Shook’s Pro Bono Program Remains in ALM Top 50

Fresh off earning national recognition for its pro bono work, Shook remains in The American Lawyer’s Top 50 firms on the Pro Bono Scorecard with a rank of #41. 

The Pro Bono Scoreboard ranks the pro bono programs at the nation’s largest 200 firms based on their average pro bono hours and percentage of their lawyers contributing at least 20 hours. 

Under the direction of Pro Bono Partner and Director Scot Fishman, the firm re-envisioned its program and set a three-year goal to break into the top 50 programs. After just one year, Shook experienced a 34 percent increase in average hours and a 65 percent increase in attorney participation, catapulting the firm from #80 to #42 on AmLaw’s 2023 Pro Bono Scorecard.  This year, the firm matched that stellar performance and even moved up one spot on the ranking. 

“It’s been a very rewarding year for our firm” said Fishman, who joined Shook in 2021. “To maintain this level of pro bono service says a lot about Shook’s commitment to help others and the impact we can have on our clients as a result of that commitment.” 

In just the past couple years, Shook has earned the National Legal Aid and Defender Association’s (NLADA) 2024 Beacon of Justice Award, as well as national pro bono awards from The Veterans Consortium and Victim Rights Law Center. While most of the firm’s matters would never be seen in the headlines, some notable recent successes include vacating a criminal conviction of a young man wrongfully accused of murder in Pennsylvania. Favorable settlements were reached in two other notable cases: an abuse of force case against the City of San Jose and a constitutional challenge to Wichita’s use of a gang database.