The law firm of Adams and Reese was a recipient of the 2014 “Good Apple” award presented by Louisiana Appleseed at the organization’s 5th Annual Good Apple Gala, held January 16th at the National World War II Museum.
Adams and Reese received the award for its continuous and longstanding pro bono and philanthropic efforts for Louisiana Appleseed, which recruits attorneys to donate pro bono time to solve problems at their root cause, advance social justice by effecting change at the policy, or systemic level and increase access to education, opportunity and justice.
Since 2007 when Adams and Reese housed Louisiana Appleseed in the firm's New Orleans office during the organization's infancy, the firm has volunteered hundreds of hours for Appleseed's pro bono efforts, including authoring handbooks and legal resources for charter schools and banks, and spearheading a new Louisiana heirship property law, post-Hurricane Katrina.
Adams and Reese requires that every lawyer in the firm annually performs a minimum of 20 hours of pro bono work. In the last two years combined, Adams and Reese attorneys have performed a total of 12,000 pro bono hours and the firm was ranked No. 142 in American Lawyer rankings of the Top 200 pro bono firms in the country.
Some of the organizations included in the firm’s pro bono work are: National Appleseed, SaveOneSoldier.org, Alabama Appleseed, Birmingham Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Program, Child Advocacy Center, Houston Volunteer Lawyers Program/Houston Bar Foundation, Louisiana Appleseed, Memphis Area Legal Services, Mississippi Volunteer Lawyers Program, and the New Orleans Pro Bono Project.