Zuckerman Spaeder LLP has a distinguished tradition of pro bono service. We offer our lawyers diverse opportunities to apply their talents and interests to fulfill our collective and individual obligations to counsel the poor and underrepresented. We seek to ensure equal justice under the law and each year our lawyers and other professionals volunteer thousands of hours of time to this end.
Many Zuckerman Spaeder attorneys bring public service experience to the firm. Among our ranks are former public defenders and prosecutors, public interest law group litigators, and a former social worker. Our pro bono clients benefit from the combined experience and dedication of these attorneys and their colleagues, who strive to meet the highest standards of pro bono service.
Skilled attorneys from across Zuckerman Spaeder’s practices bring their experience to bear on behalf of pro bono clients in cases spanning many different subject areas and courts, from local custody cases to Supreme Court briefs dealing with constitutional law. For example, a partner in the real estate practice assisted a low-income tenant association craft a deal with a developer and a bankruptcy partner chaired the court-sponsored steering committee that helped establish the program by which indigent individuals can receive pro bono representation for bankruptcy proceedings in Washington, DC. Zuckerman Spaeder also provides pro bono service in the areas of family and employment law.
Over the years our attorneys have provided post-conviction representation to four individuals on death row and pre-trial representation to one death-eligible defendant; of these clients, four had their death sentence or charge removed. Additionally, the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately determined, although not in time to save our mentally retarded client from execution, that the execution of a mentally retarded individual violates the “cruel and unusual” provision of the 8th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The firm also is active in representing individuals referred by the Innocence Project who claim innocence of the crime for which they have been convicted.
Our office in Washington, DC, is a signatory to the Pro Bono Challenge of the Pro Bono Institute and the District of Columbia Bar, through which we have pledged to invest in pro bono service time equivalent to at least 3 percent of attorney time on paying matters.
For more information please see our Pro Bono Practice.
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