The Corporate Counsel Pro Bono Initiative (CCPBI) of the Tennessee Bar Association (TBA) has recognized the Bass, Berry & Sims pro bono program with its Law Firm Award for 2020. The CCPBI is a collaboration between the TBA Access to Justice Committee, the TBA Corporate Counsel Section, and the Tennessee Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel. Its goal is to foster a coordinated approach to pro bono work and support for the access to justice community by corporate and in-house legal departments. The CCPBI awards recognize outstanding service by Tennessee law firms and corporate legal departments that best exemplify extraordinary commitment to access to justice ideals, pro bono service, and the Corporate Counsel Covenant of Service. In 2020, CCPBI also recognized HCA Healthcare for its commitment to pro bono work.
Recognizing the entire scope of Bass, Berry & Sims’ pro bono work to strengthen families, empower the community, and protect civil liberties, the award acknowledges the firm’s structural changes in 2019 that led to a 98% increase in pro bono hours in one year. It specifically recognizes the firm’s longstanding partnership running legal clinics in Memphis with AutoZone and Memphis Area Legal Services at the Orange Mound senior center and the recent partnership in Nashville working with Envision Healthcare on immigration clinics and a Tennessee Innocence Project case.
More information about the award and the 2020 award recipients can be found in the article, “CCPBI Fosters Collaborative Approach to Pro Bono,” that was published in the April 2020 issue of the Tennessee Bar Journal.