Community Service and Charitable Giving
In addition to the pro bono services Bingham provides, our lawyers and staff members devote a significant amount of time and resources to improving the quality of life of underserved children and families in the regions where we work and live.
In order to maximize the impact of our efforts, we focus on four major areas critical to children’s successful development: organizations that provide legal services for the poor, innovative after-school programs, primary and secondary education, and arts and culture. Some recent initiatives include:
- In 2009, lawyers and staff in 12 of Bingham’s offices donated more than 2,100 backpacks to local school children as part of the firm’s annual Backpack Project, which helps homeless children get ready for the new school year.
- Attorneys in Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco have assisted inner-city middle school and high school students with local mock trial programs, designed to expose young people to the legal profession with the hope that some of them will pursue law as a career — perhaps at Bingham.
- Bingham was the initial and lead law firm to support the Boston Citizen Schools Eighth Grade Academy program, in which lawyers act as writing coaches for 8th grade students, most of whom are students of color.
- We have instituted a reading program in several of our offices in which attorneys and staff travel to inner-city elementary schools on a weekly or biweekly basis, to read with children.
- Bingham launched and sponsored the Ready Set Read!!! Community Book Drive, in which the Hartford office partnered with the Greater Hartford Literacy Council to provide 8,000 children’s books to Hartford-area literacy programs in predominantly inner-city and low-income areas.
- The Boston office has partnered with the National Braille Press to ensure the availability of Braille children's books. The firm sponsors book production and lawyers, staff and summer associates assist with the collation of books throughout the year.
- Our San Francisco office participated in the "Food from the Bar" program, contributing 500 pounds of food and almost $20,000, the largest donation by a Bay Area law firm.
- When our summer associates opt to attend casual lunches with our lawyers instead of the typical expensive summer lunches, the firm contributes the incremental savings to charity in our "Spend A Little, Give A Lot" program. This summer, the firm donated more than $14,000 to The Forgotten International.