Haynes and Boone, LLP received the Lee Cusenbary Impact Award from the San Antonio Legal Services Association (SALSA) on January 28. The award was named in honor of local attorney Lee Cusenbary’s extraordinary work to advance access to justice.
SALSA presented the pro bono award during its Inaugural Spirit of Public Service Awards virtual ceremony, honoring Haynes and Boone for its contributions to SALSA’s call for volunteer attorneys to draft wills and simple estate planning documents for San Antonio’s frontline healthcare workers.
In a video shown during the event, Associate Ian Schwartz said he was inspired by the 7 p.m. “Daily Clap” for healthcare workers in New York City when one of his firm’s Texas-based attorneys put out the call to help with SALSA’s Wills for Healthcare Workers Program.
After receiving hundreds of requests from healthcare workers seeking legal assistance with estate planning documents, SALSA was urgently looking for volunteer lawyers to step up. Lawyers in Haynes and Boone’s San Antonio office took on this pro bono project, helping prepare wills and ancillary documents for San Antonio University Health System employees. The project quickly expanded to include more than 81 lawyers from 11 of the firm’s offices.
“We are incredibly honored to have received this award in recognition of our efforts helping those who have served tirelessly on the frontlines of the pandemic,” said Laura O’Donnell, partner and lead lawyer on the project. “It is exceedingly rewarding to use our skills as lawyers to serve others.”
Haynes and Boone has long been committed to providing pro bono legal aid, believing that a fulfilling professional career is much more than simply handling major business transactions or trying complex commercial lawsuits. The firm’s lawyers focus their pro bono efforts on helping those who need it most but are least able to afford legal services.
Haynes and Boone is an international corporate law firm with offices in Texas, New York, California, Charlotte, Chicago, Denver, Washington, D.C., London, Mexico City and Shanghai, providing a full spectrum of legal services in energy, technology, financial services and private equity. With 600 lawyers, Haynes and Boone is ranked among the largest U.S.-based firms by The National Law Journal, The American Lawyer and The Lawyer. It also was recognized across the board for excellence in the BTI Consulting Group’s 2020 “A-Team” report, which identifies the law firms that in-house counsel commend for providing superior client service.