The Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr Scholarship Fund

Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP
Boston and Worldwide

The WilmerHale Scholarship Fund will underwrite 50 scholarships to MCLE programs every year to support pro bono training.

November 8, 2016—MCLE is pleased to announce a recent leadership gift from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP to support pro bono and legal aid training. Since the earliest days of its two predecessor firms, WilmerHale’s steadfast commitment to pro bono work and public service has been a recognized hallmark of the firm’s practice.

Rooted in tradition and in the example set by such early leaders as Reginald Heber Smith, the father of legal aid in the United States, and John Pickering, who led the effort to establish the Pro Bono Institute’s Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge, that deep commitment continues strong today. Through its attorneys’ pro bono work on cases of national significance, the WilmerHale Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School that has assisted more than 20,000 low-income person since its creation in 1993, its many community partnerships that help to address through volunteer service the issues facing our local communities, and the Pickering Fellowship program that allows associates to spend six months working in pro bono organizations, WilmerHale actively encourages its lawyers and staff to engage in pro bono work and community service.

WilmerHale’s commitment does not end there. Ten years ago, the firm extended its support to the training of those who serve the poor with a pledge of $100,000 to MCLE’s scholarship program, helping to provide a foundation for an endowment that has now exceeded $3.2 million towards a $5 million goal to endow 2,000 scholarships every year for the benefit of legal aid and pro bono attorneys. That gift alone has enabled deserving lawyers to attend more than 400 programs over the past decade. More recently, on the 10th anniversary of its foundational pledge, WilmerHale has renewed its support by pledging an additional $25,000 to the endowment. As a result of the firm’s cumulative giving,the Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr Scholarship Fund will provide 50 scholarships to MCLE programs every year for lawyers who serve the public interest.

“As lawyers, there is more to our professional mandate than advocacy for the most powerful and successful in our society. Providing a voice for the least powerful through public and community service and pro bono activities is an integral part of our firm’s culture, history and tradition, which includes supporting the important work that all pro bono and legal aid lawyers do to represent those in need, especially those who cannot afford legal services. MCLE scholarships to train these deserving lawyers play a critical part in this effort, and WilmerHale is proud to renew its support and join MCLE in growing its scholarship endowment to train those lawyers who are dedicated to public service and to representing members of traditionally underserved communities.”

Daniel W. Halston, Partner-in-Charge, Boston Office
Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP

MCLE’s Board of Trustees is grateful to WilmerHale and all of the firm’s partners for their leadership in helping MCLE to grow its endowment so that the Commonwealth’s most needy have access to the best trained lawyers.

DONORS

Established with a generous gift from:

Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP