JGL Awarded Prestigious Pro Bono Award for Service to Community

Joseph, Greenwald & Laake, P.A., was awarded the Law Firm Pro Bono Award by the Community Legal Services of Prince George’s County at an award ceremony on April 21, 2007. In making the presentation, the CLS President cited the Firm’s long-standing commitment to Community Legal Service, both financially and through public service. In particular, the President noted the Firm’s sponsorship of the Pro Bono Family Law Clinic, established in 2000 under the mentorship of Barbara Jorgenson, one of the Firm’s senior partners in its family practice group. The Clinic has met the first Saturday of each month and handled scores of cases for CLS. The Clinic is currently revising the family law training manual for new Clinic participants and is holding a seminar on contempt cases in early June.

In accepting the award for the Firm, Ms. Jorgenson pointed out the Firm’s other community service contributions. “Fred Joseph started the ball rolling,” said Ms. Jorgenson, “when he fought the county when it tried to shut down the guy with the barbeque truck on Route 1.” Since that time, the Firm’s pro bono projects have ranged from advice to the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, to obtaining an injunction to stop trappers from using steel traps to catch coyotes, to fighting evictions, to preparing tax returns for low income citizens, to providing legal advice to local mental health associations, to defending an abused spouse in creditor suits.

“The Firm’s commitment to pro bono service starts at the top and runs down through the ranks,” said Ms. Jorgenson. Not only does the Firm give its associates billable credit for 100 hours of pro bono service, the Firm’s most senior partners are actually doing pro bono too.