MLP | Boston Pro Bono Breakfast

On Wednesday, May 19, 2010 from 8:00-10:00AM Medical-Legal Partnership | Boston celebrated its 5th annual awards breakfast honoring the contributions of our pro bono partners recruited with the assistance of the Boston Bar Association, as well as our clinical and legal services colleagues, to the program’s accomplishments over the past year.

MLP | Boston’s Executive Director, Samantha J. Morton, Esq., welcomed the crowd of nearly 100 to the event, hosted by WilmerHale at its Boston office. Jack Regan, Esq., Partner at WilmerHale and President of the Boston Bar Association, introduced the keynote speaker, Boston Medical Center’s new President and CEO, Kate Walsh. Ms. Walsh spoke with interest and determination about the symbiotic relationship between avoidable healthcare costs, inexcusable health disparities, and social determinants of health--for which legal advocacy is a key remedy.

After Ms. Walsh’s address MLP | Boston’s Pro Bono Director, JoHanna Flacks, Esq., presented awards to the law firm Ropes & Gray, Attorneys Stuart Glass (Partner), Haima Marlier, and Brandon Clippinger of Goodwin Procter, Autism Education Specialist Crista Graves of Boston Medical Center, and attorney Edward Rice of the Volunteer Lawyers Project. Please click here for our program and awards.

Concluding the program, we were honored by the remarks of a previous client of MLP | Boston. Ms. Widna Joachim, a trilingual and talented speaker, brought down the house with her appreciation of the Codman Square Community Health Center clinician who referred her to MLP | Boston, the pro bono services donated by Ropes & Gray through ITS loaned associate new beginnings program, and the Goodwin Procter Naturalization Project. MLP | Boston’s advocacy, supported by these generous pro bono contributions, empowered Ms. Joachim under circumstances in which she’d previously felt helpless to assure basic needs stability for her young daughter.

Throughout the program, many of our other pro bono partners were celebrated: Day Pitney, Foley Hoag, Holland & Knight, and Ropes & Gray (our adoptive law firms) were acknowledged as cornerstones of MLP | Boston capacity. McDermott, Will & Emery and Mintz Levin were applauded for their recent commitment respectively to SSI advocacy, and to both a special education reform project and nationwide technical assistance regarding MLP and professional ethics.

Attendees reported feeling reenergized and recommitted to their MLP work by the event, and by Ms. Joachim’s inspirational remarks in particular.

The breakfast program provides a complete list of our pro bono partner firms and in-house departments. To view program please click here.