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New book spotlights Citi's pro bono program.

April 13, 2011
Michael Helfer, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Citi

At the core of Citi's mission is working to serve individuals and communities, and to that end, Citi's legal department recently contributed to a book about pro bono service at corporate legal departments. I have encouraged our legal staff across the company and around the world to use their legal skills to better the lives of those in need. I strongly believe that pro bono service is a fundamental part of practicing law.

While efforts to provide pro bono legal services are deeply embedded at most major law firms, until recently, they have been less prevalent in corporate legal departments. In 2006, I announced the CitiLegal Pro Bono Initiative with my senior leadership team in order to formalize the Citi legal department's commitment to pro bono.

Since that announcement, our legal staff has worked to get involved in a broad range of pro bono projects through partnerships with legal service organizations and law firms, including providing advice at family court, assisting low-income microentrepreneurs, helping homeless families navigate local government agencies, working with victims of domestic violence and assisting survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

In a demonstration of our ongoing commitment to doing pro bono, Citi contributed a chapter describing the CitiLegal Pro Bono Initiative in Pro Bono Service by In-House Counsel: Strategies and Perspectives, recently published by the Practising Law Institute. Written by Citi attorneys David Goldberg and Mara Byrne, the chapter describes how the legal department at Citi worked to build and sustain an in-house pro bono program in New York. It emphasizes the importance of alignment with corporate initiatives (such as the Citi Foundation and Citi Community Development) as well as senior and middle management support. The book also contains a number of contributions from other corporate legal departments, law firms and non-profit legal service organizations.

It is our hope that the chapter will contribute to the efforts to galvanize other corporate legal departments to create their own programs and to inspire our own employees around the world to seek meaningful ways to demonstrate Citi's commitment to service by using their professional skills for the good of others.

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