Pro Bono for Microfinance

A few months ago my wife, who is a student at the University of Chicago Law School, was researching options for the social service project she leads during spring break. In the course of her research, she came across Paladin Connect, a nonprofit that links microfinance organizations to lawyers offering pro bono assistance. The founder is featured this week in an article on TheDeal.com.

“Kimberly Summe was as disconcerted as any other employee of Lehman Brothers Inc. last fall. After seven years as the general counsel of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association Inc., she began a job as a managing director in Lehman’s prime brokerage unit on Jan. 2, 2008. After Lehman filed for bankruptcy and sold its investment banking business to Barclays plc, Summe says she realized that she had “no insight about what’s going to happen with my career.” Her next thought was less conventional: “I need to do something with this time, because this time is a gift.” She used it to set up Paladin Connect, a nonprofit organization that links microfinance institutions with law firms that have expertise in banking regulation. Paladin has helped MFIs find pro bono legal counsel on about 30 matters this year, according to Summe.”

The service is similar to Grameen’s Bankers without Borders and fulfills a need that we have heard from microfinance institutions quite regularly. As Summe puts it, even the largest MFIs–the ones that can afford to have in house counsel–still cannot justify dedicating their attorney’s time to new opportunities, such as meeting the regulatory demands to become a savings institution.