In addition to providing direct pro bono legal services, Kramer Levin lawyers are involved in a wide range of community service activities that use their skills as lawyers, including service on nonprofit boards and with religious organizations, work on other activities of public interest and social service, and participation in mentoring and counseling programs.
Kramer Levin attorneys participate in several mentoring programs that draw on both their legal skills and their human touch. In the most active such program, Kramer Levin lawyers have worked for more than a decade with Legal Outreach Inc., a nonprofit educational organization that prepares New York public high school students from underserved communities for college and professional careers. In addition to providing one-on-one mentoring, the firm has for the past several years welcomed student interns from Legal Outreach who spend a week as Kramer Levin summer associates, learning about many of the firm’s practice areas, and preparing and delivering oral arguments in a “moot court” proceeding.
Kramer Levin attorneys have served as directors of a wide range of legal, social and cultural organizations, including the Legal Aid Society, the Coalition for the Homeless, The Fund for Modern Courts, Hudson Guild, St. Vincent’s Services, Northside Center for Child Development, the Jewish Community Relations Counsel and many others.
Kramer Levin participates in a number of firmwide projects that involve both lawyers and nonlawyers in service to the community, including the American Cancer Society’s Daffodil Days program, blood drives organized by the New York Blood Center, New York Cares’ Hands On New York Day, toy and coat drives for such organizations as the Thorpe Family Residence and the Coalition for the Homeless, and many other programs.
Involvement in pro bono and community service at Kramer Levin is broad — involving the majority of our lawyers — but it is also deep. In lieu of pro bono awards that single out only a few, we proudly salute all our colleagues who have built substantial pro bono and community service work into their busy professional lives.