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 | | Pro Bono
The lawyers at Wiggin and Dana recognize the importance of, and gain a great deal of personal and professional satisfaction from, pro bono matters. The firm insists that its pro bono clients receive the same high quality work and legal advice that the firm's paying clients receive. Accordingly, Wiggin and Dana accepts matters on a pro bono basis only if there is a lawyer within the firm who has the experience to handle the matter properly. The firm also requires that all associates who work on pro bono matters receive the same attention and supervision from partners that they would receive on any other matter.
Within these guidelines, Wiggin and Dana encourages all partners and associates to become involved in a variety of pro bono matters, including landlord-tenant proceedings, corporate and tax work for non-profit start-ups, estate work, civil litigation for indigent members of the community and representation of indigent defendants in criminal proceedings in the District of Connecticut and the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
The firm receives referrals from a number of organizations including the New Haven Legal Assistance Association, Connecticut Lawyers Referral Service, the United States Bankruptcy Court, and Connecticut Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts. In addition, Wiggin and Dana lawyers regularly render services to the Greater New Haven Community Loan Fund, which issues loans to finance inner-city housing, and work routinely with the Connecticut Civil Liberties Union and the Connecticut office of the Anti-Defamation League on constitutional matters, including litigation challenging the constitutionality of federal and state regulations. Wiggin and Dana contributed a significant amount of time to the Special Olympics World Games and to the International Festival of Arts & Ideas by serving, on a pro bono basis, as general counsel.
More recently, community development and economic revitalization programs seeking tax-exempt status (such as The Enterprise Center in New Haven) and arts and cultural organizations seeking trademark and intellectual property protection (such as High Hopes Therapeutic Riding and Amistad America, Inc.) have turned to Wiggin and Dana for specialized assistance on a pro bono basis. The firm also participates in Lawyers for Children America, representing abused and neglected children in juvenile court proceedings, and routinely accepts civil and criminal cases referred to us by federal judges both of the Second Circuit and the District of Connecticut.
Summer associates are also provided with opportunities to work on pro bono matters. For example, Wiggin and Dana summer associates recently did extensive work on the constitutional limitations applicable to legislative prayer and on potential First Amendment violations relating to presentations by guest speakers in certain Connecticut public schools.
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