Founded in 1970, the Beverly Hills Bar Foundation is an IRC 501(c)(3) public entity and the charitable affiliate of the Beverly Hills Bar Association, receiving generous financial and volunteer support from Association members and friends.
The Foundation has enriched the legal profession by encouraging and supporting its alumni of prominent recipients of law school scholarships. The Foundation is proud that many of its scholarship recipients have distinguished themselves as prominent lawyers, judges, legislators and community leaders.
The Foundation has enhanced the community by funding a number of nationally recognized and emulated legal literacy and preventive law programs as well as community service projects that educate and assist youth, adults and seniors. The Foundation is also proud of its efforts in co-founding of Public Counsel, conceived by the Beverly Hills Bar Association more than 40 years ago and now the nation’s largest pro bono law firm. The Foundation, the Association, and Public Counsel share a deep commitment to helping others through volunteer service, a cornerstone of the Foundation’s tradition of excellence.
Providing grants to fund law school scholarships and law-related education and community service programs since 1970, the Beverly Hills Bar Foundation awards scholarships to academically qualified, economically disadvantaged law students who demonstrate an ongoing commitment to public service and are attending the top-ranked, ABA-accredited UCLA School of Law, USC Gould School of Law, Loyola Law School, Pepperdine University School of Law and Southwestern Law School
- Scholarship awards are presented to law students at the Annual Supreme Court Luncheon, which since 1954 has honored the Chief Justice and Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of California
- Past scholarship recipients have distinguished themselves as prominent lawyers, judges, legislators, and community leaders
A pro bono community service of the Beverly Hills Bar Association Barristers, volunteer attorneys provide free legal guidance to the public on the first Saturday of each month at Roxbury Park on any legal matter or concern. Launched in 1993 by Barrister leaders Christopher Bradford and Richard Kaplan, the young lawyers of the BHBA have been assisting anyone with a legal question or issue for over 25 years and continue to commit to this social justice program year in and year out.
Today, many of Los Angeles County’s hardworking residents, living off moderate incomes, face a major dilemma. When a legal problem arises, they are caught between ineligibility for pro bono support and the inability to pay regular rates for private practicing attorneys. However, quality and affordable legal support services can now be a reality for moderate-income people—thanks to the Beverly Hills Bar Association’s Modest Means Program.
The Modest Means Program refers qualified persons to its panel of member attorneys. The attorneys agree to charge reduced hourly rates and a reduced retainer fee. The panel attorneys cap their fees between $50.00 – $300.00 per hour*. Retainer fees range from $500.00 – $1500.00*. The initial 30-minute consultation is free.
Eligibility for the program is based on the individual’s gross monthly income and the number of individuals in his/her household. Modest Means is neither a legal aid program nor a free service. Interested clients must have a case in Los Angeles County but need not reside in the county.
* Hourly rate and retainer amount are determined by individual’s income qualifications or tier level.
Once a month, the Barristers donate their time to purchasing, preparing and feeding the homeless at the Santa Monica Homeless Shelter. This program is one of several community outreach endeavors the Beverly Hills Bar Foundation is proud to support and underwrite to advance the dignity of the people in our community struggling to survive.
Encouraging law students to integrate Rule of Law concepts into their writings, the Rule of Law Writing Competition awards annual financial prizes for written submissions from law school students. Papers may be on any topic directly discussing an aspect of the Rule of Law, demonstrating how the Rule of Law affected the topic, defining the Rule of Law, criticizing the Rule of Law, or demonstrating the economic social or political effects of the Rule of Law
As Justice Anthony Kennedy said about The Rule of Law: “I want lawyers to be once again advocates for the Rule of Law. And this involves a reassessment by lawyers of very fundamental principles of democracy and of our culture and of our history, and freedom. So, I think of this in part as a way to re-energize the Bar so that the Bar can reaffirm and rededicate itself to these first principles…”
Your participation in this competition is an important step in that direction. For more information contact Kenneth Petrulis: kenneth.petrulis@verizon.net