In addition to serving the community through its substantial commitment to public service and pro bono work, Ropes & Gray and its lawyers participate together in any number of community service activities, some of which are described below.

Everybody Wins and Power Lunch Reading Programs: Ropes & Gray sponsors volunteers in the Everybody Wins reading assistance program in the D.C. public schools, and in the PowerLunch program of Boston Partners in Education. Once each week a volunteer reads with his or her elementary student partner while the student eats lunch. The goal of the program is to reach children while they are young and stimulate their interest in reading and writing. Whether it is the volunteers gaining a new perspective on the community at our doorstep or the students gaining insight into a world through the books or our personal stories that may seem far from their own, young and old learn from each other in innumerable ways.

Citizen Schools 8th Grade Academy: For several years, Ropes & Gray has collaborated with Citizen Schools on an innovative program in which lawyers from Boston firms provide one-on-one writing coaching for "apprentices" in Citizen Schools' 8th Grade Academy — an after-school enrichment program. Attorneys meet with the 8th graders throughout the year, measurably improving the apprentice's writing skills, helping them choose which high schools to attend, and developing close mentoring relationships that will continue during apprentices' high school careers. At the end of the year, apprentices and their coaches will publish the sixth edition of Bridging, a magazine of student articles concerning issues of importance to youth, and celebrate at a Magazine Launch Party at the Boston Public Library.

Ed Thomas (Boston College Law School '07) with his apprentice.

Matt Terry (Boston College Law School '03) with his apprentice.

Discovering Justice Mock Trial Program: Ropes & Gray participates in the Legal Apprenticeship Program, a joint venture between Discovering Justice and Citizen Schools. The program brings eighth grade students into Boston law firms for a crash course in litigation. With our help, the students prepare for a mock trial before federal and state judges and a jury of Boston attorneys at an evening of mock trials at the John Joseph Moakley U.S. Courthouse. This year, the students are working on a mock criminal case about a student accused of stealing a test answer key from her teacher's office. During the course of the semester, the students have an opportunity to practice their direct and cross examination skills with attorneys who acted as witnesses. A large team of associates are volunteering their time as attorney coaches, and partners will serve as jurors on the night of the trial.

Law Day in Schools: Litigation associate Bonnie McGuire (University of Michigan Law School '01) was selected as a fellow for the Boston Bar Association's (BBA's) Public Interest Leadership Program. For Law Day 2007, she developed a unique program focused on teaching students the importance of voting in a democracy. The lesson plan provided a ballot initiative and several arguments from interest groups in favor of and against the initiative. The students were asked to challenge the positions of various interest groups, and to decide how they would vote on the initiative. The students were also encouraged to think about the skills that are most important to being a good voter. On Law Day, BBA volunteers implemented the program with students throughout the city. Volunteers report that the program was highly successful. For Law Day 2008, Bonnie is developing a program about the legislative process.

Back to School for Homeless Kids and Holiday Gifts for Homeless Kids: For the ninth year in a row, Ropes & Gray, in partnership with area homeless shelters, has donated backpacks to homeless children at the start of the school year and gifts of winter clothing and toys during the holiday season. In September 2007, the Ropes & Gray family sent hundreds of homeless children in Boston, New York and D.C. back to school with smiles on their faces! Volunteers bought backpacks and filled them with school supplies and a new outfit for the child's first day at school. Each backpack was customized to the particular child's needs. We heard back from the shelters that they were a huge success. Likewise, in December 2007, Ropes & Gray's elves made holiday gifts of winter clothing and toys to hundreds of homeless children in shelters in Boston, New York and D.C.

United Way: Each year Ropes & Gray supports the mission of the United Way through an enthusiastic and dedicated team of lawyers and staff that leads the firm's United Way fundraising drive. Our 2007 campaign total across all our offices was more than $600,000. A traditional "Build Your Own Sundae" party is held in the firm's cafeteria each year to thank the lawyers and staff for their efforts and generosity on behalf of the United Way.

GBLS Fund Drive: For the past several years, Ropes & Gray associates have been involved at all levels in the Greater Boston Legal Services (GBLS) Boston Associates' Fund Drive, an associate-sponsored campaign that raises money to support the GBLS Family Law Unit. GBLS is the largest provider of free civil legal services to poor individuals and families in the Boston area. In 2007, Ropes & Gray lawyers continued to be among the highest contributors in the city.

Corporate Challenge and Lawyers Have a Heart: The Corporate Challenge road race has become part of the summer landscape in big cities across the country. This summer, Ropes & Gray runners from Boston and New York participated, helping to raise funds for local charities. Lawyers Have a Heart is a 10k race/3k fun walk benefiting the American Heart Association. It takes place on a Saturday morning each June, finishing on the waterfront of the Potomac in Georgetown. We always have an enthusiastic contingent from our D.C. office participating.

A scene from the corporate challenge: the Boston Ropes & Gray team poses together before the race.

The New York Corporate Challenge team relaxes after the race.

Pan-Mass Challenge: Last August, a team from Ropes & Gray joined thousands of other cyclists in the Pan-Mass Challenge, an event that supports the Jimmy Fund of Boston’s Dana Farber Cancer Institute, one of the world’s premier cancer centers. Participants bicycled nearly 200 miles across Massachusetts over two days. The Ropes & Gray team raised $134,000, nearly half of which came from people within the firm. The Pan-Mass Challenge is the single largest weekend fundraising event in the country. Since its inception in 1980, the Pan-Mass Challenge has raised and contributed more than $204 million to the Jimmy Fund.

The Ropes & Gray Pan-Mass team relaxes after a grueling first day of riding over 100 miles.

The team starts out for a second day of riding at the crack of dawn. Who says lawyers don't look good in spandex?

Serv-A-Palooza: Last fall, a group of Ropes & Gray lawyers participated in Serv-A-Palooza 2007, the 9th annual company-wide service event sponsored by Timberland, a long-time client of Ropes & Gray. The Ropes & Gray team worked along side Timberland employees to help landscape and refurbish a New Hampshire town (Newmarket). It was a fun and rewarding day of work. It was amazing to see how much could be accomplished in the course of a single day with so many people working side by side.

The Ropes & Gray team and the Timberland legal department.

But firm sponsored community service activities are only one of the ways we express our commitment to the community. Many of our lawyers and staff members, on their own time, are involved in a wide variety of charitable and civic activities, continuing a long tradition at Ropes & Gray. Here are just a few examples:

Tax partner Leo Arnaboldi is Chariman of the Diller-Quaile School of Music in New York.

Leo Arnaboldi, a partner in the Tax and Benefits Department in our New York office, is the Chairman of The Diller-Quaile School of Music. Diller-Quaile is a community music school located on East 95th Street. Diller-Quaile runs early childhood music programs for children as young as four months and instrumental and vocal programs for older children and adults. Through outreach programs, Diller-Quaile nurtures its relationship with the extended community. For over thirty years, Diller-Quaile has run a summer program at its 95th Street site for children and teachers of New York City's publicly-funded day care and after-school centers in Harlem and East Harlem. Using a rich repertoire of international folk music drawn from diverse cultures, the five-week program culminates with a vibrant festival of song and dance. During the regular school year, Diller-Quaile offers a semester-long teacher training program to public school and day care teachers. The teacher training program helps teachers gain an understanding of the musical development of young children and acquire the skills and strategies necessary to implement an engaging folk music curriculum. Diller-Quaile follows through on its teacher training curriculum by providing on-site mentoring and staff workshops at several participating day care centers. In its most recent child-focused initiative, Diller-Quaile has partnered with the Casita Maria after-school music program in the Bronx to teach young children the violin. On the other side of the age divide, Diller-Quaile’s partnership with the Burden Center for the Aging brings chamber music concerts and much anticipated weekly singing opportunities to a group of older adults, and the school has initiated a program to bring the joy of music to the Cardiac Care Center of Mount Sinai Hospital.

In addition to serving his clients and his community, corporate partner Mark Nuccio finds time to take on a leading role in the firm’s recruiting efforts as a member of the Hiring Group, and as the partner in charge of lateral associate hiring.

Scenes from the 2007 Field of Dreams.

David Roise, an associate in the Intellectual Property Group in our Palo Alto office, until recently was a member of the Menlo Park Bicycle Commission. The Commission meets monthly to advise the Menlo Park City Council on issues relating to bicycle use and improving bicycle facilities in that city. David, an avid cyclist, commutes to work daily on his bicycle, as he has for more than ten years. His input has helped design roads for better bicycle safety.

Palo Alto associate David Roise (Stanford Law School '01) was inspired by a personal interest in bicycling to contribute his skills and enthusiasm to local organizations promoting these pursuits.

David Walek exemplifies the tradition at Ropes & Gray of combining client service and public service in a single career.

David Walek, a partner in our Corporate Department, is the Chairman of the Board of Artists for Humanity, a non profit arts and entrepreneurial work and training program based in Boston's Fort Point art and design community. Artists for Humanity has over 100 paid participants and 400 drop-in participants, all drawn from the Boston public high schools. Artists for Humanity gives high school students the opportunity to work with professional artists in photography, graphic design, mural painting, sculpture, fashion, ceramics, silkscreen and painting studios. Participants also learn how to market and distribute their creations and receive a paycheck. A recent exciting project for Artists for Humanity is the completion of its new headquarters in the Fort Point Channel neighborhood. The headquarters is a 22,000 square foot "green" building enclosing offices, galleries, retail space and living and working space for artists. Green buildings use energy and water more efficiently, recycle materials that otherwise would be disposed of, make full use of natural light and have healthy indoor air quality. Ropes & Gray is proud that lawyers in our Corporate Department's Real Estate Group have contributed their pro bono efforts to making this project become a reality.
 

• President, Boston Athenaeum
• Trustee and Clerk, Boston Chamber Music Society
• Clerk and Director, Boston Lyric Opera
• Advisory Board, Buglisi/Foreman Dance, New York City
• Board Member, Children’s Museum, Boston
• Board Member, Colonial Theater, Pittsfield, Massachusetts
• Secretary and Member of Board of Governors, Handel & Haydn Society, Boston
• Overseer, Handel & Haydn Society
• Governor, Handel & Haydn Society
• Board of Trustees, Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum Foundation, Inc.
• Overseer, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
• Steering Committee, Young Patron’s Society at Lincoln Center, New York City
• Board of Trustees, Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance, New York City
• Trustee, New England Sports Museum
• Trustee, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts
• Board of Trustees, South Shore Conservatory, Hingham and Duxbury, Massachusetts

• Tutor, A Better Chance Program, Wellesley, Massachusetts
• Board Member, Baby Basics, an all volunteer organization that raises money to provide diapers and formula to the working poor in South Boston
• Vice Chair and Member of Board of Directors of BAGLY (Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Youth)
• Board of Trustees, Catholic Charities, Boston
• President of Board of Directors, Ellis Memorial and Eldridge House, Boston
• Secretary, Foxborough , Massachusetts fire Department Ladies’ Auxiliary, supporting community programs that help people whose lives have been touched by medical or fire-related crises
• Board of Directors, Jewish Big Brother and Sister of Greater Boston
• Board of Directors, Massachusetts Chapter of March of Dimes
• Board Member, National Organization of Italian American Women
• Board of Directors, Rhode Island Kids Count, focusing on a broad range of children’s issues.
• Director and Past President, Travellers Aid / Family Service Association of Boston
• Vice Chairman, Volunteers of America of Massachusetts, Inc.
• Member, United Way Investment Committee
• Member of Host Committee, United Way Bid for Kids Auction
• Member, South Shore Committee for the United Way of Massachusetts Bay
• Member of Corporation, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts

• Member of Board, British School of Boston
• Trustee, Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
• Trustee, City on a Hill Public Charter School, the oldest charter high school in Massachusetts
• Trustee and Treasurer, Concord Academy, Concord, Massachusetts
• Chair of Board of Trustees, Cotting School for Handicapped Children, Lexington, Massachusetts
• Trustee, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire
• Member of Assembly Committee, Fenn School, Concord, Massachusetts
• President, Harvard Law School Association, Cambridge, Massachusetts
• President, Harvard Alumni Association, Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Board Member, Lexington Montessori School, Lexington, Massachusetts
• Chair, MIT Alumni Fund Board, Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Chair of Board of Trustees, Middlesex Community College
• Trustee, Noble and Greenough School, Dedham, Massachusetts
• Trustee, Park School, Brookline, Massachusetts
• Trustee, Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire
• Vice President, St. Mark’s School Alumni Executive Committee
• Trustee and Counsel, Shore Country Day School, Beverly, Massachusetts
• Member and Past Chair, Alumni Campaign Committee, Solomon Schechter Day School, Newton, Massachusetts
• Director, Stage Harbor Sailing School, Chatham, Massachusetts
• Trustee, Urban College of Boston
• Vice Chair, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts
• Member of Board of Directors, Wellesley College Students’ Aid Society

• Trustee, Brookline Conservation Land Trust, Brookline, Massachusetts
• Member, Lincoln Rural Land Foundation, Lincoln, Massachusetts
• Director, Nantucket Land Council, Nantucket, Massachusetts
• Board Member, Weston Land Trust, Weston, Massachusetts

• Chair, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston
• Member of Board of Overseers of Children’s Hospital, Boston
• President, Creative Alliances, a provider of geriatric care management services, Boston
• Trustee, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston
• Chair, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
• Member, Human Subjects Committee of Massachusetts General Hospital, a committee charged with approving all research involving human subjects
• Trustee, MGH Institute of Health Professions, an affiliate of Massachusetts General Hospital that grants graduate degrees
• Vice-Chair, Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine
• Trustee, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts
• Chair of Board of Directors, Milton Hospital, Milton, Massachusetts
• Trustee, Partners Health Care System, Boston
• Member of Corporation, Partners Health Care, Boston
• Member of Board of Directors and Executive Committee and Chair of Nominating Committee, Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, Boston
• Advisory Board, Psychoanalytic Couple and Family Institute of New England
• Member of Board of Governors, New England Medical Center Hospital, Boston
• Director and Clerk, South Cove Nursing Home, Boston

• Board of Governors, American Bar Association
• Elder Law Project, Association of the Bar of the City of New York
• Member of Board of Trustees, Greater Boston Legal Services
• Member, Latin American Law Initiative Council
• Board of Directors, Lawyers Clearinghouse on Affordable Housing and Homelessness
• Lawyers’ Committee for the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project
• Board Member, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest

• Member of Vestry, Christ Church of Hamilton and Wenham, Massachusetts
• Moderator, Trustee and Counsel, The first Church of Christ, in Marblehead (Congregational), Massachusetts
• Chair of Governing Board, first Parish Church in Weston, Massachusetts
• Coordinator for Volunteer Services Ministry, Spirit of Faith Christian Center, District of Columbia
• Clerk and Vestry member, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Weston, Massachusetts
• Member, Missions Committee of the South Shore Baptist Church
• Board of Trustees, finance Committee and Development Committee, Temple Isaiah, Lexington, Massachusetts
• Board of Trustees, Vajradhatu of Massachusetts, Inc., a Buddhist Church in Brookline

• Co-Chair, Beacon Hill (Boston) Civic Association Zoning and Licensing Committee
• Moderator, Town of Belmont, Massachusetts
• Permanent Building Advisory Committee, Town of Belmont
• Senior Center Building Committee, Town of Belmont
• Moderator, Town of Harvard, Massachusetts
• Trustee, Hingham, Massachusetts, Public Library
• Personnel Board, Town of Hingham
• Moderator, Town of Hingham
• Zoning Board of Appeals, Town of Lincoln, Massachusetts
• Director, Massachusetts Moderators Association
• Member, Medfield, Massachusetts, Warrant Committee
• Moderator, Town of Milton, Massachusetts
• Moderator, Town of Needham, Massachusetts
• Site Council, Ross School, Ross, California
• Chair, Sherborn, Massachusetts, School Committee
• Finance Committee, Town of Sudbury, Massachusetts
• Member, Wayland, Massachusetts, School Committee
• Chair, Human Resources Board, Town of Wellesley, Massachusetts
• Town Meeting Member, Wellesley, Massachusetts
• Zoning Board of Appeals, Town of Wenham, Massachusetts
• Zoning Board of Appeals, Town of Weston, Massachusetts
• Community Preservation Committee, Town of Weston, Massachusetts
• Housing Needs Committee, Town of Weston, Massachusetts
• City Councilor, Woonsocket, Rhode Island