COMMUNITY SERVICE

Maynard Cooper's dedication to bettering the community to which we belong is more than a commitment, it's one of this firm's founding principles.   This principle is upheld through active participation in numerous civic and charitable pursuits.

Pro Bono Services
Our firm is driven by a deep sense of obligation to our community. Maynard Cooper has been recognized repeatedly as Alabama's top firm in per-lawyer Pro Bono service through supporting a myriad of civic, charitable, religious and social causes and organizations.

Maynard Cooper enjoys near unanimous participation in the Alabama Bar Volunteer Lawyers Program, an organization that  assists indigent individuals with virtually any type of legal problem. Additionally, several of our lawyers have actively participated in capital murder cases, ensuring that the constitutional protections afforded all citizens are enforced.

The Maynard Foundation
Our attorneys fund and operate The Maynard Foundation, which makes significant charitable contributions annually.  These gifts support a number of worthwhile causes in Birmingham, including:

• Restoration of the 16th Street Baptist Church;
• The YMCA and the YWCA and its outreach programs;
• Operation New Birmingham;
• The National Conference for Community Justice;
• Momentum 21, campaign benefiting the Metropolitan Development Board;
• The McWane Center, a children's center for learning science through fun, unique activities;
• The Entrepreneurial Center;
• The Alabama Ballet;
• Tech Birmingham;
• The Alabama Symphony; and
• Katrina Relief Fund through the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army.

Other Maynard Foundation gifts supplement the volunteer efforts of our attorneys in the Birmingham area.

United Way
Outside of the Foundation, the firm's attorneys and staff support a number of causes, both through group and individual participation. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the firm's support of the United Way of Central Alabama, a collection of over 80 local agencies primarily serving children and youth, as well as those deserving special assistance in counseling, mental health and rehabilitation.

The firm routinely serves as a "Pacesetter" in the United Way's annual fundraising campaigns, collecting early gifts and pledges from our lawyers and staff, in order to provide a benchmark for other law firms' efforts during the remainder of the campaign.

Maynard Cooper also leads the way in law firm participation in the De Tocqueville Society, a society  in which membership is granted to those individuals who contribute at least $10,000 annually to the United Way.  In fact, Maynard Cooper has twice as many De Tocqueville members as any other law firm in Birmingham, which itself has more De Tocqueville members than virtually any comparably-sized city in the United States.
 
Additional Commitments
Maynard Cooper attorneys also generously donate their time and expertise to the community.  One of our attorneys is Chair of the American Bar Association Katrina Task Force.  Also, each year a group from the firm participates in the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation's Race for the Cure.  In addition, Maynard Cooper has attorneys who volunteer to educate local high school students on the legal profession on National Law Day.  Our attorneys serve on the boards of various organizations, including The Bell Center, Big Brothers and Big Sisters, the Downtown YMCA, CampFire USA, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Central Alabama Boy Scouts and Glenwood, Inc.  They also volunteer time for such organizations as the Firehouse Homeless Shelter and Habitat for Humanity.    Finally, many of our attorneys are actively involved in charitable ministries through their respective churches.