Ballard Spahr’s Advocates for the Homeless were honored last week with the firm's 2016 Alan J. Davis Award for exemplary public service. The $25,000 cash prize, presented by firm Chair Mark Stewart, will be donated to the Homeless Advocacy Project (HAP) and the Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission.
The award was given in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Ballard Spahr’s partnership with HAP to host legal clinics at the Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission. In the past two decades, more than 200 Ballard Spahr attorneys, law students, and paralegals have spent more than 3,600 hours counseling homeless clients at bimonthly legal clinics at the shelter and have volunteered an additional 10,000 hours representing clients referred by HAP, including matters involving identity documents, public benefits, and housing issues.
HAP is a nonprofit legal services organization dedicated to meeting the legal and advocacy needs of Philadelphia’s homeless population. Its legal staff of eight oversees a volunteer corps of 350 lawyers, paralegals, and law students. The Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission is a nonprofit organization that runs a shelter that seeks to meet the physical and spiritual needs of Philadelphia’s homeless.
Ballard Spahr lawyers and staff in Philadelphia have served more than 900 homeless clients and donated more than 14,000 hours of service to the homeless community through this project. Ballard Spahr partners Scott P. Towers and Brian D. Pedrow accepted the award.
The Alan J. Davis Award is named for the late Philadelphia City Solicitor and distinguished Ballard Spahr litigator who was deeply devoted to public service.
About Ballard Spahr
Ballard Spahr LLP, an Am Law 100 law firm with more than 500 lawyers in 14 offices in the United States, provides a range of services in litigation, business and finance, real estate, intellectual property, and public finance. Our clients include Fortune 500 companies, financial institutions, life sciences and technology companies, health systems, investors and developers, government agencies and sponsored enterprises, educational institutions, and nonprofit organizations. The firm combines a national scope of practice with strong regional market knowledge. For more information, please visit www.ballardspahr.com.
