Corporate/Client Partnerships

For Our Legal System to Be Healthy, We Need Good Access to Justice”

Partnering with our clients is a critical way that we maximize resources for justice and magnify our impact. We’re honored to work shoulder-to-shoulder with clients including Amazon, Microsoft, and Starbucks, and to have the legal leaders at all three companies share their thoughts about the importance of this partnership.

Joining With Microsoft to Protect Journalism

Journalism is essential to a robust and enduring democracy. Yet journalists and newsrooms are facing unprecedented economic headwinds, as well as a hostile U.S. political environment and ongoing attempts by powerful interests to silence reporting through litigation.

Recognizing the need to support the media’s vital mission, Microsoft and DWT launched a first-of-its-kind partnership to make free legal services available to reporters and small media organizations, especially those serving diverse and “news desert” communities.

Launched as a pilot in October 2020, the Protecting Journalists Program (PJP) is initially serving clients in Washington and California. The program has engaged several organizations—including the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the First Amendment Coalition, and the Washington Coalition for Open Government—to screen and refer potential clients.

Since launch, the PJP team has collaborated on more than a dozen matters that supported important news coverage nationally. In some cases, these stories might not have seen the light of day were it not for the legal assistance provided. As one example, a team of PJP attorneys provided pre-publication review for a journalist who wrote an article exposing a corrupt city government official. The story garnered national attention, and the official was forced to step down as a result of the article.

The program taps the entrepreneurial spirit of Microsoft’s pro bono program, where big thinking and new initiatives are encouraged, and the media expertise and commitment to client pro bono partnerships of DWT. At least one Microsoft and one DWT attorney staff each matter, allowing the in-house counsel to learn the ropes from our group and expanding the number of legal professionals equipped to assist with this vital work.

With a sophisticated, easy-to-plug-into process in place and a robust network of partners, PJP is positioned to achieve its goal of scaling up further and taking referrals from organizations nationwide.

Guiding the Creation of In-House Pro Bono Programs Around the Country

In addition to our direct pro bono work, our team is dedicated to expanding equal-justice resources for everyone by helping our clients launch effective, compliant pro bono programs of their own.

Last year we held our second annual Pro Bono Summit, in which more than 200 participants from companies around the country logged in to make connections with some of the biggest players in corporate pro bono and to get detailed guidance on how to do pro bono in-house.

Our program brought together companies with sophisticated pro bono programs—such as Amazon, Discover Financial, Microsoft, and T-Mobile—and those seeking to get started. Idea exchange and honest dialogue followed.

The event also included panel presentations on national opportunities to help with racial equity and COVID-19related work. Attendees came away with a better understanding of how to avoid liability, increase opportunity, and get their colleagues engaged in the effort.

In addition, we created tailored CLEs on pro bono for several of our major clients. Joanna Plichta Boisen, our chief pro bono and social impact officer, and DWT partner Bruce E. H. Johnson, an expert on legal ethics, talked about what counts toward pro bono, how to get involved, malpractice issues, engagement letters, corporate partnerships, and more.