Many of our lawyers volunteer their time and talents to community organizations of all types – from bar associations to charitable, educational, religious and legal organizations.

Many of our partners and associates also serve on the boards of public service organizations, including Advocates for Children, Brooklyn Legal Services Corporation A, Congressional Hunger Center, Gay Men's Health Crisis, Hour Children, Lawyers Alliance for New York, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Legal Aid Society, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, probono.net, Sanctuary for Families’ Center for Battered Women’s Legal Services, Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, and Volunteers of Legal Service.

Every year our lawyers act as mentors to high school students. We have mentored more than 400 students since the program began in 1993.

Several of our lawyers are also participating in the CARE (Credit Abuse Resistance Education) Program. The program is an opportunity for volunteers (mostly bankruptcy or finance lawyers, but open to others) to go into New York City public high schools and teach a 50-minute course on personal financial responsibility and the dangers of credit and credit cards.

We help fund a permanent summer fellowship at Sanctuary for Families’ Center for Battered Women’s Legal Services in memory of a former litigation associate who worked closely with that organization.

Through the Davis Polk/Equal Justice America Internship Program, 14 Columbia law students served as summer interns at public service organizations all over the country. These organizations included The Texas Civil Rights Project, Algoka Department of Law, Natural Resources and Environmental Section of the Civil Division, the Center for HIV Law and Policy, Legal Resources Centre in South Africa and the Center for Migrant Rights in Mexico.

We also have a long tradition of lawyers leaving Davis Polk for public service and returning to the firm upon completion of that service. Recent examples include:

• Annette Nazareth (former SEC Commissioner)
  
  
  
• Linda Chatman Thomsen (former Director of the Enforcement Division of the SEC)
  
  
  
• Raul Yanes (former Assistant to the President and Staff Secretary) 

In addition, a number of other Davis Polk partners and associates have returned to the firm after serving as U.S. Attorneys, Assistant U.S. Attorneys, Assistant District Attorneys or in other positions in federal or state government.