Hunton Andrews Kurth Announces Partnership with Legal Aid Justice Center in Charlottesville

• Since 2004, Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP has maintained a pro bono office on the campus of the Legal Aid Justice Center (LAJC) in Charlottesville, Virginia. Led by pro bono associate Geri Greenspan, the firm’s volunteer lawyers, in conjunction with students at the University of Virginia School of Law, have tirelessly provided free legal services to low-income Charlottesville-area residents. In the past 15 years, the office has donated more than 40,000 hours of pro bono service to referral clients from Central Virginia Legal Aid Society (CVLAS), LAJC, local shelters and immigration service providers.

This summer, the firm will be closing its physical office in the Center and transitioning to a new approach. Geri will become fully embedded within LAJC, working on a variety of high-impact issues. In addition to placing Greenspan in this role, the firm has pledged to support the Charlottesville-Albemarle Bar Association’s Pro Bono Program by partially funding a pro bono coordinator who will serve both LAJC and CVLAS.

LAJC has been providing legal representation for low-income individuals in Virginia since 1967. Its mission is to seek equal justice for all by solving clients’ legal problems, strengthening the voices of low-income communities and rooting out the inequities that keep people in poverty. Hunton Andrews Kurth is deeply aligned with this mission, and is dedicated to the idea that lawyers must make legal services more widely available to all citizens.

Angela Ciolfi, Executive Director of LAJC, says “partnering with law firms is an essential part of how LAJC accomplishes our mission to root out the inequities that keep people in poverty. We applaud Hunton Andrews Kurth’s commitment to access to justice and longstanding pro-bono presence in Charlottesville. We’re eager to welcome Geri to our team.”

“Hunton Andrews Kurth has and continues to be dedicated to the Charlottesville legal aid community. The firm is excited and honored to partner with LAJC in this new venture to maximize pro bono resources and provide high quality legal services to those in need in Central Virginia,” said Ali Cunningham, managing partner of the Charlottesville Pro Bono Office. “We are proud to continue our long-standing commitment to the Charlottesville community and the provision of pro bono legal services to local residents.”

Hunton Andrews Kurth is proud of the firm’s tradition of pro bono service. At the end of the firm’s fiscal year on March 31, 2019, the firm achieved 100% participation in pro bono projects by full-time U.S. lawyers for the tenth consecutive year. Hunton Andrews Kurth donates more than 40,000 pro bono hours annually to underserved communities, and the firm has met or exceeded the Pro Bono Institute’s Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge of donating at least 3 percent of the firm’s billable hours to pro bono service for the last 25 years.