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Kutak Rock LLP, either through firm-wide initiatives or in each individual office, encourages attorneys and support staff to participate in community activities. The importance of volunteer service was established early on and reflects a continuing culture that encourages firm members to participate in activities that benefit society. Members of the Firm serve on many nonprofit and public boards, commissions and community nonprofit organizations and provide pro bono legal work for various groups within our communities. Kutak Rock’s continuing commitment to the provision of pro bono legal services is evidenced by the varied endeavors which the firm has undertaken in recent years and in which the firm is still currently involved.
Some recent examples of volunteer service by firm members and representative pro bono legal efforts include:
- Arkansas attorneys and staff donate to gift drives for Youth Home, Inc., a local adolescent psychiatric treatment agency. In addition, the Arkansas office supports Easter Seals of Arkansas, Centers for Youth and Families and the Arkansas Arthritis Foundation.
- Attorneys in the Washington, DC office participate in the yearly American Heart Association 10K and Fun Walk.
- The Denver office participates in the Adopt-A-Family charity program each December.
- Nebraska attorneys and staff regularly donate time, money, food and clothing to various Omaha-area charities, including: the Omaha Food Bank; Liberty School (where 90% of students are below the national poverty level); Open Door Mission, a homeless shelter; Siena Francis House, a homeless men’s shelter; Lydia House, a shelter for women and children; the Child Saving Institute; and Micah House, a children’s shelter and service organization in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
- Associates in the Atlanta office volunteer at the Atlanta Community Food Bank and support a toy and food drive benefiting My Sister’s House, a women and children’s facility operated by the Atlanta Union Mission. Administrative Staff in the Atlanta office participate in the various charities of the Atlanta Association of Legal Administrators including the Atlanta Public Safety Toy Drive. Several associates in the Atlanta offices are active in the Community Service Committee of the Young Lawyers Division of the Georgia Bar. Activities include: a clothing drive for Suits for Success, a program to assist unemployed individuals acquire clothing to wear for job interviews; providing toiletries for the Atlanta Homeless Shelter; holiday gift organizational activities for the Fulton County Department of Family and Children’s Services (DFACs) volunteer office; accompanying foster children on various outings to Zoo Atlanta and Atlanta Hawks NBA basketball games; and participating in the DFACs emergency food pantry. Several associates give pro bono time representing clients as part of the Atlanta Domestic Violence prevention program.
- Scottsdale attorneys and staff donate time and money to numerous charities in the Scottsdale/Phoenix area including: the YWCA of Maricopa County; Special Olympics of Arizona; Boys and Girls Clubs of Metropolitan Phoenix; the Make-a-Wish Foundation; Brokers for Kids; Camp Fire Girls; Desert Foothills Theater; the Arizona Humane Society; and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
- An associate in the Little Rock office serves on the oversight committee for Farmers Feed The Children, a collaborative project among the Rotary Clubs of Little Rock and Cluj Napoca, Romania and Heifer Project International that provides dairy products, beef, poultry and eggs to feed needy Romanian children. The multi-purpose effort not only feeds children, but fosters fundamental democratic concepts of civic responsibility and community service and allows families to build their own business enterprises, in turn developing a sustainable economic model and community service initiative.
- The firm provides advice to numerous school and youth organizations, including the Alachua County Youth Organization, All Our Kids, many Cub Scout and Boy Scout packs, the DVCC Courtwatch Program, various Brownie and Girl Scout troops, the Guardian Ad Litem Program, Liberty Elementary School (Omaha, Nebraska), North High School/Omaha Public Schools, Trustees of Newman Classical Schools and Westside High School Community Club (Omaha, Nebraska). Kutak Rock attorneys also give free advice to numerous animal-care nonprofit organizations, including the Animal Care Foundation, Second Chance Animal Rescue and several Humane Societies.
- As pro bono general counsel for Habitat for Humanity Omaha for the past two years, a partner in the Omaha office provides a variety of legal services in such areas as real estate, employment law and complex financing.
- A partner in the Atlanta office provided pro bono legal service to Atlanta Habitat for Humanity Inc. in connection with the acquisition of properties for development and sale to single-family homeowners.
- Housing bond attorneys in the firm’s Omaha office volunteer one day each year helping to build a house for Habitat for Humanity. Additionally, the firm also makes a monetary contribution to the organization in connection with the firm’s volunteer service.
- A partner in the Washington, D.C. office has served as pro bono general counsel to the National Association of Installation Developers, the national organization of state and local governments involved in the redevelopment of former military property. The principal focus of the organization is to foster local control over the reuse of the former bases and to address the needs of the greater community, including homeless providers as defined under the McKinney Act. This work entails handling legal and legislative matters and attending annual conferences and board meetings.
- Attorneys in the firm’s Atlanta office have provided pro bono general corporate legal services to Dunwoody Nature Center in Atlanta. Specifically, they have assisted the center with compliance pertaining to its tax-exempt status and in the negotiation of a lease agreement with DeKalb County, Georgia.
- An associate in Kutak Rock’s Omaha office represents the Nebraska Foundation for Visually Impaired Children.
- The Denver office has served as general counsel to The Kitchen Sisters, producer of the Peabody Award-winning Lost & Found Sound and Sonic Memorial Project public radio series. The firm created a California nonprofit corporation for them and assisted them in obtaining a 501(c)(3) determination letter.
- A partner in the firm’s Omaha office provides pro bono legal services to Child Care Associates, an early childhood development center on the campus of a local college.
- An associate in the Omaha office provides corporate legal services to the League Offering Volunteer Services for the Elderly.
- A partner in the Denver office serves as pro bono general counsel to The Kenyan Children Foundation (KCF). KCF builds housing in Nairobi, Kenya for orphans infected with HIV. The law firm assisted KCF in obtaining its 501(c)(3) determination letter from the IRS and assists with other corporate governance matters.
- A Scottsdale associate provides assistance to the Fresh Start Women’s Resource Center’s legal department. Fresh Start is a local women’s organization that provides, among other things, free legal advice and referrals in connection with landlord-tenant matters, bankruptcy, divorce and employment disputes.
- In response to the bankruptcy of a computer learning center, an associate in the Richmond office represented students and guarantors on a pro bono basis in negotiations with SLM Financial that ultimately resulted in SLM’s forgiving the remainder of their student loans and taking affirmative action to repair the parties’ credit.
- Two attorneys in the firm’s Denver office provide pro bono legal services to the Eating Disorder Foundation of the Rockies. The lawyers are providing corporate and tax services to assist the foundation in obtaining a federal income tax exemption.
- Attorneys in the Omaha office arbitrate fee disputes under a Nebraska Bar Association pro bono program. The client disputes have included attorneys’ fees for domestic and personal injury matters.
- Lawyers in the Omaha office revised the bylaws of the YWCA of Omaha on a pro bono basis.
