Morris, Manning & Martin, LLP

Pro Bono

Pro Bono

The pro bono program is administered by the Pro Bono/Community Service Committee. The goals of this program are to provide legal services to disadvantaged persons who would not ordinarily have access to such services and to broaden MMM’s reputation as a leader in providing legal assistance in our communities.  Attorneys and paralegals are encouraged to participate in the pro bono program and have devoted countless hours to the program. The firm credits each associate with up to fifty (50) hours of pro bono legal service per year towards their billable hour goal.

The following organizations are an acitve part of MMM’s Pro Bono program:

The Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation, Inc.

("AVLF") is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to providing pro bono representation to low-income individuals, who live in Fulton County or who have a case that can be resolved in Fulton County. Created in 1979 through the joint efforts of the Atlanta Council of Young Lawyers, the Gate City Bar Association, and the Atlanta Legal Aid Society, AVLF now has a roster of well over 1000 volunteer attorneys, law students, and paraprofessionals, who assist clients through a number of different programs. The Saturday Lawyers Program functions as a collaborative effort between AVLF and the Atlanta Legal Aid Society ("ALAS"). It is through the Saturday Lawyers Program that a majority of AVLF's eligible clients receive representation. Each week, staff attorneys from AVLF and ALAS prescreen clients for financial and geographical eligibility and review each case to ensure that the client has an appropriate legal problem. Eligible clients are subsequently scheduled for a Saturday Lawyer's Program meeting and assigned to a volunteer attorney. The types of cases assigned to volunteers include assisting clients in cases involving consumer issues, contract issues, car purchases, repairs and repossessions, debt relief, privatized and subsidized housing, landlord and tenant disputes, wage claims, education issues and problems involving real or personal property.

Women's Initiative Domestic Violence Project

The firm's Women's Initiative is part of the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation's Domestic Violence Project. Attorneys represent victims of domestic violence at their civil temporary protective order hearings. In these cases, victims have already filed a petition for a temporary protective order, have received an ex parte order from a judge, and have now requested representation at their evidentiary hearing. MMM attorneys receive a pre-screened case from AVLF that includes the petition, the order, and an intake questionnaire and then make contact with their clients, prepare the cases, and represent the clients in court to obtain 12-month temporary protective orders.

More than 20 MMM attorneys volunteer with the Domestic Violence Project. In addition to representing victims in court, the firm has organized toy drives to benefit local domestic violence shelters.

Georgia Innocence Project

For more than a year now, MMM has been one of the largest supporters of the Georgia Innocence Project ("GIP") in the Atlanta legal community. The GIP's mission statement is "To free the wrongly prosecuted through the use of DNA testing. To advance practices that minimize the chances that others suffer the same fate. To educate the public that wrongful convictions are not isolated or rare events. To help the exonerated rebuild their lives." MMM has donated over 563 hours over the past year, which included more than 45 MMM volunteers. MMM attorneys, staff, and interns have filed habeas petitions, worked on going case investigations, helped with fundraising, and much more. MMM's Managing Partner, Bob Saudek serves on the GIP's Board of Directors. Since 2002, the GIP has helped exonerate 4 wrongly convicted prisoners in the State of Georgia.

 

Firm Profile

Fast Facts

  • Corporate: MMM is ranked among the leading law firms in the U.S. for public securities offerings. In the past year, we have handled five IPOs with a combined market value of over $8.8 billion.
  • Corporate: MMM is nationally ranked among the Top 50 leading law firms for venture capital financing. In the past two years, we have averaged over 50 VC transactions per year.
  • Corporate: MMM is a Top 10 firm for public offerings in multiple industry areas.
  • Employment: Over the last 20+ years, MMM has secured outright victories (not settlements) in 32 cases.
  • Employment: MMM's winning streak continues for a leading healthcare system! No losses in 17 years for employment client.
  • Environmental: MMM was lead environmental and real estate counsel on the largest brownfield redevelopment in U.S. history.
  • Green: MMM is real estate and construction counsel to a leading Southeast bank for the nation's first green affordable housing project.
  • Healthcare: MMM serves as sole healthcare and regulatory compliance counsel for the largest consortium of hospitals in Georgia.
  • Insurance: In the past two years, MMM has provided regulatory counsel for insurance restructuring transactions valued at over $6 billion.
  • Intellectual Property: On a per capita basis, MMM files more patents than any other firm in the Southeast and is among the most active in the U.S.
  • Intellectual Property: MMM represents seven of the top 30 research universities and their technology incubators in the U.S.
  • Intellectual Property Litigation: More than 50% of the cases handled by MMM's IP litigators are located in jurisdictions outside of the Southeast.
  • International: With nearly 10 percent of our professional staff fluent in Chinese, MMM has one of the largest Asia-focused practices in the Southeast.
  • International: MMM obtained one in every ten U.S. patents filed by China-based companies.
  • Litigation: MMM handled the largest trade secret case in Florida history.
  • Litigation: MMM serves as lead national Products Liability Trial Counsel for a Fortune 50 company, obtaining seven consecutive defense jury verdicts.
  • Real Estate: MMM has represented clients in 39 of the 50 U.S. states and 4 of the 10 Canadian provinces.
  • Real Estate: MMM represents the largest private multi-family developer in the U.S.
  • Real Estate: Including real estate capital markets, MMM has handled nearly $50 billion in transactions, financings, joint ventures and public offerings for real estate clients.
  • Real Estate Capital Markets: MMM is primary corporate counsel for over a third of the publicly offered non-listed REIT market.
  • Real Estate Capital Markets: In the past three years, MMM has closed over $13 billion in real estate capital markets transactions/offerings.
  • Tax: MMM wrote the law on LLCs.
  • Timberland MMM has the largest Timberland Investments & Forestry Products practice in the Southeast and among the largest in the U.S. MMM recently represented a U.S. TIMO in the acquisition of 31,000 hectares in Brazil for $106 million.

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