“A Pro Bono Powerhouse”
Dinsmore is dedicated to being a good corporate citizen by serving the communities in which we live and work. Our desire to help others is rooted in the professional responsibility of attorneys to provide legal services to those who cannot afford adequate legal representation. Our attorneys enjoy serving the community and appreciate having the opportunity to use their training, experience, and skills to provide pro bono legal services. As a result of their involvement, our attorneys are afforded invaluable personal and professional development opportunities.
The American Lawyer magazine recently named Dinsmore & Shohl as one of the nation's top pro bono firms. The rankings were based on the nation's 200 highest-grossing firms, ranked by their pro bono score.
For more than two decades, our attorneys have represented hundreds of clients through the Volunteer Lawyers for the Poor, a program established by the Legal aid Society of Cincinnati (VLP). Alan Abes, a partner in the firm's Litigation Department, has been the firm's pro bono coordinator since July 2002. In that capacity, he accepts case referrals from VLP on behalf of the firm, and assigns those cases to the more than 50 Dinsmore & Shohl attorneys who have volunteered to represent low-income clients on a pro bono basis. The firm has been one of VLP's strongest supporters since the agency's inception, representing low-income clients in a variety of areas, including eviction, tax and child custody disputes. Our attorneys have participated in the development and supervision of Wills and Estate Planning Clinics sponsored by the VLP. Through Abes's leadership, the firm has expanded its commitment to include representation of all Hamilton County residents seeking an expungement of a criminal record through the VLP. Since 2008, Dinsmore & Shohl attorneys have worked to secure a better future for 179 individuals seeking an expungement from the Courts. In support of Dinsmore & Shohl's pro bono work, the firm recently was honored by VLP with the Volunteer Lawyer of the Year Award.
In another significant pro bono matter, nine Dinsmore attorneys accepted appointments and wrote briefs for volunteer appellate work in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Scott Fruechtemeyer is leading the firm's effort to provide pro bono legal services to non-profit organizations, through which we have recently provided services to a Lincoln Heights housing cooperative, assisting such organizations with the fundamentals of corporate governance.
Dinsmore provides a hotline to all newspapers in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The newspapers are able to call the "hotline" number to ask questions ranging from advertisements that may be printed to questions regarding the content of a story. In addition, the Chairman of our First Amendment & Media Law practice routinely provides counsel to small community newspapers on matters ranging from appeals to open meetings. He has donated approximately 200 hours over the past 12 months.