Ohio kicked off its participation in the National Pro Bono Celebration on Friday with the Toledo Bar Association Pro Bono Legal Service Program’s luncheon honoring Attorney Pat Intagliata for 25 years of service as director of the program.
Attorney Intagliata graduated from University of Toledo College of Law in 1979 and first worked in the law school’s legal clinic before becoming the bar association pro bono program director in 1985. The program operates a divorce program at Lucas County Domestic Relations Court, expungement clinics, Law Tuesdays, and a Juvenile Court project, among other pro bono projects. In 2008 the program’s lawyers donated over 2,600 pro bono hours and closed 1,200 cases.
Ohio State Bar Association President Carmen Roberto, the 2010 Ohio honorary chair for the National Pro Bono Celebration, welcomed the audience and thanked the many lawyers in attendance who had accepted cases for the program. He remarked that Rufus Ranney, the first president of the Ohio State Bar Association, stressed the need for pro bono service when he addressed the state bar at its first convention in 1880, characterizing a lawyer who wouldn’t represent a client because they couldn’t pay as “no better than a doctor who wouldn’t treat a sick patient because they couldn’t pay the bill.”
The event was the culmination of the Toledo Bar Association’s Pro Bono Annual Campaign, which raised over $100,000 to support the Pro Bono Legal Services Program.