Pro bono representation and access to justice for underserved individuals and organizations are built into our lawyers’ careers. Practice with Purpose Giving back is critical to our mission, and Choate is committed to playing an active and generous role in our community through our robust pro bono legal services program. Through our pro bono legal work, we enable individuals to seek justice and opportunity, provide nonprofit organizations the tools they need to effect change, and support the economic development of underserved communities. Pro bono is built into our lawyers’ careers from the day they join us as summer associates and remains an important part of their lives as associates and then as partners. We consider pro bono legal work to be a privilege as well as an individual and institutional responsibility. Choate is proud to donate thousands of hours to pro bono legal services every year. By working together with organizations in the community, Choate lawyers advance access to justice for individuals and nonprofit organizations while building their legal skills through pro bono client service. Among those organizations are the Lawyers Clearinghouse; the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice; the Political Asylum/Immigration Representation Project; the Committee for Public Counsel Service; the Center for Women in Enterprise; and the New England Innocence Project. Choate’s Pro Bono Committee reviews the Firm’s program on a regular basis and considers adding new organizations, such as, for example, a pilot program with Veterans Legal Services of Boston. Lawyers Clearinghouse Choate works together with the Lawyers Clearinghouse to conduct legal clinics for indigent clients seeking pro bono legal advice and to provide follow-up representation where appropriate. These services address a broad range of issues such as Social Security disability proceedings, landlord/tenant disputes, evictions, subsidized housing appeals, and other benefit appeals or overpayment issues. The Lawyers Clearinghouse began CORI sealing clinics in 2020, and Choate works with the organization to conduct these clinics as well, helping clients assess their Massachusetts criminal records and petition to seal records. Through the Lawyers Clearinghouse, Choate attorneys also may select to provide pro bono advice to certain nonprofit organizations on formation and governance issues, including internal controls and procedures, employment, tax or fundraising issues, and dispute resolution. By way of example, Choate associates obtained a critical victory for a pro bono client in securing supplemental security income (SSI) benefits both going forward and retroactively for the prior two years. The client met with Choate at a Lawyers Clearinghouse clinic after the Social Security Administration (SSA) denied his application for SSI benefits. The client has suffered from severe anemia, chronic kidney disease and other related physical impairments and struggles significantly with the day-to-day impact of his medical conditions. The Firm represented the client in appealing the SSA’s decision, including an adversary hearing, and obtained a fully favorable decision. As a result, the client now receives monthly SSI benefits on a going-forward basis, as well as back pay benefits dating to the time he initially became disabled. These benefits provide critical support for the client’s day-to-day needs as he endeavors to manage his disability. Political Asylum/Immigration Representation Project (PAIR) Choate participates in the PAIR Project’s Asylum Program, which represents, on a pro bono basis, indigent asylum-seekers who have fled their countries after suffering serious harms. The goal of the Program is to secure safety for clients who have sought to exercise freedoms such as freedom of speech and assembly or the right to practice their religion. By way of example, through PAIR, Choate assumed the pro bono representation of a political asylum seeker from Uganda who had suffered past prosecution and had a well-founded fear of prosecution on account of her membership in a particular social group. The client also suffered physical and emotional abuse by her husband, who had strong ties to authorities in Uganda. While temporarily in the United States on a family visit, Choate’s client fled from her husband and sought asylum. After five years, Choate and PAIR were able to secure asylum for our client, enabling her to remain in this country where she now works as a nurse, is engaged in her church and has a path to citizenship. Committee for Public Counsel Service (CPCS) Choate handles selected cases on referral from the Youth Advocacy Division (“YAD”) of CPCS and the EdLaw Project (a partnership between the YAD, the Children & Family Division of CPCS, and the Children’s Law Center of Massachusetts) working with students and their families. Often students with special needs are entitled to receive individualized services, but advocacy can help their parents make sure that the services are provided. Choate provides pro bono education advocacy for needy students across a range of circumstances, including some who are facing disciplinary measures. Center for Women in Enterprise (CWE) Choate supports CWE by providing pro bono legal services to entrepreneurs (primarily women) and by staffing clinic-style office hours at which business owners seek assistance regarding formation, contract and governance issues. Thereafter, Choate attorneys may engage in more comprehensive and longer-term engagements with business owners, advising on a range of more complex, later-stage business issues. By way of example, through CWE, Choate is proud to have provided pro bono legal services to a female U.S. Air Force Veteran, to help her start a now popular local coffee shop in Boston. Choate helped address initial legal and organizational concerns and financing needs. The café launched and thrived. New England Innocence Project (NEIP) Choate works together with the NEIP to conduct case reviews of potential clients in support of NEIP’s mission to correct and prevent wrongful convictions and to fight injustice in the criminal legal system. Choate’s case reviews and analyses aid NEIP in determining whether the case warrants deeper consideration. From time-to-time Choate also provides advice to NEIP regarding legal issues and strategy considerations for the organization. Choate participated in the 2025 Walk to the Hill for Civil Legal Aid in support of increased funding for civil legal aid in Massachusetts Community Service is a Core Commitment Choate has been privileged to receive invaluable support and opportunities from the communities in which we live and work. We don’t take those privileges for granted. We are profoundly grateful, and we are committed to giving back by actively supporting our communities in a variety of ways. As one example of Choate’s support for community, throughout the year, on a rotating basis, the Firm sends one associate to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office to act as a Special ADA in the Boston Municipal Court. Choate Special ADAs carry a diverse criminal case load at the DA’s Office and are responsible for covering arraignments, pre-trial, and trial sessions at the court. Choate Special ADAs provide pro bono legal service to Suffolk County by arguing motions, conducting trials, negotiating with defense counsel, working with victims and law enforcement representatives, preparing witnesses, and appearing before judges on a daily basis. In addition to donating, annually, thousands of hours for pro bono legal services, Choate and our partners also give back to our communities by, every year, providing significant financial support and thousands of hours of volunteer time to a wide spectrum of worthwhile community and charitable organizations. Click to view the complete list.