Big firms talk about giving back, but what do they actually do? Read on to find a firm whose charitable values mesh with yours, and you just might find yourself heading up its next pro bono project or arts event

BONO-FIED

Pro bono work can come in a variety of shapes and forms. Precedent was impressed with firms that are making a real impact on people’s lives by teaming up with community groups, projects and organizations. We sifted through a long list of pro bono projects firms sent our way to choose our 10 favourite initiatives.

The Evergreen Brick Works Project

Blakes
Turning a crumbling collection of 100-year-old buildings into a community hub with a demonstration garden, farmers’ market and education centre is full of legal conundrums. So in 2004, Blakes signed on with Evergreen, the organization leading the charge to revitalize the Don Valley Brick Works. The brick works once churned out the classic red bricks that built some of Toronto’s most legendary buildings, such as Massey Hall and Old City Hall. More than 85 — and counting — Blakes lawyers and law clerks have helped out.
Photo above: Evergreen volunteers plant trees at the Don Valley Brick Works, located in Toronto

The East Scarborough Storefront Project

Heenan Blaikie
This February, Heenan Blaikie started working in a Scarborough neighbourhood that has a high concentration of social housing. In hooking up with the East Scarborough Storefront, a collection of agencies and community groups, the firm offers legal advice to the neighbourhood’s residents.

Unaccompanied Minors Project

McCarthys
Fleeing the devastation of war and extreme poverty, hundreds of children arrive at Toronto Pearson International Airport every year alone and frightened. This McCarthys program matches these small newcomers with lawyers who will become the children’s representatives and guide them through the refugee process. In a coalition of McCarthys, Pro Bono Law Ontario and the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, 70 lawyers so far have assisted in helping about 100 children plant their feet safely in Canada.

Lawyers for Aboriginal Artists Program

Gowlings
It’s hard to make a living as a musician, painter or poet, and making sure you’re paid when your work is reproduced goes a long way to making rent. Gowlings intellectual property lawyers joined the Pro Bono Law Ontario initiative in 2003 and since then have been advising low-income Aboriginal artists throughout Ontario, making sure they get copyright protection, fair contracts and coin.

The UN Corporate Law Tools Project

Stikemans
In the wake of the BP oil spill and the Wall Street meltdown, everyone wants to know how corporations can become, if not benevolent, at least ethical. Charged with answering this question, the United Nations asked 19 leading corporate law firms in 40 jurisdictions for reports on what their nations are doing to encourage big business to respect human rights. Stikemans authored the report from Canada on where the country leads and where it falls short.

The Family Legal Health Program

McMillan
Caring for a sick child is hard work — and expensive. In one case, when parents of a sick newborn were not allowed to deduct the travel and subsistence costs associated with their child’s medical care, McMillan lawyers stepped in and successfully appealed their tax assessment. A partnership among McMilllan, Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, Pro Bono Law Ontario and another firm, Torkin Manes LLP, the program provides patients at SickKids and their families with free access to legal advice and representation.

Leave for Change

FMC
FMC partnered with Uniterra, who started Leave for Change to provide NGOs in developing countries with legal services. Since joining up, FMC lawyers have gone overseas to help grassroots organizations. Associate Emma Williamson went to Botswana, where she worked with Women Against Rape to draft and analyze reports on new legislation for the protection of women and children.

Canadian Lawyers for International Human Rights

FMC
FMC lawyers in the Toronto office worked with the University of Toronto Faculty of Law and the Canadian Lawyers for International Human Rights to have CLAIHR’s application to re-register as a charity under the Income Tax Act accepted. By accomplishing this difficult task, the firm’s efforts helped CLAIHR — an organization promoting human rights globally through legal education, advocacy and law reform — get back to focusing on its good work.

St. Clare’s Multifaith Housing Society

Goodmans
When St. Clare’s Multifaith Housing Society, a non-profit affordable housing organization, needed a rezoning permit to use a parcel of a land that they leased from Toronto, they turned to Goodmans. Despite near punch outs with the group’s neighbours, Goodmans won the two-year battle and the site plans are in the process of being approved.

The United Nations

Osler
Earlier this year, the United Nations Office of Staff Legal Assistance, which deals with internal employment issues such as wrongful dismissal, contacted Osler with an exciting request: would they be interested in working as external counsel on more complicated or precedent-setting cases? Osler said yes and began preparing the firm for the task, clearing conflicts and working to get a better understanding of the UN’s internal justice system. The firm — the first in Canada to act as external council for UN’S OSLA — is currently working on its first case.