New Developments at HB

Husch Blackwell Expands California Footprint 

In April 2021, HB announced the opening of new offices in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area. The new office openings were prompted by the arrival of a 21-lawyer litigation team from Dentons and greatly expand Husch Blackwell’s presence in California, where we have maintained a Sacramento office since 2018. Read full news release here.

Pro Bono News

In 2021, we are challenging all of our strategic business units (SBUs) to increase their pro bono participation in an effort to make a greater impact on the access to justice gap. Our goal is to increase pro bono participation by firm attorneys to 60%. This includes a challenge for General Assignment Associates to reach 100% participation, while other SBUs are encouraged to increase pro bono participation by approximately 10% each.

Husch Blackwell’s partnership with the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis is changing how some of the most vulnerable populations in our local community view attorneys and the legal system. HB’s Pro Bono Legal Intake Clinic demonstrates our commitment to protecting our clients' rights by connecting attorneys to individuals in need of legal services who might not be able to afford them. As an illustration, our St. Louis attorneys recently assisted a working mom of two whose husband is actively serving in our nation’s military. Our client’s landlord informed her that she and her two young sons had less than two weeks to vacate their home. At the time, her husband was overseas and, in an attempt, to maintain some stability for her children, she reluctantly complied with the landlord’s demand. Her landlord, however, failed to return the full security deposit she was entitled. Less than a week after our attorneys spoke with the client – and more than a year after she moved out of her home – she received the deposit. The Husch Blackwell team was able to resolve the claim before resorting to filing a lawsuit.

Attorneys in our Kansas City office recently assisted a pro bono client with a vision for a development project – a sports-themed park anchored by a golf course in the middle of Kansas City’s urban core. Results promise to be transformative in spurring economic development and bolstering community pride. This ambitious project required navigating real estate issues and various permitting requirements. Our client’s vision is now a reality with the sports and activity center now open which features a range of outdoor activities for neighborhood children and adults to enjoy free of charge, including a golf course.

It has been almost one year since the firm joined the Law Firm Antiracism Alliance (LFAA). This group is dedicated to addressing inequality and racial injustice, as well as the structures that allow inequalities to propagate. The firm is in good company with 291 firms who have also joined the alliance. LFAA recognizes and embraces the role that law firms, particularly when acting collectively, can play to help bring about systemic change and racial equity in the law. LFAA’s goal is simple: racial equity. Facilitating pro bono work is the primary mechanism by which LFAA pursues this goal. Since joining LFAA, more than 40 HB attorneys have volunteered to take part in LFAA working groups. The working groups focus on how structural racism informs various areas of law and will be responsible for producing research papers and other work product from LFAA on given issues in the topical areas. HB attorneys are currently engaged on two data collection projects associated with their involvement in these working groups.

Innovation

HB’s Innovation team underwent a few changes this year, with Innovation Managers Rebecca Holdredge and Keith Brahman combining forces under Bret Chapman, the firm’s Chief Administrative Officer. This reorganization helps align the firm’s innovation goals, places more emphasis on the firm’s innovation efforts, and makes the firm more responsive to opportunities in the marketplace.

One new innovation project is the HB Vault, which was built for HB’s Asbestos practice group. The tool, created entirely by HB, is effectively a matter management system that provides attorneys a single platform to view all matter-related information for thousands of matters with just a few clicks. This includes case status, docket information, related documents, billing information, and all relevant case data. The system also can handle all aspects of matter intake, case analysis, and task distribution to team members by automating repetitive tasks.

HB Innovations recently rolled out version 3 of the Clery Compliance Toolset (CCT), which was created entirely by HB. CCT was HB Innovations’ first software licensing endeavor and provides a platform for our education clients to report their annual crime statistics to the Department of Education.

Last fall, HB’s IT and Innovation teams participated in a virtual hackathon. Over the course of a day, four 10-member teams explored solutions that would leverage low-code to no-code development tools to solve a different challenge. After a day of intense competition, the teams presented their final projects to a panel of HB executives. Chief Executive Paul Eberle awarded first place (and $100 Amazon gift cards) to the team that created a chatbot to assist attorneys and staff with routine helpdesk questions. The event was considered such a success that there are now plans to turn the hackathon into an annual event and broaden participation to include attorneys and paralegals.