Kansas City — Kansas City attorneys currently represent abused or neglected children and juveniles charged with crimes in the Jackson County, Mo., Family Court, acting as guardians ad litem and helping grandparents obtain legal guardianships of their grandchildren. SHB attorneys have also completed more than 400 adoptions of foster children by foster parents. All fees paid by the state for these adoptions are donated to a scholarship fund that has awarded more than 80 scholarships totaling $110,000 in recent years. SHB received the Kansas Bar Association’s Pro Bono Award in 2001.

Houston — Through a long-standing commitment to the Houston Volunteer Lawyer Program, SHB attorneys have represented indigent clients in consumer protection matters, divorces and contract claims.

Miami — SHB’s Miami lawyers actively work with the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center on individual detainment and asylum cases and provide assistance on impact cases in an attempt to change the system. These attorneys are currently working on a case of first impression involving an abandoned minor whom the Department of Homeland Security wants to deport to Haiti. This is apparently the first time that the DHS has turned to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for a medical opinion to support a DHC deportation case.

Orange County — SHB attorneys participate in the Trial Attorney Partnership program with the Orange County, California, district attorney’s office. The program allows experienced trial attorneys to prosecute crimes on a pro bono basis at no additional cost to taxpayers.

San Francisco — SHB participates in Pets Are Wonderful Support (PAWS), a disability advocacy group that helps clients seek reasonable accommodations to allow them to keep companion pets in their homes.

Tampa — Tampa attorneys have successfully litigated important free speech cases and provide regular assistance to individuals and families in need throughout the Tampa Bay Area.

Washington, D.C. — Washington, D.C., pro bono activities include representing a Guantanamo detainee; helping a religiously-persecuted Cameroon national obtain U.S. asylum; representing a grandmother seeking custody of her grandchildren; helping a homeless individual obtain housing and other government assistance; and working with the D.C. attorney general to investigate and potentially prosecute a case involving the exploitation of immigrant workers.

Missouri Lawyers Weekly highlighted SHB's scholarship funds, including the Kansas Foster and Adoptive Children Scholarship Fund and the Lawyers for Kids charitable fund, in an August 20, 2012, article about the firm's pro bono adoption program. To view the complete article, please click here.

SHB Staff Attorney Amanda Robinson was recently featured by WDAF-TV, Kansas City FOX 4, during the station’s “Pay It Forward” news segment for her pro bono work with the Zenas Project. To view the video clip, please click here.

SHB was among those private law firms honored with the 2007 Beacon of Justice Award by the National Legal Aid and Defender Association. The award recognized SHB’s commitment to equality and justice through its pro bono representation of a Guantanamo detainee.

SHB was honored in 2006 by the nonprofit organization Children’s Rights, Inc. for its work in E. C. v. Blunt, a case that national media outlets have called “a landmark civil rights victory for foster children,” and for the firm’s leadership within the legal profession in this area. “SHB’s dedication to helping abused and neglected children was critical to the success in the adoption subsidy case and to the long-standing federal foster care reform lawsuit in Jackson County [Mo.],” said Ira Lustbader, associate director of Children’s Rights. “We’re happy to recognize SHB’s long-standing commitment to helping children through their pro bono efforts—this is what private firms can and should be doing across the county.”

SHB was the 2004 law firm recipient of the Angels of Justice Award, presented by the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, for its pro bono work on behalf of unaccompanied minors caught up in the immigration system.

Cruzan v. Missouri Department of Health — “Dave Waxse called me about a potential pro bono case in southwestern Missouri. . . . Shook, Hardy & Bacon had the means and firepower to take on a big case, and it had done so in the past. However, Dave Waxse and I were not drawing up plans for a big case as we talked in the spring of 1987. As Dave said, ‘It may not amount to much—probably no more than a half-day trial in probate court—but the issues look interesting.’ (Former SHB Partner William H. Colby)

The firm and Bill Colby spent the next three years helping the parents and husband of a young woman in a persistent vegetative state caused by the severe injuries she sustained in a car accident as they sought court permission to terminate the artificial life support that kept her alive in a Missouri state hospital.

Until her death in December 1990, SHB lawyers, analysts and support staff logged countless hours as the protracted litigation between Nancy Cruzan’s family and the state traveled from probate and state appeals courts all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Colby, whose practice as an SHB associate was consumed by the litigation, eventually argued the case before the nation’s highest court, which agreed to hear the cutting-edge, right-to-die issues it had never before considered.

In a 5-4 decision, the Court determined that competent people have the right to refuse medical treatment under the U.S. Constitution but confirmed Missouri’s requirement that evidence of an incompetent’s wishes about the withdrawal of life support be proved by clear and convincing evidence. Cruzan v. Director, MDH, 497 U.S. 261 (1990).

The family met that legal hurdle when the case was re-tried, and Cruzan died soon after life support was withdrawn.

While the medical, ethical and legal issues raised by Cruzan continue to generate controversy, the case launched a national discussion about quality-of-life matters and spawned legislation at state and federal levels to provide people with the tools they need to direct the care they wish to receive if they, too, become incapacitated.

The legal work required by this litigation involved thousands of non-billable hours and many people, including former SHB Partner and now U.S. District Court Magistrate David Waxse, as well as Partner Madeleine McDonough.

The firm provided significant financial and other support to the long-term pro bono effort, understanding its significance to the Cruzan family, the state, the medical and legal communities, and the nation. Colby has authored several books about this case and the issues it raised, including Long Goodbye: The Deaths of Nancy Cruzan and Unplugged: Reclaiming Our Right to Die in America.

Stevana Case, et al. v. Unified School District No. 233 — SHB successfully represented high school students objecting to a school district’s decision to remove a controversial book from the school library. The court awarded attorney's fees of $200,000, which was donated to create the First Amendment Foundation. The Foundation promotes a better understanding among high school students of constitutional rights. In appreciation, SHB received the American Library Association’s John Phillip Immroth Memorial Award.

G. L. v. Sherman — The court ended its long-standing oversight of the Jackson County, Missouri, child welfare system by approving a conditional dismissal of the class action civil rights lawsuit. Through the efforts of an SHB attorney, along with Children’s Rights, Inc., the court cited remarkable improvements in the Jackson County foster care system, which has now become a model across the country.

E. C. v. Blunt — This case involved a civil rights complaint that sought to permanently enjoin the state of Missouri from enacting a senate bill that would have retroactively terminated adoption subsidy contracts between the state and thousands of parents of adopted foster children. U.S. District Court Judge Scott O. Wright entered an order prohibiting the bill's implementation, observing that the suit was among the most important cases he had addressed in his 27-year career as a judge. SHB donated the attorney’s fees awarded in this landmark case toward establishing Lawyers for Kids, a fund created to support charities that provide services to foster and adopted children and their parents.