As a leading Philadelphia law firm, White and Williams LLP has a long history of service to the local community.  Attorneys and other professionals at the firm devote a substantial amount of time and resources to charitable and public interest causes.

One component of that community commitment is the firm’s pro bono practice.  White and Williams LLP strongly encourages its lawyers to render public interest legal services free of charge to individuals and non-profit groups in the region.  Many of the firm’s lawyers and para-professionals volunteer regularly to represent local citizens who cannot afford counsel in a variety of legal matters.  Below is a list of some of the recent activities of White and Williams personnel as well as a few of the achievements of which the firm is particularly proud.

Kathy A. O’Neill, a Partner in the firm’s Litigation Department, served on the Pro Bono Task Force, empaneled by Philadelphia Bar Association Chancellor Allan Gordon to evaluate the need for and the delivery of pro bono legal services to the needy, disadvantaged and disenfranchised in Philadelphia.  The Task Force issued a 78-page report in July 2002, which offered detailed recommendations to improve pro bono service in the region. To view a complete copy of the Task Force's report, download the PDF here.

Partner Joseph H. Foster, former chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association, is a founding member of the Philadelphia Volunteers for the Indigent Program (VIP), a pro bono organization of the Philadelphia Bar Association that recruits volunteer lawyers and paralegals to represent low-income Philadelphians and their families in a variety of legal matters.  The Firm is a three-time recipient (most recently in April 2000) of VIP’s Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. Award in honor of its outstanding service in pro bono work in Philadelphia.

Anna M. Bryan, a Partner in the Health Care Law Group of the firm’s Litigation Department, is a board member and volunteer for the Support Center for Child Advocates, a non-profit agency that offers free legal and social services to Philadelphia’s abused and neglected children.

Kenneth Gibb, the firm’s Executive Director, serves on the board of the Homeless Advocacy Project, which provides free legal services to homeless people and to non‑profit community groups developing affordable housing and other services for the homeless.

William C. Hussey, II an associate in the firm’s Tax and Estates Group and Pensions and Employee Benefits Group, recently joined the Board of the Philadelphia Chapter of Little Brothers- Friends of the Elderly, a national, nonprofit organization committed to relieving isolation and loneliness among the elderly.

Thomas M. Goutman, the Chairman of the firm’s Litigation Department and head of our Environmental and Toxic Tort Practice Group, performs pro bono work for the Philadelphia Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, whose mission is to provide legal services, business counseling and educational programs for neighborhood-based nonprofits and individual artists in the greater Philadelphia cultural community.

Richard M. Jordan, a Partner in the firm’s Commercial Litigation Department, became involved in representing death-row inmates through the American Bar Association Death Penalty Project.  He successfully represented an inmate on Death Row in Alabama.  He then served as one of the original Directors of the Center for Legal Education, Advocacy and Defense Assistance, an organization which recruited private, volunteer attorneys for capital cases throughout the country.  He has also successfully represented a death-row inmate in Pennsylvania, where his work led to the only decision where an inmate received a new Sentencing Hearing on the basis of an Evidentiary Hearing under the Pennsylvania Post Conviction Relief Act.

To learn more about the public interest groups with which White and Williams LLP has a relationship, see the following websites:

Homeless Advocacy Project:  http://www.libertynet.org/hap

Support Center for Child Advocates:  http://www.advokid.org

Legal Clinic for the Disabled: http://www.legalclinicforthedisabled.org/

Little Brothers- Friends of the Elderly: http://www.littlebrothers.org