Community and Pro Bono

Stites & Harbison has a rich history of professional and community involvement. The firm actively encourages its attorneys to take leadership roles in professional, civic, and charitable organizations.  Members of the firm have served on charitable and civic boards ranging literally from A to Z:  From the American Red Cross and Habitat for Humanity to the Louisville Zoo.  Nearly half of the firm's lawyers serve on at least one board or in a similar capacity, and the firm's staff shows the same kind of commitment.  Click here for examples of awards, recognition, and participation in our communities and pro bono activities.

Members and associates of the firm participate actively in the affairs of the organized bar and serve as members of its governing bodies and presenters of continuing legal education programs. Members also have served as Presidents of the state, county and local bar associations.

The United Way has recognized Stites & Harbison for the firm's role in multiple record-breaking campaigns.

In 2009 the firm's attorneys donated time and counsel equaling more than $1 million in pro bono legal services.

By community, here are examples of what Stites & Harbison attorneys and staff have done to make a difference in their hometowns.

ATLANTA - Under the leadership of Dick Stephens and Dan Douglass, the attorneys and staff continued their commitment to the Initiative for Affordable Housing (IAH), which provides housing and social services for the homeless and low-income families.  This year the team helped to save IAH's largest multi-family structure, a home to over 500 people, from the threat of foreclosure due to the market collapse by renegotiating an interim loan on the property and, later, helping to secure permanent financing on IAH's behalf.

LEXINGTON - Steve Ruschell, Charlotte Turner McCoy and Valorie Smith assisted the Kentucky Volunteer Lawyer Programby providing legal assistance to families affected by the Newtown Pike Extension Project, a construction project to connect one of Lexington's busiest thoroughfares from downtown to Interstate 64.  The project temporarily displaced persons in low-income housing, but Stites & Harbison attorneys have worked closely with these families to explain relocation options.  They also have assisted the families in getting settled into temporary housing until permanent housing becomes available.

LOUISVILLE- Stites & Harbison has had a long and celebrated relationship with a myriad of agencies and service organizations in the local community.  As a result of the breadth of pro bono services provided in 2009 and our long-standing financial commitment, the Legal Aid Societynamed Stites & Harbison "Outstanding Law Firm of the Year."  Pro bono efforts included the following:

  • Jamie Neal, Sheldon Haden and a team of 25 attorneys volunteered on behalf of the Center for Women and Families Domestic Violence Assistance Program.  The program's success is a model that has been expanded countrywide.
  • Intellectual Property Group attorney Jeff Haeberlin and his team have provided more than 400 hours of legal assistance to GuardiaCare, an elderly advocacy group that provides guardianship services to those without families or relatives capable of providing such support.
  • Morgan Ward, a past president of the Legal Aid Society of Louisville, has assembled a team of attorneys donating their knowledge or mortgage, landlord and tenant assistance to the needy.
  • Litigators Clark Johnson, Rick Vance and Cassie Wiemken have successfully assisted new arrivals to the United States with immigration and child custody issues.

NASHVILLE - Working the the Nashville Bar Association, attorneys helped fulfill an escalating need for people who had recently lost their jobs.  Focused on providing assistance with unemployment appeals, the attorneys helped individuals receive unemployment benefits after their applications had been contested by their former employers.  In all, over 70 appeals were resolved, earning Lauren Paxton Roberts, who headed the effort, recognition by the Middle Tennessee Legal Aid Society.