Several of our leading partners share their stories about Powell Goldstein's deep and ongoing "Commitment to Our Communities" in a brief video presentation.

Powell Goldstein has a long history of service to the community. Contributing to the local community is an essential part of life at Powell Goldstein, and the Firm believes that every successful lawyer should be involved in community service and pro bono activities. In fact, community involvement is one of our core values. As such, we encourage each of our attorneys to become involved in pro bono and civic activities.

Recently our firm as a whole has:

• Participated in Hands on Atlanta 's Servis Juris day
• Successfully represented a homeless and disabled veteran in securing medical benefits owed to him
• Served as pro bono counsel for the Kingsburg center and school's acquisition of property
• Represented the Hispanic College Fund in various transactions
• Provided legal services for the Whitman Walker clinic, the leading provider of HIV and AIDS treatment in Washington D.C.
• Participated in the 2005 Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Real Estate games
• Participated in the Lawyers Have Heart Run
• Sponsored and coached the Grady High School Mock Trial Team
• Made various contributions to our troops in Iraq

COMMUNITY SERVICE

Powell Goldstein lawyers serve on the boards of and have leadership roles in such organizations as the Boys & Girls Club, Legal Aid, the Boy Scouts of America, Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation, Everybody Wins! reading program, the Atlanta Women's Foundation, Junior Achievement, Planned Parenthood, Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Atlanta Ballet, the American Heart Association, The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the Special Olympics, Central Atlanta Progress, the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, Senior Citizens Services of Metropolitan Atlanta, Refugee Resettlement and Immigration Services of Atlanta, the Human Rights Campaign, and Georgia Legal Services.

The Firm and its attorneys sponsor and participate in community group activities, such as building Habitat for Humanity houses, assisting Miriam's Kitchen in its breakfast program, participating in the Annual Aids Walk and the American Cancer Society's Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk, tutoring students in the Everybody Wins! Program, and working on Hands On Atlanta projects.

For a decade, the Henry W. Grady High School Mock Trial Team has been sponsored and coached by Powell Goldstein lawyers, and has repeatedly won regional and national competitions.

The Firm provides financial support to a host of Washington and Atlanta non-profit organizations, such as The Whitman Walker Clinic, Everybody Wins!, The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Atlanta Union Mission, Atlanta Urban League, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, Catholic Social Services Immigration Law Clinic, and Atlanta Legal Aid.

The Firm encourages attorneys to participate in bar associations and other professional activities. Powell Goldstein attorneys have accepted prominent positions as presidents and board members in state and local bar associations, and chairpersons of numerous bar committees, including the State Bar of Georgia, Atlanta Bar Association, and the D.C. Bar Association.

PRO BONO ACTIVITIES

Powell Goldstein attorneys are engaged in wide-ranging pro bono matters. Our attorneys continue to represent indigent criminal defendants through the Georgia Justice Program, serve as pro bono counsel to the Human Rights Campaign, act as court appointed guardians for children in custody and abuse cases, assist newly-formed businesses with incorporation and tax matters, provide legal assistance to arts and arts organizations through the Georgia Lawyers for the Arts, and serve as panel members for the Fulton County Juvenile Court Citizens Review Board, which monitors the living arrangements of the children who are in custody of the Georgia Department of Family and Children Services.

Our Washington office participates in several programs through the D.C. Bar Pro Bono Program. Through this program, the Firm's lawyers have handled a variety of matters involving domestic relations, child advocacy, immigration and asylum, social security disability, trusts and estates, tax, real estate, landlord tenant, prisoners' rights, corporate, civil rights, and homeless issues. Working with the D.C. Bar's Community Economic Development program, our attorneys have assisted small businesses with various corporate matters, including traversing the maze of corporate legal and incorporation requirements. Our Washington lawyers also undertake numerous pro bono projects.

Powell Goldstein has established a fellowship with Atlanta Legal Aid to demonstrate the Firm's continued support of pro bono work. This fellowship is awarded to an incoming associate who has demonstrated a commitment to pro bono and community service. Fellows spend six months working at Atlanta Legal Aid working on a variety of matters ranging from education law to landlord/tenant disputes.

A Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year award is given annually to an attorney or attorneys who best exemplify a commitment to professional excellence in the delivery of pro bono legal services and community services. Recent Pro Bono Lawyers of the Year were Ivan Snyder and Rebecca Sigmund. In the Washington office, Ivan Snyder assisted in the defense of various actions brought against Mary's Center by a former employee, as well as obtained dismissals of certain motions and actions and the limitation of ongoing matters for the Center. Mary's Center serves a multicultural population residing in every Ward of the City, with a focus on families who work in jobs where health insurance is not available.

In the Atlanta office, Becky Sigmund was a recipient of the Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year honor for her work with Project Liberty, a pro bono initiative providing legal counsel to immigrant survivors of violent crimes, most notably domestic violence and human trafficking. Becky helped launch Project Liberty in 2005, when the Firm partnered with BellSouth and Tapestri, Inc. Project Liberty recently expanded its partnership and now includes the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation and the Atlanta Bar Association. In 2006, Becky received the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation's highest award, the Phil Heiner Award, for her work on Project Liberty.

The Firm sponsors an annual Pro Bono Fair, where non-profit legal service organizations showcase their programs to the Firm's attorneys and recruit new volunteers. The organizations participating in the Pro Bono Fair include:

• Atlanta Legal Aid
• Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation
• Georgia Innocence Project
• Georgia Justice Project
• Habitat for Humanity
• Lambda Legal
• Pro Bono Partnership of Atlanta
• Southern Center for Human Rights
• Truancy Intervention Project

Summer associates are invited to participate in the Firm's pro bono activities. For example, our summer associates have completed research projects for the Anti-Defamation League as part of the Charles Wittenstein Summer Associate Research Program.