ACC Wisconsin awarded grant for mobile legal clinic (UPDATE)

The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Wisconsin chapter has been awarded a $10,000 grant to support the Milwaukee Justice Center’s Mobile Legal Clinic.

The Association of Corporate Counsel Foundation announced its 2020 Pro Bono Jumpstart Fund grant recipients on Monday. ACC Wisconsin received a $10,000 grant to support the Milwaukee Justice Center’s Mobile Legal Clinic, a collaborative project of the Milwaukee Bar Association and Marquette University Law School.

The Mobile Legal Clinic is a specially equipped van with two office spaces, computers and Internet access. Pairs of volunteer attorneys and law students work from the van to provide counsel to people in isolated neighborhoods who can’t afford civil legal services. The Mobile Legal Clinic hosted 105 clinics and served 705 clients in 2019, thanks to 222 volunteer attorneys.

James Cauley, ACC-WI Pro Bono Committee Chair, said the grant will help expand the Mobile Legal Clinic’s service, fund equipment upgrades and train additional volunteer lawyers.

The clinic has been providing remote legal services through videoconferencing since the COVID-19 pandemic’s beginnings. Megan Morrisey, the Mobile Legal Clinic coordinator, said the new equipment funded by the grant will allow the clinic to provide remote, virtual legal services until the bus can visit neighborhoods again.

The ACC Foundation awards up to $50,000 in total to initiatives that increase pro bono and diversity efforts. Chapters in Ohio, Nevada, New England and Tampa Bay also received grants from the 2020 Pro Bono Jumpstart Fund.