McConnell Valdés LLC recognizes that an important component of the practice of law is the responsibility to provide legal services to persons and entities of limited means. Since its very beginnings, McConnell Valdés has offered its resources to community and charitable organizations in Puerto Rico. In addition, the firm encourages its employees to engage in volunteer work with community organizations.
In 2006, continuing the long-standing tradition of giving back to the community and in honor of the firm's 60th Anniversary, the firm formalized the McConnell Valdés Pro Bono Program.
Our program offers transactional and legal advisory services to not-for-profit organizations serving persons of limited means or where the payment of legal fees would significantly deplete the organization's economic resources. The firm has established a partnership with United Way of Puerto Rico and Puerto Rico Community Foundation to provide legal services to its member organizations and grantees. To that end, the firm provides direct legal services and seminars on various topics relevant to the establishment and the management of not-for-profit organizations.
As part of the program, the firm's attorneys provide pro bono legal services in the following areas:
- Not-for-profit Corporations Law
- Corporate Governance
- Real Estate Law
- Contracts
- Employment Law
- Not-for-profit Tax Law
- Intellectual Property Law
In addition to the partnerships with United Way of Puerto Rico and Puerto Rico Community Foundation, McConnell Valdés has established other community partnerships. For instance, the firm joined forces with the University of Puerto Rico School of Law to promote pro bono work among law firms in Puerto Rico and to support pro bono programs as part of a legal education.
McConnell Valdés encourages all its attorneys to participate in the Pro Bono Program. Summer associates have actively participated in the Pro Bono Program as well. Associates receive billable hour credit for time spent on pro bono matters. The Pro Bono Committee has also enlisted several senior attorneys of the firm and high-ranking executives of firm clients to prepare training modules for the firm's associates, with respect to areas of the law relevant to the establishment and management of not-for-profit organizations. These modules have been successfully incorporated into the firm's professional development program.
Awards and Memberships
In 2007 the Puerto Rico Bar Association awarded McConnell Valdés the President's Special Award for the Pro Bono Program, in particular for the firm's collaboration with the Puerto Rico Bar Association and Puerto Rico's Office of the Attorney for Women's Issues in an extradition case where the firm represented an indigent mother fighting for the custody of her daughters, one of them disabled.
The firm is also a member of the Law Firm Pro Bono Project of the Pro Bono Institute, a not-for-profit organization housed at the Georgetown Law Center in Washington, DC. Since 2006, members of the Pro Bono Committee have participated in the Pro Bono Institute's Annual Seminar. This seminar provides an invaluable opportunity for the members of the Pro Bono Committee to learn from other law firm's best practices and keep up to date with new developments in the delivery of pro bono legal services in the United States.
As the the Lex Mundi member for Puerto Rico the firm has been an active supporter and sponsor of the Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation since its inception.
For additional information on the McConnell Valdés Pro Bono Program, please contact Helen Salichs.
