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Pro bono achievements will be recognizedThe ISBA Committee on Delivery of Legal Services has announced the winners of John C. McAndrews Pro Bono Service Awards that will be presented Friday, June 27, during the 132nd Annual Meeting in St. Louis. Honorees at the awards luncheon include a lawyer, a bar association and two law firms. The individual attorney being honored is Michael R. Mulcahy of Vedder Price, Chicago, for his participation in the Child Law Pro Bono Project of the Bluhm Legal Clinic’s Children and Family Justice Center at the Northwestern University School of Law. During the past year, Mulcahy has devoted more than 300 hours to indigent clients, mostly minors, and has been lead counsel in 12 cases. He chairs the law firm’s Pro Bono Committee and encourages commitment by other attorneys. A 1993 graduate of The John Marshall Law School, Mulcahy has served as both a prosecutor and defense counsel in Marine Corps proceedings. The McLean County Bar Association is the recipient of a McAndrews Award for maintaining a pro bono plan with Prairie State Legal Services that served 89 clients in the past year. Participating Bloomington-area lawyers contributed 919.65 hours of pro bono, and reduced a waiting list of more than 100 underserved clients to only 26, including new cases. The bar association also donated $7,500 to Prairie State’s Bloomington office, provided support and assistance to the Children’s Home and Aid Society, and conducted a five-session People’s Law School. Two law firms – Foley & Lardner of Chicago and SimmonsCooper of East Alton – will receive McAndrews Awards. Lawyers at Foley & Lardner have provided pro bono representation to 153 clients, totaling 9,104.5 hours, during the past year – more than double its average for the previous two years. Among the organizations they have assisted are the National Immigrant Justice Center, Lawyers for the Creative Arts, the Center for Disability and Elder Law, the Constitutional Rights Foundation, Chicago Volunteer Legal Services Foundation, Lawyers Committee for Better Housing, the Legal Aid Bureau, and AIDS Legal Council. SimmonsCooper lawyers have represented about 100 pro bono clients in the past year through an in-house program. Its major focus has been on a guardian ad litem program and with organizations that provide legal assistance to veterans of military service. Each attorney is trained in veterans’ assistance procedures to volunteer with programs such as St. Louis Stand Down, which helps homeless veterans. The firm also developed a memorandum of understanding between the St. Louis Department of Human Services and the Office of Veterans Affairs. Other honorees Also being honored during the ISBA awards luncheon Friday, June 27, in St. Louis are the following.
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