Pro Bono at Morgan Lewis
Morgan Lewis is committed to serving the public good. Our innovative, award-winning pro bono practice spans all of our offices around the globe. Each year, we provide more than 1,800 pro bono clients with the highest possible level of service. Our primary focus is on helping economically disadvantaged individuals and families in the communities where we live and work. We also provide legal services to nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations whose mission is to serve vulnerable individuals and communities. Our lawyers use their time and skills to ensure access to justice for people who otherwise could not afford it.
Morgan Lewis has long treated pro bono hours as billable, and we recognize and reward lawyers who have achieved success in their pro bono representations. We expect every eligible lawyer to contribute at least 20 hours to pro bono representations annually, and we are proud to say that 100% of our lawyers meet this goal each year. And, while we expect 20 pro bono hours per lawyer, our lawyers typically average more than 50 hours per year, further exemplifying the firm’s commitment to pro bono.
Learn more about our commitment to the people and communities we serve >
Diversity & Inclusion at Morgan Lewis
At Morgan Lewis, diversity is not just a concept we talk about in theory—it is an asset we cultivate. Substantial work has gone into implementing numerous internal and external initiatives that address the issue of discrimination systemically and specifically within the law firm space. These initiatives also aim to advance racial, ethnic, gender, LGBTQ+, disability, and veteran diversity throughout our firm and the industry.
Diversity and inclusion (D&I) influences how we service clients, collaborate with colleagues, and recruit, retain, and promote the firm’s lawyers and legal professionals around the globe. Morgan Lewis is one of the world’s largest law firms chaired by a woman. Chair Jami McKeon was elected by the partnership to a third term extending through September 2026.
We understand that culture cascades from the top. From Firm Chair Jami McKeon, to practice leaders, to office managing partners and members of the C-suite, the diversity of our partners who serve in senior leadership roles delivers the clearest possible message: lawyers historically underrepresented in the legal industry have every opportunity for career development, advancement, and promotion at Morgan Lewis. Morgan Lewis’s culture emphasizes inclusion by ensuring that all our lawyers get the right professional and legal training, mentoring, access to promotion, and policies focused on promoting well-being and balance. This earnest focus has led to recognizable changes in the makeup of our leadership ranks—50% of our Management Committee members are diverse, 41% of our Advisory Board members are diverse, 43% of our Compensation Committee members are diverse, 38% of our Practice Group Leaders are diverse, 65% of our Office Managing Partners are diverse, 55% of our Industry Team Leaders are diverse, and 67% of our Hiring Partners are diverse. Our philosophy is to show—not tell—how we promote and celebrate diversity.
We also have made measurable progress in the recruitment and promotion of diverse lawyers. In recent years, nearly two-thirds of our partnership and summer associate classes included persons of color or those identifying as LGBTQ+. Fostering diverse talent from the bottom up remains a goal of Morgan Lewis. Our 2022 partnership class is 55% diverse. Our 2022 summer associate was our most diverse summer class in the firm’s history, made up of 64% persons of color and/or individuals who self-identify as LGBTQ+.
Recognizing the need to take an intersectional approach to addressing anti-racism and engage those who desire guidance on how to be a better ally, we launched Mobilizing for Equality task force to determine what more we can do as a firm to more directly, effectively, and aggressively mobilize against racial injustice.
Learn more about why D&I is a core value of our firm >
