The American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service chose to launch Pro Bono Week because of the increasing need for pro bono services during these harsh economic times and the unprecedented response of attorneys to meet this demand. The National Pro Bono Celebration can be an effective strategic tool for enhancing and expanding local efforts to increase access to justice for all.

Here in Minnesota, Pro Bono Week provides an opportunity for the legal profession and the larger community to focus on the important service provided by pro bono lawyers. Throughout the week, legal aid providers schedule opportunities to serve clients, train attorneys, and recognize service. On Wednesday, October 26 (12 p.m.) at the Minnesota CLE Center in Minneapolis, the Minnesota State Bar Association will host its annual Pro Bono CLE, the signature statewide event for the week. This year’s topic is “The Criminalization of Poverty,” featuring a keynote by Nusrat Choudhury from the ACLU Racial Justice Project in New York, as well as a panel of local legal and community experts. Registration information for this event, as well as a full schedule of events around Minnesota for the week, are available at www.projusticemn.org/calendar.

"We are bound by a responsibility to use our unique skills and training - not just to advance cases, but to serve a cause; and to help our nation fulfill its founding promise of equal justice under law...The obligation of pro bono service must become a part of the DNA of both the legal profession and of every lawyer."
- Attorney General Eric Holder

Read Attorney General Eric Holder's address to participants at the National Pro Bono Summit on October 24, 2011 in Washington, D.C.