R. Robert Popeo Andrew R. Urban Robert I. Bodian Susan M. Finegan Chairman Vice Chairman Managing Member Chair, Pro Bono Committee Dear friends and colleagues, Throughout 2009, nearly 350 attorneys and staff members at Mintz Levin participated in a variety of pro bono matters.We’re enormously proud of all of their efforts, and we thank them for their work. This year, we’re especially proud to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Mintz Levin’s Domestic Violence Project. For our two decades of dedication to this issue, the firm was honored with the Boston Bar Associa- tion’s Thurgood Marshall Award. It says something special about our firm that this program was started by two first-year associates. It’s even more significant that our strategic commitment to addressing domestic violence—an effort that has expanded across several of our offices—has allowed us to assist more than 750 victims; represent dozens of shelters, counseling agencies, and organizations providing support services; and draft appellate and amicus briefs over the years. When this award was announced,Navjeet K.Bal,one of the founders of the project and now Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Revenue, took time to reflect on what this program has meant to her:  I remember so clearly how supportive the Pro Bono Committee and indeed the whole firm was when Kathy Pawlowski and I started the DomesticViolence Project. No one ever told us to slow down or scale back or lower our sights. Indeed, lawyers from across the firm signed on to help us. Its success belongs to the many Mintz Levin attorneys who have guided it and shaped it over the years, and to the firm as a whole for incorporating the DomesticViolence Project into its very DNA. Throughout the years, we’ve stayed true to our original mission of helping and supporting survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. As you’ll read later in this journal,Mintz Levin worked for more than seven years to amend Massachusetts law to allow more victims of stalking, sexual assault, and harassment to obtain criminally enforceable protective orders against their perpetrators.There could have been no better way to celebrate our 20-year milestone than to be present this past February when this legislation was signed into law. Recently, our collective work on this legislation has received national recognition. In August, the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service will honor Mintz Levin with its 2010 Pro Bono Publico Award. Our firm was chosen to receive this award for“helping to enhance the human dignity of others by improving or delivering volunteer legal services to our nation’s poor and disadvantaged.” Of course, we don’t do this work for honors, but for the honor of serving our communities and the people in them who need our help.We look forward to continuing this journey in the years to come.