service, which creates an opportunity for leading law firms in Richmond to coordinate pro bono efforts in our region. At  bi-monthly meetings, members are given a forum for exchange of information regarding urgent needs for pro bono service in our region and for pro bono leadership from participating firms to share best practices in establishing a culture which supports pro bono service by lawyers in member firms. Thompson McMullan was extended an invitation to join Firms in Service in early 2011 by the founding firms-HuntonWilliams, McGuireWoods, LeClairRyan, TroutmanSanders, and Williams Mullen. It is an honor for us to work together with them, as well as our colleagues at SpottsFain and SandsAnderson, who joined Firms in Service along with us in 2011, and HirschlerFleischler and GoodmanAllen, who signed on in early 2012. Aside from our collaborative efforts to improve pro bono services, members of Firms in Service also pledge annual financial support to the Greater Richmond Bar Foundation.

For too long legal aid programs have been hampered by limited technology, and private attorneys have had difficulties connecting to the pro bono opportunities.  The solution is JusticeServer, a secure on-line case management system created by Capital One that will upgrade legal aid’s technology in-house while allowing pro bono attorney volunteers the ability to access pro bono cases from any internet connection.

Utilizing state-of-the-art technology being developed with the assistance of Capital One, Justice Server has the potential to revolutionize how legal services will be provided to legal aid qualified clients by using technology to bring cases to volunteer lawyers. It will offer access for a variety of services including, landlord-tenant problems, employment issues, divorces, bankruptcy, and other legal issues.

This is a recent initiative prompted by the Chief Justice’s 2009 Pro Bono Summit.

The goal is to help the many thousands of people in the Richmond area who need legal help but cannot obtain it for financial reasons.  For example there are 250 no fault divorces backed up in the system that could be quickly and easily handled in this new program.

The Greater Richmond Bar Foundation (GRBF) will coordinate this initiative. The GRBF is also initiating a pro bono “call to action” to all law firms, legal departments & solo practitioners in the central Virginia area. The Foundation asks participants to make the Pro Bono Promise by agreeing to commit a “percentage of professional time” each year to providing pro bono legal service and related volunteer activities and/or through a proportionate amount of financial support of such efforts by others. ThompsonMcMullan signed on as a participant firm and is one of the first to accept the challenge.

By making the PRO BONO PROMISE, each participant firm agrees to encourage and facilitate the provision of pro bono legal services, to encourage and facilitate participation in volunteer activities designed to increase pro bono services, and to encourage financial support of the legal aid service providers who assist the disadvantaged in our community. The initial goal is to donate not less than 1% of total firm billable hours per year to pro bono service. In future years, the goal will be expanded.

In addition to this program ThompsonMcMullan regularly supports many organizations within the Richmond Metro area including: