Pro Bono and Community Service

The legal community has an honorable tradition of using its skills for the benefit of society. Wildman Harrold embraces this heritage. Our encouragement of pro bono work has helped establish the firm’s reputation for community advocacy.

Wildman Harrold's Pro Bono Committee works to raise the profile and scope of pro bono opportunities related to the interests and skills of attorneys and staff. While Wildman Harrold has supported an active pro bono program for many years, in spring 2007 David Askew joined the firm as its first full-time Director of Pro Bono and Community Service. In addition to coordinating the firm's pro bono program, he also designs and manages a community service program that allows attorneys and staff to volunteer their time and resources in non-legal capacities.

The firm is involved in a wide variety of pro bono projects, emphasizing veterans’ benefits appeals, asylum, housing, and guardianship cases. Attorneys regularly represent low-income individuals in political asylum hearings, landlord-tenant disputes, and domestic relations matters. The firm supports agencies including the National Immigrant Justice Center, Chicago Volunteer Legal Services Foundation, Lawyers’ Committee for Better Housing, Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program in Washington, DC and the Veterans Rights Project of the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago, the Tax Assistance Program, and the Public Interest Law Initiative.

Wildman Harrold is a signatory to the Pro Bono Challenge of the Pro Bono Institute. This is a call to action for the Chicago legal community, encouraging annual contributions of pro bono legal services.