Each year, the Business and Corporate Litigation Committee sponsors a public service project benefiting a charity within the host community for the Spring Meeting. This year, the Committee is proud to partner with the Colorado Coalition to End Hunger in the fight against childhood hunger and malnutrition. Section members may make a direct donation to the Coalition's campaign to provide food and proper nutrition to children from low-income families who typically lose access to school meal programs during the summer months. Even a small donation makes a tremendous difference, enabling the Coalition to provide summer meals to a disadvantaged child for up to nine weeks. To make a donation to this very worthy cause, visit: http://hungerfreecolorado.org/ABADonationPage.html.

This public service project is coordinated by the Business and Corporate Litigation Committee's Pro Bono and Public Service Subcommittee, with co-sponsorship by the Young Lawyer Committee and the Section's Pro Bono Committee. For more information about the project or to see how you can get involved, please contact Mac R. McCoy (mmccoy@carltonfields.com).

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The Subcommittee's membership stands at 143. The Subcommittee is working with the Class and Derivative Actions Subcommittee and the International Litigation Subcommittee to present a program in Denver, entitled "Comparative Perspectives on Derivative Actions in the US and Canada." The panel will feature judges and practitioners from the U.S. and Canada. Last fall, Subcommittee Vice-Chair Cory Manning and Judge Stephen Platt spoke to a West Virginia Senate Subcommittee on Judicial Reform regarding the creation of a business court. Former Committee Chair and Subcommittee Chair Mitchell Bach later addressed West Virginia Legislators as well. Since that time, both houses of the West Virginia legislature have approved a bill creating a business court, and the bill has been signed by the governor. In addition, in December 2009, the Subcommittee provided materials and participated in a teleconference with the Business Impact Committee for the State Bar of Michigan. The committee is in the initial stages of reviewing the feasibility and necessity of creating a business court in the Michigan court system. In an effort to make the Subcommittee's website more active as a resource, Subcommittee co-Chair Lee Applebaum has populated the website with links to useful information on American and international business and commercial courts, including court websites, articles, and reports. And for the seventh year, Lee coordinated the Business Courts chapter in the Annual Review of Developments in Business and Corporate Litigation, which includes a number of Subcommittee members as authors.

Bring-a-Book Project held in connection with the ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago.

The Pro Bono and Public Service Subcommittee is pleased to report that Section members once again demonstrated heart-warming generosity by donating dozens of books to the Bring-a-Book Project held in connection with the ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago. The books will benefit the children served by Book Worm Angels, a 501(c)(3) corporation dedicated to promoting literacy among at-risk, low-income children in the Chicago area.

The Subcommittee has planned an additional public service project for the 2010 Spring Meeting in Denver, Colorado (see below) and is busy planning one for the 2010 Annual Meeting in San Francisco, California. We need volunteer attorneys and law firms in the local Denver and San Francisco areas to assist with on-the-ground planning for these upcoming projects. For more information or to volunteer, please email Mac McCoy at mmccoy@carltonfields.com.

The Subcommittee is proud to support the first annual National Pro Bono Celebration to be held October 25-31, 2009. This celebration is a coordinated national effort to showcase the differences that pro bono lawyers make to the nation, its system of justice, its communities and, most of all, to the clients they serve. For more information, please visit http://www.probono.net/celebrateprobono/, where you will find a host of useful materials, including a countdown clock, a national calendar of events, and a "Celebration Toolkit" to help your organization become involved in this historic event.

Lastly, beginning in October 2009, the Subcommittee will publish monthly or quarterly articles featuring Section members who are actively engaged in significant and noteworthy pro bono efforts in their home communities. We need your help identifying worthy candidates to be featured. Please submit nominations to mmccoy@carltonfields.com.

» Pro Bono and Public Service Subcommittee Meeting Minutes

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