Our Community

Prince Lobel recognizes the importance of reaching out to the needy and underserved members of our community. Our attorneys and staff, both individually and collectively, are actively involved in a wide spectrum of charitable organizations, and perform jobs ranging from pro bono legal work to spreading compost and raking leaves, and everything in between.

The Prince Lobel Foundation was created to enhance the philanthropic activities of Prince Lobel, and to facilitate the coordination and management of the firm’s contributions and activities.

The foundation provides support to Boston-area educational-based initiatives for school-age children, as well as programs that support victims of domestic abuse, those suffering from addictions, illness or injury, and a variety of other programs that address the needs of many of the most vulnerable members of our community.

This commitment to our community dovetails with our commitment to diversity. If we can provide support to those organizations that need, but cannot access professional guidance, or assist individuals, families, and communities that need a helping hand, then it is our responsibility to do so.

Firm Initiatives

Education

• Sociedad Latina and Brighton High School - As part of their new internship programs, students from these Boston schools will come to Prince Lobel after school to gain important work experience and skills.
• Boston Community Leadership Academy - As part of its commitment to support and mentor local students, the firm employs student interns from BCLA - a pilot high school in the Boston Public School system that focuses on preparing economically and culturally diverse students in grades 9-12 to be both college-ready and community leaders.
  
• Meet the Worms - Prince Lobel is a proud supporter of entrepreneur Barbara Lynch's non-profit organization that offers hands-on learning in the garden and in the classroom to children in Boston's Public Schools. This organization teaches children about the importance of nutrition and sustainable agriculture, in an effort to inspire healthy eating habits.
• Boston Bar Association Summer Jobs Program - Through a partnership with the BBA, Boston Public Schools, the city of Boston and the Boston Private Industry Council, the summer jobs program offers hundreds of local teenagers the opportunity to work in a law firm for the summer. By providing a summer job to a public school student, the firm helps the student gain a better understanding of the legal community and the responsibilities of working in the professional world.
• Madison Park Vocational and Technical High School, Roxbury, MA – for many years, Prince Lobel has partnered with this school to provide entry-level job opportunities for students while they complete their vocational studies
• The Inner-City Scholarship Fund – The ICSF helps thousands of children in need by funding partial scholarships to attend Catholic schools in Boston and surrounding towns. Scholarships are given primarily to students in high poverty neighborhoods and are awarded without regard to race, religion, national origin or gender. This scholarship fund helps provide assistance to the neediest families in our community so they can offer their children a first-rate education and the hope of a promising future. Prince Lobel sponsors their annual Back to School Cup Golf Tournament, and a firm partner is an ICSF board member.
• South Boston Catholic Academy, Boston, MA -Attorneys and staff helped students and teachers paint and add artistic stenciling to walls and other open spaces
• St. Rose School, Chelsea, MA - Prince Lobel volunteers spent an afternoon assisting St. Rose School in Chelsea with some much needed "spring" cleaning as part of the firm’s second “Day to Make a Difference” through the Inner-City Scholarship Fund.
• Mission Grammar School, Roxbury, MA - Attorneys and staff joined students and teachers to clean, paint, make repairs, and assemble materials to prepare for the first day of school.
• School on Wheels of Massachusetts – attorneys and staff donated school supplies to help educate children affected by homelessness.

• Children's Advocacy Center - Prince Lobel is a sponsor of their annual golf tournament which raises funds to support the CAC's mission of providing support to abused children and their families in Suffolk County.
  
• Women's Lunch Place - Staff and attorneys volunteer regularly to serve lunch at this daytime refuge for women and children who are poor and homeless. Click here for photos from our recent partnership with Boloco at Women's Lunch Place. In addition to helping their volunteers serve lunch, the firm is an ongoing sponsor if their annual Spaghetti Dinner, an event that raises critical funds to support their daily operations.
• H.A.R.T. House - Each year Prince Lobel attorneys and staff provide all the fixings for a Thanksgiving meal for mothers and children living at this family residential treatment program for women struggling with addictions, and a safe house for women and children who need shelter from domestic violence. The firm also completes the holiday wish lists for the children and their mothers who would otherwise have no presents to open during the holidays.
• Haven From Hunger - The firm delivers Thanksgiving food to this organization that provides more than two million pounds of food annually to those in need in the Peabody and Salem (Mass.) area.
• Ella J. Baker House - The firm provided turkeys to residents of this Dorchester-based program that mentors, monitors, and ministers to high risk youth in Boston's inner city.
• Smart From the Start - Prince Lobel contributed to their holiday gift drive. This Boston-based organization offers a wide variety of services to low-income families.
• Casa Nueva Vida - They are the only homeless shelter in the state of Massachusetts with a completely bilingual staff. This organization is committed to helping homeless families find their own affordable and permanent housing as well as helping them build the skills necessary to stay out of homelessness and become active member of society.
• Heading Home, Inc. - The firm supports this organization by offering pro bono legal services and sponsoring their fundraising programs aimed at providing emergency, transitional, and permanent housing and support services to low-income and formerly homeless families and individuals.
  
• Habitat for Humanity
• Walk for Hunger
• Numerous youth sports programs in the Greater Boston area

The Arts

• Outside the Box - In 2013, Boston will be host to a first-of-its-kind eight-day multi-arts festival held at locations in and around the city. Events are open to all, and no charge when held in one of many public spaces.
• Shakespeare on the Common - Each year, Prince Lobel sponsors an evening's performance for this organization dedicated to performing the works of William Shakespeare in contemporary productions, and presented free of charge to Boston's diverse communities.
  
• Celebrity Series of Boston - The firm sponsored "Mad About Marty," a tribute to longtime Celebrity Series of Boston President and Executive Director Martha H. Jones. The mission of Celebrity Series of Boston is to create new works that bring artists and audiences together, and to engage young audiences in artistic experiences through performing arts-based education and community service programs.
• Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston - Prince Lobel sponsored "Martinis & Masterpieces," an event that recognized the business and legal professionals who provide free and reduced services to artists and arts organizations in Massachusetts.

• Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation - Prince Lobel is a sponsor of their 30th anniversary celebration. MLAC is the largest funding source for civil legal aid programs in Massachusetts, ensuring that low-income people have access to legal information, advice, and representation for their critical, non-criminal legal issues.
  
• Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association - Prince Lobel sponsored their 2013 Annual Gala , which celebrated the contributions and achievements of notable black legal professionals. The MBLA provides a valuable network and visible presence for attorneys of color within the Massachusetts legal community.
• Greater Boston Legal Services - Prince Lobel attorneys and staff support their annual "Associates Drive." GBLS provides free legal assistance and representation on civil matters to hundreds of the neediest residents in the city of Boston and 31 surrounding cities and towns.
  
• Massachusetts Appleseed Center for Law and Justice - Prince Lobel was a sponsor at their 2012 Good Apple reception honoring Edward J. Weiss, general counsel of Fenway Sports Group. Massachusetts Appleseed's mission is to promote equal rights and opportunities for Massachusetts residents by developing and advocating for systemic solutions to social justice issues.
  
• Mattapan Community Health Center - Prince Lobel supported their 2012 “Rock the Boat” gala event honoring 2012 Community Health Pinnacle Award recipients Massachusetts Governor Deval L. Patrick and Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino. MCHC is committed to its mission of improving the quality of life for residents of Mattapan and surrounding communities by providing comprehensive, accessible, affordable, and culturally appropriate community health care services, including primary and preventive health services.
  
• Massachusetts General Hospital YouthCare - Prince Lobel sponsored their 2012 spring gala, which supported an MGH program that helps children, teens, and young adults with Asperger’s syndrome, high functioning autism, and related profiles, make social connections and develop independence.  
• Lenny Zakim Fund - Prince Lobel sponsors their annual Young Leaders' Casino Night. The Fund makes small and meaningful grants to support small, emerging, grassroots programs in Massachusetts that help improve literacy, alleviate poverty, and end youth violence.
  
• Roxbury Comprehensive Community Health Center (RoxComp) – For several years, the firm has sponsored their annual gala. This event helps fund critical resources so this health center can continue to serve Boston’s most vulnerable residents as well as the homeless and socially abandoned.
• HopeFound - Prince Lobel sponsored their annual golf tournament and fundraising dinner. HopeFound offers an array of services for men and women who are homeless and often struggling with issues of addiction and mental illness. It is nationally recognized for program innovation and successful outcomes for chronically homeless individuals.
• Caritas Communities - Prince Lobel is a sponsor of their annual fundraising dinner. This event provides significant funding to help address the housing needs of more than 800 low-income individuals through the development and management of affordable housing. 
• Massachusetts LGBTQ Bar Association - Prince Lobel is an ongoing supporter of this organization whose mission is to promote a positive LGBTQ presence in the Massachusetts legal community.
• Office of New Bostonians - The firm is a sponsor of the "We Are Boston" gala and the organization's city-private-community partnership providing access to English classes and other resources to more than 1,000 individuals throughout the Boston area.
• Boston Cares Corporate Volunteer Day – revitalized an inner-city neighborhood garden.
• Project Bread – staff and attorneys participated in the 20-mile Walk for Hunger to help fund 400 emergency food programs in 128 communities in Massachusetts.
• American Red Cross - staff and attorneys contribute to help support their disaster relief efforts

Illness Awareness and Prevention

• Playing for Parkinson's at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center - sponsor of their annual tennis event
  
• Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation for Autism
• National Leukemia Foundation
• American Liver Foundation
• American Heart Association
  
• Autism Service Dogs of America
• Scleroderma Foundation
• Breast Cancer Walk
• American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
• Dana Farber Marathon Challenge

The firm is deeply committed to the delivery of pro bono legal services, and believes that legal professionals have the ability to help the disadvantaged and promote the public interest in ways that members of no other profession can. As a result, all firm attorneys are expected to participate in this important tradition of the legal profession.

• For many years, the firm has provided pro bono legal services to the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, and is the recipient of the VLA’s 2011 “Robert B. Fraser Award for Pro Bono Excellence.”
• The firm has been working with LIFT Somerville, an organization that provides local residents with a wide range of social and legal services. Firm attorneys helped a domestic abuse victim receive priority status for public housing.
  
• Our counsel have provided pro bono assistance to AIDS patients, with respect to assuring their health and disability benefits and in estate planning.
• One of our counsel provides pro bono legal services for the Massachusetts Bar Association's program providing free basic estate planning to low income, elderly residents of the Commonwealth.
  
• Prince Lobel is currently providing pro bono legal services to "Outside the Box Festival 2013," the first citywide, multi-arts festival based in Boston.
• One of our attorneys assisted the nonprofit "Meet the Worms" in creating a solidified 501(c) 3organization. Spearheaded by the Barbara Lynch Foundation, "Meet the Worms" is dedicated to teaching young children the importance of nutrition and living a healthy lifestyle.
  

Individual Initiatives

The attorneys at Prince Lobel invest a lot of time and energy into neighborhood efforts. Below is a sampling of the types of roles they play:

• A Prince Lobel partner serves on the board of the Inner-City Scholarship Fund. The ICSF helps thousands of children in need by funding partial scholarships to attend Catholic schools in Boston and surrounding towns. Scholarships are given primarily to students in high poverty neighborhoods and are awarded without regard to race, religion, national origin or gender.
• A Prince Lobel partner serves on the Board of Directors of Caritas Communities and as Chair of their Dinner Committee. Caritas Communities is the largest builder and manager of single room occupancy housing for the working poor and working proud in Eastern Massachusetts.
• A partner in the firm works closely with Boston-based Young Men’s Success Series (YMSS), which offers young men of color the opportunity to participate in a variety of workshops, panel discussions, and seminars to help convince them that “education is still the only launch pad to success.”
  
• Two of our attorneys currently serve on the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) Regional Planning Committee, and one of our attorneys previously served on NFTE’s national board of directors.
• One of our attorneys serves on the board of directors of the Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston (FHCGB). The work of FHCGB is important because where and how a person lives impacts every aspect of their lives, including access to decent schools, jobs and commerce.     
• One of our counsel has served for nine years as a trustee for the Roxbury Community College. 
• A firm partner is on the board of directors of Middlesex Human Service Agency, Inc, which offers a variety of services to its clients who are confronting an array of problems including homelessness, substance abuse, mental health issues, legal issues, and the lack of educational and vocational skills.
  
• An attorney at the firm is a director (and clerk) of the Fleet Boston Celebrity Series which was the Ailey Camp, a summer program of inner city children.
• A partner at our firm is emeritus editor on the board of editors of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly.
• A few of our attorneys are trustees for the Massachusetts Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts in Boston which provides legal assistance to low-income writers and artists. 
• An associate of the firm is co-chair of the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Section of the Boston Bar Association. This section holds forums on pressing issues regarding our rights, and helps set Boston Bar Association policy on those issues.
• For the past 17 years, one of our partners has been actively involved in Partners in Education, Inc., which involves teaching a course in a Boston public school each semester to minority students in law related subjects. 
• One of our attorneys is a director for the Big Sister Association of Greater Boston and is currently a member of their advisory board.
• An associate at our firm is on the Curriculum Committee of the Bill of Rights Education Project of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts. This committee has developed a curriculum for teaching the Bill of Rights to students in Massachusetts.
• One of our counsel is on the board of the Massachusetts Advocates for Children, a non-profit agency. The same counsel also serves on the Professional Advisor’s Committee of the Boston Foundation.
• A partner of our firm is a member of the IOLTA Grant Advisory Committee for the Massachusetts Bar Foundation and a lifetime member of the Foundation.
• Two firm partners are board members of Ford Hall Forum, an institute that organizes free seminars for the public on a diverse range of topics.
• Two of our partners are actively involved with the Anti-Defamation League. One partner has served as its National Civil Rights Chair and currently is the National Education Chair and a member of the organization's National Advisory Committee. The League has a direct impact on the community in the following areas: interfaith relations between the Jewish, African American, Catholic and Muslim communities; educating youth on diversity and tolerance; speaking out against all forms of hate; assisting law enforcement with the prosecution of hate crimes and raising community awareness in a variety of different areas.
  
• A partner at our firm is a member of the Civil Rights Committee of the Anti-Defamation League.
• One of our partners is a board member of the Law Clerks Society of the Supreme Judicial Court.
• A partner at our firm has regularly been a trial advisor and/or judge in the Trial Advocacy program at Harvard Law.
• One of our associates is a board member of Suited for Success, a non-profit organization that assists economically disadvantaged women to enter or reenter the workforce. 
• One of our partners is the president of the Massachusetts chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.  
• A partner at our firm is the chair of the Emil Gumpert Committee of the American College of Trial Lawyers. This committee awards an annual grant to a program involved in maintaining and improving the administration of justice.
• One of our associates is co-chair of the Boston Bar Association Computer and Internet Law Committee.
• One of our attorneys is a board member of the New Lawyers’ Section of the Massachusetts Bar Association. The New Lawyers’ Section is involved in a job shadow program with area high schools where students join the lawyers at work one day.
• A partner of our firm is a board member of the Terezin Chamber Music Foundation.
• One of our attorneys is actively involved with the annual RoxComp Gala, a major fund-raising event for a health care provider that helps thousands of uninsured, underinsured, disabled, and homeless individuals receive important medical and social assistance.
• One of our partners is a selected member of the Family Law Curriculum Advisory Committee of the MCLE. 
• An associate of our firm is on the board of Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts.
• A firm associate is a Junior Fellow in the Boston Bar Foundation's Society of Fellows Program. The mission of this program, which is tailored to younger attorneys, is to ensure that vulnerable and needy members of the community have access to legal services.