35 Additional Pro Bono Highlights ACCESS TO JUSTICE COMMISSION Mintz has been at the forefront of promoting access to justice in Massachusetts. For several years, Pro Bono Committee Chair Sue Finegan has served as the co-chair of the Massachusetts Access to Justice Commission with the Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. The Commission provides leadership and vision on efforts to remove barriers to civil justice for low-income and disadvantaged people. As a notable example, the firm played a key role in launching the Access to Justice Fellows Program. Primarily the brainchild of Mintz’s Martha Koster and Sue Finegan, this innovative program pairs retired lawyers and judges with legal services organiza- tions, nonprofits, and the courts. Susan Gedrick serves as the program’s director at the Lawyers Clearinghouse, and Mintz project analyst Alex Blutman and former Mintz analyst Joanne Dynak have provided important support for the program as well. The fellows’ projects this past year included addressing criminal justice reform, serving political asylum clients, working with veterans, mentoring junior lawyers in an incubator serving low and moderate income clients, managing a court-based mediation program for the Probate and Family Court, and more. To date, 94 retired and retiring lawyers have devoted over 75,000 pro bono hours as part of the Fellows Program. ASSOCIATION OF CORPORATE COUNSEL – NORTHEAST Each year, Mintz hosts “Clinic in a Box,” an annual half-day pro bono program dedicated to providing legal advice for Boston- area nonprofits using dozens of pro bono in-house legal depart- ment volunteers. In the morning, Mintz attorneys train volunteer attorneys from various in-house legal departments on one or more legal subjects that will be relevant to local nonprofits looking for legal advice. Later, the volunteer attorneys are paired with a Boston-area nonprofit for a client counseling session. The volunteer attorneys review the client’s materials and answer questions. At the session’s conclusion, the nonprofit clients leave with their questions answered, guidance on how to proceed, and newly drafted materials as a starting point. (continued)