MINNEAPOLIS, MN—June 4, 2018—Patrick Arenz, partner and chair of the Pro Bono Committee at Robins Kaplan LLP®, has received the 2018 ABA Pro Bono Publico award. This national recognition honors individual lawyers and legal institutions that have enhanced the human dignity of others by delivering outstanding volunteer legal services to the poor and disadvantaged. Arenz is one of only five recipients of this year’s award.
The ABA honored Arenz for his recent successes in precedent-setting pro bono matters. Recently, he secured a decisive $950,000 jury verdict in a federal lawsuit on behalf of a sex tourism victim, who was found by the jury to have been sexually assaulted by a U.S. citizen in Laos when she was 14 years old. This was believed to be the first civil jury verdict ever in a sex tourism case. He also plays a lead role on the Robins Kaplan team serving as co-counsel with the Illinois Attorney General in a historic pro bono lawsuit against the City of Chicago seeking police reform.
As chair of the firm’s Pro Bono Committee, Arenz also developed the firm’s Orders for Protection (OFP) Trial Skills Program, which delivers volunteer legal services to assist survivors of domestic violence with obtaining OFPs. The program was conceived to introduce first year associates to the firm’s commitment to pro bono, develop their professional skills, and make an immediate impact on the community.
Arenz will be honored at the 2018 ABA Annual Meeting on August 4. The awards are administered by the ABA Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service, which over the years has spotlighted pro bono efforts of individual lawyers and small and large law firms, government attorney offices, corporate law departments, and other institutions in the legal profession.
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