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Throughout our years of legal service, Kenyon & Kenyon LLP attorneys and staff have always placed great importance on community involvement, including mentoring activities, charitable activities and pro bono matters.

The firm has a number of programs in place which offer attorneys and staff an opportunity to make a difference in their communities, whether it be through personal time or resources. The firm is also very generous and offers each attorney up to 80 hours towards billable time to use towards pro bono matters. Below are a select few of some recent community/pro bono activities:
  • The primary source of our pro bono work is the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts (generally known as VLA), an organization dedicated to offering free legal representation, advice and education to artists and arts organizations in all creative disciplines who are unable to otherwise afford legal assistance. Each month, VLA distributes a case list of VLA clients with specific types of legal problems which attorneys can volunteer to represent. Kenyon & Kenyon attorneys also recently revised and updated three VLA Artists' Guides on Copyright Law in view of recent changes to the copyright laws. Three separate Guides were edited: one for visual arts, one for performing artists, and a third for musicians and composers.
  • A continuing source of pro bono work is the SDNY Pro Bono Panel, which will send case lists to interested attorneys who are admitted in the Southern District. They typically include cases involving prisoners' civil rights, employment discrimination, recovery of Social Security benefits for the elderly and civil RICO.
  • Several Kenyon & Kenyon attorneys participate in the New York City Mentor Program. This program entails coaching a team of high school students from the city's public schools through the rigors of a moot court competition. Our students have been very successful in these competitions.
  • Each year, through organizations in cities we have offices, the firm adopts families who are experiencing some hardship during the winter holidays. We learn about their current clothing, toys and other needs. Then, employees may choose to donate items for the families’ requirements.
  • Each year, we participate in the various city food drives for the Thanksgiving holiday. Employees may choose to participate by donating appropriate food to the cause.
  • Kenyon & Kenyon’s New York office has been a member of the downtown New York community since its inception in 1879. Through the Downtown Alliance organization and Friends of Community Board No. 1, we have continued to be involved in activities which support the promotion of downtown and its rebuild after the attacks on September 11th.
  • Each summer, we invite four to six high-school students from the Joseph A. Forgione Development School for Youth (Division of the All Stars Project) for a summer internship and mentoring program. Managers and staff from a number of our administrative departments assist in the mentoring program with these students. Additionally, the Firm acts as pro bono counsel to the All Stars and the Development School for Youth.
  • The firm is also very active with a number of other organizations. We have participated in bike rides and walking/running events as well as made donations to a variety of local and national charities such as: Guiding Eyes for The Blind, American Friends of Alyn Hospital (Wheels of Love Annual Charity Bike Ride), New York Public Library, The Rutgers-Cousteau UNESCO Foundation, San Jose Jazz Society, Yorkville Pantry, Toys for Tots, DC Firefighters, Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, various law school charitable events and The Children's Society, among others.