This tradition of pro bono work continues. In 1989, Goulston & Storrs received a national Pro Bono Award from the American Bar Association for providing free legal services on behalf of a wide variety of public causes. The ABA noted that it was only the second time in the history of the Award that an entire law firm, as opposed to an individual attorney, has received the Award.

Over 20 years ago, long before affordable housing work became fashionable, a team of Goulston & Storrs attorneys helped public housing tenants to become full partners in the redevelopment of their dilapidated project into a thriving community. This effort, since repeated many times by our attorneys, involved corporate, tax, real estate, trust and litigation practitioners working as a team. Today, all of our practice groups and every attorney (from the most senior partner to the summer associates) has the opportunity to participate in our pro bono activities.

Our pro bono practice reflects some core values about our approach to the practice of law. Pro bono clients are always provided the same careful, diligent attention shown to all of our clients. Staffing always involves direct and ongoing partner involvement, along with active associate engagement. An hour spent working on a pro bono matter is a fully credited, "billable" hour.

As a firm driven toward customer satisfaction, we are proud that our pro bono clients have recognized and commended our pro bono contributions. Many of them wrote to support our nomination for the 1998 Public Service Award, awarded by the Business Law Section of the American Bar Association for pro bono legal services performed in a business context. In the words of one, the Executive Director of a community development corporation the firm has been serving for over 20 years, Goulston & Storrs "is certainly a model for the legal and corporate community in terms of commitment to pro bono and public service."

Some of Our Non-Profit Partners
The true measure of our success is the high caliber of pro bono clients our firm services. Our clients include many of the country's finest non-profit organizations.

International Famine Relief
Oxfam America is dedicated to creating lasting solutions to hunger, poverty and social injustice through long-term partnerships with poor communities around the world. Recently, Oxfam engineers delivered clean water and distributed hygiene kits to tens of thousands of returned refugees in Kosovo. Since 1970, Oxfam America has disbursed more than $100 million in program funding and technical support to hundreds of partner organizations in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and the Americas, including the United States.

As general counsel to Oxfam America, Inc., Goulston & Storrs handles the usual corporate, tax and real estate matters involved in representing a major charitable organization. In addition, Oxfam's overseas activities have involved the firm in a number of unique legal issues, including negotiating contracts for the transfer in bulk of food stuffs to remote and conflict-ridden areas of the world, obtaining appropriate licenses and other governmental approvals for humanitarian aid shipments to countries subject to Unites States trade restrictions, and visa and other immigration issues confronted by Oxfam's staff. http://www.oxfamamerica.org/

Education and Employment
STRIVE/Boston Employment Service, Inc., which stands for Support Training Results In Valuable Employees, provides participants with the tools to navigate today's ever-changing job market. STRIVE's mission is to demonstrate the impact that attitudinal training and post-placement support have on the long-term employment of inner city residents. Modeled after New York's East Harlem Employment Service, which has operated successfully since 1985, the Boston program opened in Dorchester in the fall of 1994. G&S has been extensively involved in the founding and organization of STRIVE. A director of G&S is currently serving as Chairman of its Board of Directors. 

YouthBuild USA is the parent organization of a network of non-profit programs in over 100 cities nationally which provide employment, training and educational assistance to poor and disadvantaged youth. The firm is general counsel to YouthBuild USA. We helped them establish and operate a loan fund to finance YouthBuild programs throughout the country, and are actively working on aspects of a national corporate endowment campaign. A G&S director serves on the Board of YouthBuild, U.S.A. http://www.youthbuild.org/

Helping the Homeless
The Massachusetts Legal Clinic for the Homeless is a program launched in 1994 by the Lawyers Clearinghouse on Affordable Housing and Homelessness, Greater Boston Legal Services and the Volunteer Lawyers Project. Our firm is a founder and participant in the clinic. Through this program, attorneys from all of the firm's practice groups have staffed an on-site legal clinic at Pine-Street Inn, Boston's largest homeless shelter, and provided direct legal assistance to the shelter's residents. A director at G&S has served on the Board of the Lawyers Clearinghouse since it was founded in 1988.

Horizons for Homeless Children is a Massachusetts-based non-profit organization devoted to providing early care and education services to homeless children and families. Its aim is to help set the foundation for homeless children so that they may later experience school and community success. G&S serves as its general counsel. The firm negotiated the lease for the Community's Children's' Center, a full-service day care center for homeless children established by Horizons for Homeless Children, which opened in September of 1994. Horizons for Homeless Children was established by the founders of Bright Horizons Child Care centers, and a director of G&S serves on its Board. http://www.horizonsforhomelesschildren.org/

Strengthening Communities
The Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative is a multi-racial, community-wide coalition active in the so-called Dudley Triangle Section of Roxbury in Boston. DSNI was the first and is still one of the only, community-governed organizations in the country to be granted eminent domain power, which it has used over the past decade to reclaim nearly 3 acres of disinvested vacant land in the core of its neighborhood. The coalition has renovated and constructed mixed-income affordable housing, and sparked a number of economic revitalization projects in its area. Goulston & Storrs' role includes assisting with land acquisition, development contracts, and obtaining grants and loans from government and private sources. http://www.dsni.org/

Also working in Roxbury and Dorchester is Nuestra Comunidad Development Corporation, a community development corporation devoted to building the wealth and enhancing the physical, economic and social well-being of Roxbury, through a community driven process which promotes self-sufficiency and neighborhood revitalization. Nuestra renovates some of the most distressed areas of Boston, producing low and moderate income family housing and much-needed business opportunities in its area of the city. The firm assists Nuestra with land acquisition, financing, zoning issues, construction and sales. A G&S director (a former Peace Corps volunteer fluent in Spanish) serves on the Board of Nuestra. http://www.nuestracdc.org

And More
Goulston & Storrs' pro bono commitment includes many other initiatives as diverse as the people (attorneys and staff alike) who work on them. As part of SecondStep, Goulston & Storrs adopted five families for the holidays and made sure they had a holiday to remember. Click here for the complete story.

NewsStand
Our excellent pro bono work has led to national recognition among our peers, including, most recently, the 1998 National Public Service Award from the American Bar Association's Business Law Section.

Of course, individuals at G&S also are extensively involved in community organizations and non-profit entities, and many G&S attorneys have received recognition for their contributions to those endeavors. For more information, please consult individual attorney biographies.