Message from the CEO

Brown Rudnick is a law firm that dares to be different.  We take pride in the innovation, professionalism and client effectiveness of our extensive legal practice.  We carry that pride and sense of daring into the way that we approach our commitment to the public interest.  

In the spring of 2001, we created the unique Brown Rudnick Center for the Public Interest.  Our Center, led by Al Wallis, our dynamic, full time Executive Director – a prominent attorney with an extensive legal and managerial background – focuses our public interest efforts.  The Center serves as the umbrella entity encompassing all of the Firm's pro bono legal work, charitable giving, community involvement and public interest efforts.  In this way, Brown Rudnick provides an effective vehicle to maximize the Firm's public interest and philanthropic endeavors through engagement and  coordination of personnel and financial resources. 

While this bold endeavor is still in its formative years, we are proud of what we have already accomplished, especially in the area of improving inner-city education.  The Center makes an important contribution to keeping our communities healthy, our Firm vibrant and our personal and professional perspectives broad, contemporary and engaged. 

Welcome to our Brown Rudnick Center for the Public Interest. 

Joseph F. Ryan
Chief Executive Officer
Brown Rudnick Berlack Israels LLP

Message from the Executive Director

A public interest focus is alive and well in our law firm.  The Brown Rudnick Center for the Public Interest is an integral part of the Firm, with a mission to lead, encourage, coordinate and celebrate the Firm’s involvement in pro bono legal representation, community service activities and charitable giving.

The Center promotes firm-wide participation in pro bono legal work. Each attorney and paralegal is encouraged to provide at least 50 hours of pro bono legal representation each year to people or non-profit organizations that are without sufficient resources to afford an attorney.  Most do so, some devoting several hundred hours in a year if the matter is particularly complex or extensive.  The value of this work annually exceeds $2 million.

The Center also provides legal and administrative support for the Brown Rudnick Charitable Foundation Corp.  The Foundation provides grants to non-profit organizations working to improve inner-city education.  The Center enhances the success of these initiatives by helping to provide volunteer and legal support in conjunction with the Foundation’s funds.

In short, the Center serves as a tangible vehicle for Brown Rudnick’s continued engagement with public interest matters. The Firm has a history of such engagement, including its notable role as lead counsel in the landmark suit against the tobacco industry, winning a historic settlement for the citizens of Massachusetts. Brown Rudnick also takes a leadership role in the bar on education and children’s issues, on involvement with public health and homelessness initiatives, and in providing representation to not-for-profit organizations.

We are proud of what we have done and excited by where we are going.

Welcome to our Center.

Albert W. Wallis
Executive Director
Brown Rudnick Center for the Public Interest.