Our firm was selected by the Alabama Bar Association as the recipient of the Alabama State Bar Pro Bono Award for 2012. The Bar has been giving awards to acknowledge outstanding pro bono service since 1996. Specific categories of nomination – Individual, Firm, Law Student and Mediator – were added in 2000. The purpose of the award is to recognize the outstanding pro bono efforts of lawyers, law firms, mediators, and law students who are actively donating time to the civil representation of those who cannot otherwise afford legal counsel and to recognize individuals who encourage greater legal representation in and acceptance of pro bono cases.

Nominations for each award category are reviewed by the Alabama State Bar Volunteer Lawyers Program. Nominations are accepted from Bar members, judges and the public. Our firm was chosen for this year’s award based on the following achievements:

• The lawyers at Beasley Allen regularly accept pro bono cases from the Alabama State Bar Volunteer Lawyers Program. The firm also schedules one attorney each month to assist at the Montgomery County Bar’s walk-in legal advice clinic. Without such firm support these projects would not be possible.

• The firm maintains 100% participation in the State Bar’s Volunteer Lawyers Program. This policy was a first for a Montgomery-based firm and has encouraged other firms around the state to follow suit.

• Beasley Allen also provides significant resources in support of pro bono activities in the state. In 2009 the firm established a competitive grant of $10,000 awarded annually to an organization that promotes pro bono activity.

Tom Methvin, our managing Shareholder, made pro bono work by Alabama lawyers a top priority during his tenure as President of the Alabama Bar. His work paid off with a tremendous increase in the number of Alabama lawyers volunteering to do pro bono work under the Bar’s Volunteer Lawyers Program. We are both pleased and humbled to have been selected by the Bar Association to receive this award.