We believe in giving back, and we want attorneys who have a passion for making a positive impact in the lives of others. In 2024, our attorneys and business services professionals each devoted an average of 76 hours to pro bono efforts, and over the past 15 years, our personnel firmwide have contributed nearly three million hours. Considered on their own, those efforts would make Skadden one of the nation’s leading pro bono service providers — in addition, of course, to being a preeminent law firm.
Our Approach and Our Work
Our approach to pro bono service can be summarized as this: If we see a void, we draw our resources together to fill it. It may sound simple, but when you take a group of Skadden lawyers and arm them with that philosophy, you get great results.
Sometimes our individual efforts add up to something bigger collectively, such as the number of hours we dedicate to pro bono matters each year. Occasionally, what we create becomes more far-reaching than we could have imagined, like the Skadden Fellowship Foundation.
Through it all, we embrace the idea that pro bono service is a personal endeavor. So, what issues do you think are important? Where and how would you like to give back? What can we do to make it happen?
The Impact Project
Launched in 2012, the Impact Project is a cutting-edge collaboration that combines Skadden’s experience with that of leading legal aid organizations and in-house lawyers to achieve a critical pro bono mass. The first-of-its-kind initiative aims to make pro bono outreach more efficient by creating partnerships where each group can bring its unique skillset to the table.
This groundbreaking endeavor frequently has been recognized, including by the Pro Bono Institute, which awarded Skadden the 2014 John H. Pickering Award, and the “Innovative Lawyers” report, which gave Skadden the top score in its social responsibility category for our work on this project.
Immediate Impact
Summer associates at Skadden are encouraged to work on pro bono matters they care about while being mentored and supported by attorneys and business services professionals at the firm and experts at legal services organizations. In 2024, our summer associates contributed more than 5,000 hours working on more than 200 pro bono matters.
Corporate Partnerships
Skadden regularly partners with its clients around the globe on shared-value pro bono and community service work, both by engaging in joint legal services efforts and providing a range of administrative, logistical and program development support for our clients’ pro bono and charitable endeavors. To date, our firm has partnered with more than 30 clients on a variety of programs.
We share our clients’ commitment to public service and welcome the opportunity to collaborate in creating more access to justice through limited-scope and longer-term projects. Our partnerships with our clients on pro bono work are designed to create opportunities that are impactful and serve our clients’ corporate responsibility goals and the needs of our communities.