DLA Piper's commitment to pro bono work is unparalleled and every lawyer is expected to make a serious and sustained commitment to pro bono work. In 2009, the firm devoted over 140,000 hours to pro bono, over 5% of its billable time, and averaged 80 pro bono hours per lawyer. It also created its own nonprofit organization, New Perimeter, to engage exclusively in large global humanitarian, economic development and rule of law projects. The firm received the American Bar Association's Pro Bono Publico Award in 2008 for its commitment to pro bono legal services and innovative signature project model. Every lawyer has a professional responsibility to provide free legal services to poor people, organizations that serve the indigent, and to perform other work that benefits the community. As a global law firm, our responsibility is not just to each of the cities or countries where we have offices, but to the world community as well.

 The firm supports this commitment by:

• Encouraging all lawyers to perform pro bono work of their choice.
• Requiring all attorneys to perform at least 20 pro bono hours each year.
• Recognizing up to 100 hours of associate pro bono time as equivalent to billable hours for all purposes.
• Specially recognizing extraordinary pro bono contributions by partners/of counsel, senior associates, junior associates, and staff/paralegals each year.
• Providing a full-service pro bono program, including: (1) a full-time Pro Bono Partner and four full-time Pro Bono Counsel, all of whom are attorneys, as well as local Pro Bono Partners who dedicate time to the program; (2) at least one partner or of counsel who act as the Pro Bono Coordinators in each of our offices; and (3) a firmwide Pro Bono Committee and several local pro bono committees in our various offices.