History

Our attorneys, paralegals, law clerks, summer associates and support staff continue a tradition and history of community service and pro bono work that has been integral to our firm since 1922.

Across the decades, there have been many examples of our attorneys donating counsel. Firm founder George Leonard represented Minneapolis newsboys in the late 1920s in their efforts to obtain better wages. In the following decades, Ben and Amos Deinard were instrumental in establishing and supporting community organizations, such as the Minnesota Society for Prevention of Blindness and the Minneapolis Federation for Jewish Service. In the early 1950s, Sidney Lorber represented the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in a highly publicized campaign that resulted in enforcement of an executive order requiring the desegregation of the armed forces.

In the 1960s Allen Saeks founded "Children and the Law," a Minnesota-wide program that brought attorneys, judges and law enforcement officers into classrooms to provide children with a better understanding of the law and the judicial system. Mr. Saeks was also instrumental in founding the Minnesota Public Interest Research Group, and played a central role in establishing the Interest on Lawyers' Trust Account program, this model is now used nationwide to make money available for legal services programs. In the late 1980s and into the 1990s, a team of our attorneys represented death row inmate, Alvin Scott Lloyd, in a successful effort to vacate his death penalty sentence.

A number of our attorneys have been instrumental in significant environmental pro bono work. Before joining the firm, some of our attorneys helped establish and protect the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and worked to secure $1.2 million of funding from the Minnesota legislature for the construction of Ely's International Wolf Center.

In recent years, many of our lawyers have stepped forward to carry on the work of our founders. Jane Godfrey, Mary Schwind and Keith Moheban head up the firm's family law pro bono program. Blake Shepard and Dan Palmquist lead our pro bono efforts in the public benefits and immigration areas.

These examples indicate the depth and breadth of our commitment and tradition. Pro bono service is part of our firm's identity. It fulfills our obligation and desire to, and participate in, the community — and to help assist those in need.