Bass, Berry & Sims is committed to pursuing systemic change to address inequality, working with community and client partners to strengthen families, empower communities and protect civil rights.
Pro Bono Partnerships
We are proud to work with many of our clients on this important and life changing work. Our pro bono collaborations with clients include:
- From 2009 to 2024, we have partnered with AutoZone to staff annual legal clinics at the Orange Mound Senior Center, serving hundreds of seniors with essential legal advice and assisting with the preparation of healthcare directives, durable power of attorney forms, advance care plans and wills.
- In 2024, legal professionals from the firm and Bridgestone Americas, Inc. staffed Name Change Clinics in March and June at the Community Foundation for Middle Tennessee, drafting petitions for name change requests and advising more than 45 clients.
- We have joined professionals from CoreCivic to staff expungement clinics in Clarksville, Tennessee, where the clerk, district attorney, public defender and judges supported the on-site entry of orders, clearing criminal records for scores of qualified individuals.
- Since 2019, we have worked with the in-house legal team at Envision Healthcare and the Tennessee Innocence Project in an exoneration case in which multiple witnesses have come forward to testify our client did not commit the crime.
- We have partnered with Corebridge to provide legal support and resources to entrepreneurs building businesses in underserved communities.
In these collaborations the firm coordinates with community partners to organize projects and hosts CLE to support volunteer attorneys.
Our collaborations in pursuing systemic change involve more than 120 community organizations across the globe. In our work to strengthen families the firm partners with organizations to represent individuals in immigration matters, including asylum claims as featured in the video here, and claims for status for unaccompanied children; to represent families in administrative appeals of Supplemental Security Insurance benefit terminations; to represent parents to file for conservatorships to secure for their adult disabled children continued healthcare, education and housing.
We partner with local organizations to empower communities, like Harvest Hands Community Development Corporation, featured here, that support entrepreneurs working to bolster economic impact in historically under resourced neighborhoods, and PURE Academy, featured here, expanding educational opportunities to youth.
We protect civil rights in our collaboration with organizations like Tennessee Innocence Project and Choosing Justice Initiative, representing incarcerated individuals fighting wrongful convictions and challenging the constitutionality of life sentences imposed on juveniles. Our work for criminal system reform also includes a continuing challenge to the lethal injection protocols in Tennessee.
Read more about our pro bono experience here.
Pro Bono Commitment
A measure of our commitment is the more than 40,000 hours of pro bono that the firm has supported since 2022. The success of our commitment was recognized nationally in 2024 with the ABA Business Section’s National Public Service Award. In making the award the ABA noted:
As impressive as this (40,000 hours) is, it only scratches the surface of the firm’s impact, which can also be measured in the lives changed and communities transformed through their work . . . These activities not only address immediate legal needs but also contribute to systemic change by empowering underprivileged groups and supporting nonprofit missions aimed at community development and social change.
Get Involved
Our partnerships with clients and in-house legal teams are part of this success. As we expand on our success, we invite all interested alumni to work with us. To discuss how you can be involved individually in our work or to develop a pro bono project with us for your team, contact David Esquivel or Lucinda Smith.
Stay Informed
Read about our recent pro bono news at the link below and stay informed about our work for social justice by following us on X, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram to learn more. Here are some of our recent pro bono highlights:
Lucinda Smith Honored with Access to Justice Award
Ashleigh Karnell Profiled by Alma Mater in Recognition of Legal and Leadership Contributions
John Golwen Honored with TBA Harris Gilbert Pro Bono Attorney of the Year Award
Bass, Berry & Sims Receives 2024 ABA National Public Service Award
Law360 Article Examines Bass, Berry & Sims’ Three Wrongful Convictions Wins
