Pro bono and other community service activities are an important professional responsibility. Vinson & Elkins subscribes to the American Bar Association Code of Professional Responsibility core principles that "the basic responsibility for providing legal services for those unable to pay ultimately rests upon the individual lawyer" and that "[e]very lawyer, regardless of professional prominence or professional workload, should find time to participate in serving the disadvantaged." The commitment to pro bono work and civic/community involvement is supported by the firm's management committee and the entire partnership.

The firm has engaged in a number of activities reflecting that commitment. First, the firm treats all attorney time spent working on pro bono issues, on all firmwide reports, as billable time that has been reported, billed, and collected at standard hourly rates. Pro bono and civic/community involvement are among the factors considered in evaluation and compensation decisions.

Second, two active committees—one with partner and associate members; the other with only associate members—regularly review firm policies and practices in order to develop means of encouraging pro bono involvement by and providing pro bono opportunities to interested firm personnel. To facilitate these efforts, the firm adopted a Pro Bono Manual listing all pertinent policies and procedures and many pro bono organizations seeking volunteer assistance. The Manual is available on-line to all firm personnel.

Finally, the firm supports the pro bono activities of firm personnel to ensure that firm pro bono clients receive quality representation.

The commitment of firm personnel to pro bono and community service work is reflected by the extensiveness and diversity of our pro bono and civic activities. In 2000, for example, firm lawyers provided more than 33,116 hours (an average of about 50 hours per lawyer) of free legal services on matters as diverse as family law, juvenile law, criminal defense and appeals, habeas appeals, death penalty litigation, social security and pension benefits, tax assistance (obtaining tax exempt status, drafting bylaws, giving advice), landlord/tenant disputes, political asylum, civil rights (e.g., challenge to minority voter intimidation, at-large judicial election challenge, first amendment issues), environmental law, mental health assistance to the elderly, bankruptcy, and mediation. In addition, firm lawyers serve on the boards of more than 300 business, charitable, educational, governmental, and professional organizations throughout the United States. Vinson & Elkins actively supports the arts and numerous pro bono, civic, and charitable organizations through financial contributions and generous donations of pro bono legal services. We strive diligently to be great citizens as well as great lawyers.

—Joseph C. Dilg
Managing Partner

Pro Bono Service
The following list provides a sampling of the pro bono activities in which we participate:

• The Texas offices received the State Bar's 2001 W. Frank Newton Award, which recognizes outstanding pro bono legal services by a group of attorneys in Texas.
  
  
• Houston and Austin office attorneys defended the use by the University of Texas School of Law of affirmative action in its admissions procedure.
  
  
• Houston office attorneys helped to organize and are active in the Houston Volunteer Lawyers Program, which provides volunteer lawyers to handle civil matters for low-income clients and a tax clinic to assist in tax return preparation. In 1993, 1996 and 2000, the firm received the Houston Bar Foundation's Annual Large Firm Award for pro bono work performed through the Houston Volunteer Lawyers Program, and has twice received the National Business Committee for the Arts' Business in the Arts Award (the only law firm ever to have received the award). In addition, Houston office attorneys help a variety of nonprofit groups obtain state and federal tax exemption.
  
  
• Austin office attorneys are active in the Volunteer Legal Services of Central Texas family law clinic, in which attorneys represent underprivileged clients in the Travis County Bar Association's pro bono program, and in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas appointment program. The Austin office has received the Pro Bono Award from the Volunteer Legal Services of Central Texas five times since 1991.
  
  
• Dallas office attorneys accept court-appointed representation of indigents as participants on the Criminal Justice Act Voluntary Attorney Panel and referrals from Legal Services of North Texas, Trinity Ministry to the Poor, and Pro Bono, Inc. Additionally, they help staff the south Dallas legal clinic of Legal Services of North Texas and participate in Dallas Bar Association community service programs.
  
  
• Working through Texas Accountants and Lawyers for the Arts, attorneys in our Dallas and Houston offices have assisted nonprofit arts organizations and artists with a variety of arts-related legal requests.
  
  
• Washington office attorneys frequently have undertaken pro bono representation through Legal Counsel for the Elderly and the local Legal Aid Society. One of the Washington partners is Vice President of the Legal Aid Society, and another sits on the Board of Legal Counsel for the Elderly. Washington office attorneys have also become active in evaluating human rights compliance in various countries.
  
  
• Attorneys in our Austin office volunteer their time to Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts, handling a variety of matters, including contracts, copyright and trademark, partnerships, business formation, nonprofit status, intellectual property, employment rights, bankruptcy, and pre-litigation dispute resolution.

Other Civic and Community Service
Realizing that its people are its most valuable resource, Vinson & Elkins is committed to encouraging attorneys and other firm personnel to be involved volunteers in their communities. Through their personal efforts, firm employees strengthen the ties that bind our local and national communities and promote the development of individuals who make up those communities. Firm lawyers and other firm personnel serve on the boards of more than 300 business, charitable, educational, governmental and professional organizations. Click here to see a sample listing of the diverse organizations and programs to which firm lawyers contribute their time and personal efforts.

Vinson & Elkins has a strong history of support for the arts. Firm attorneys support numerous arts organizations and projects through volunteerism, financial contributions, and generous donations of pro bono legal services. Organizations for which the firm has provided legal services in the recent past include the Alley Theatre in Houston, the Houston Grand Opera, Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., the Holocaust Museum Houston, the Houston Ballet, Theatre Under the Stars, Austin Lyric Opera, the Houston Museum of Natural Science, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. Additionally, many of the firm's lawyers serve as officers or board members for local arts organizations, including the Austin Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the Houston Ballet, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

In recognition of our demonstrated commitment to support for the arts, Vinson & Elkins received the prestigious Business in the Arts Award given by Forbes magazine and New York's Business Committee for the Arts, founded by David Rockefeller in 1967. We are the only law firm to have received this honor twice.

In 1992, for example, the firm provided pro bono legal services in connection with the corporate formation and tax exemption of the Holocaust Education Center and Memorial Museum of Houston, Inc. Since then, the firm has represented the Museum on a pro bono basis on issues such as tax exemption, and design and construction contracts.

In addition, the firm participated on a reduced fee basis in the negotiation and development of the Houston Music Hall Foundation's project to build the new Hobby Performing Arts Center.

In 1993, firm attorneys spearheaded an initiative to secure additional revenue for the arts in the form of hotel/motel tax allocations. These efforts culminated in an agreement by the City of Houston to increase hotel/motel tax allocations for the arts. Legislative specialists in the firm's Austin office assisted in securing approval for this funding arrangement from the Texas Legislature. As a result of these efforts, Houston arts organizations are now receiving additional public funding of approximately $1,200,000 annually. Firm attorneys have represented arts organizations in all types of labor matters, including the negotiation and application of collective bargaining agreements, coordination of employee benefits, and investigation and resolution of employee disputes.

Public Interest Split Summer Program
The firm is pleased to participate in the Public Interest Split Summer Program beginning in the Summer of 2005. The firm requires that the first half of the summer be spent in one of our offices, and the second half at a public interest organization approved by the firm and in the same city as the summer associate's clerkship. The firm will sponsor two Vinson & Elkins summer associates for the Public Interest Split Summer Program. During the second half of the summer while the student works at the public interest organization, Vinson & Elkins will continue to pay the student the Vinson & Elkins weekly summer associate salary for a maximum of six weeks.

Vinson & Elkins is pleased to announce that Marie Lopez, The University of Texas '06, who will be clerking in our Austin office, has been selected as one of the firm's first Public Interest Split Summer interns. Marie anticipates working with Advocacy, Inc. and/or ARC, two Austin agencies that provide legal services to the developmentally disabled.

If you have any questions or are interested in this opportunity for the summer of 2006, please notify Jena Ehlinger, Attorney Employment Specialist, at jehlinger@velaw.com.

Organizations and Programs
The following list is but a sample of the diverse organizations and programs to which employees of the firm have contributed their time and personal efforts:

American Association of Retired Persons (AARP)
American Cancer Society
American Heart Association
American Legion Boys State
American Red Cross
Anti-Defamation League
Asia House
Asia Society
Austin Accountants and Lawyers for the Arts
Austin Civic Chorus
Back-to-Basics Learning Center
Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Metropolitan
Dallas, Inc.
Boy Scouts of America
Boys & Girls Club
Catholic Charities Immigration Counseling
Service
Central Texas Legal Aid Society
Children's Assessment Center
Chinati Foundation
Christ Church Cathedral
Covenant House
Cullen Foundation
D.C. Coalition Against Domestic Violence
DePelchin Children’s Center
Dispute Resolution Center
Economic Club of Washington
End Hunger Network
Friends of R Street
Greater Houston Partnership
Gulf Coast Legal Foundation
Habitat for Humanity
Holocaust Education Center
Houston Area Women’s Center
Houston Ballet
Houston Food Bank
Houston Humane Society
Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo
Houston Museum of Natural Science
Houston SPCA
Houston Taping for the Blind
Interfaith CarePartners
Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas
Junior Achievement
Junior League
Kid-Care
Latino Learning Center
Leadership Houston
Legal Aid Society
March of Dimes
Meals on Wheels
Medical Bridges, Inc.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
NAACP
National Center for Missing and Exploited
Children
National Trust for Historic Preservation
Nature Conservancy of Texas
Neighborhood Centers, Inc.
Operation Crackdown
Planned Parenthood of Houston
Retina Research Foundation
Rice University
Ronald McDonald House
Stehlin Foundation for Cancer Research
Teach for America
Teen Celibacy, Inc.
Texas Accountants and Lawyers for the Arts
Texas CASA
Texas Children's Hospital
Texas Civil Justice League
Texas Community Building with Attorney Resources (Texas C-Bar)
Texas Special Olympics State Games
United Negro College Fund
United Way
World Foundation for AIDS Research
YMCA
YWCA

Vinson & Elkins' Pro Bono Committees
Vinson & Elkins has established a Pro Bono Committee and a Pro Bono Advisory Committee in each of its United States offices. These committees regularly review firm policies and practices in order to develop means of encouraging pro bono involvement by and providing pro bono opportunities to interested firm personnel. Members of the firm's Pro Bono Committee are:

William E. Lawler III (Chair)
Scott W. Breedlove
N. Scott Fletcher
Jay Howell Hebert (Mgt Com Liaison)
Karen L. Hirschman
Patricia Hunt Holmes
Jay D. Kelley
Michael D. Marin
Steven R. Paradise
Sandra G. Rodriguez
J. Brian Sokolik

Members of our Pro Bono Advisory Committee are:

Carolyn Gutierrez Bartelli
Kimberly A. Frost
David E. Hawkins
James Edward Mutrie III
Donald P. Roark
Christopher R. Rowley
Emilia A. Simonelli
Shai Wade