CUA's Influence Spans the World

“Local Appleseed centers have the expertise, the flexibility and the independence to listen to unheard voices, uncover injustices and win the battles no one else fights.”

It’s more than just Web site hyperbole. Vicki Walcott-Edim, 2001, is such a believer in Appleseed, one of the country’s largest and most successful pro bono organizations, that she took a leave of absence from the New York City office of Jones Day to assume the directorship of Appleseed’s just-opened New York City office.

“Appleseed’s unique value is its ability to bring about change in law and policy by using the pro bono expertise of America’s top legal, academic and business professionals,” says Walcott-Edim. “Most pro bono organizations represent individuals on a case-by-case basis. Appleseed works to eradicate systemic societal issues at their core.”

With more than 15 independent law centers around the nation and one in Mexico, Appleseed advocates for and implements innovative programs in the areas of public education, health care, immigrant rights and child welfare. It often aims to course-correct misguided laws and policies at their source, rather than focus only on fixing the damage to individual lives so often caused by ineffective public policy. Its approach to issues and track record of success led American Lawyer Magazine to dub Appleseed as “Pro Bono’s New Frontier.”

Walcott-Edim is the natural choice to head Appleseed’s high profile new office. She landed there “on loan” as a Jones Day fellow, a position created as the result of a long and close collaboration between her firm and the pro bono venture. As a Jones Day attorney, she worked as an associate in the firm’s labor and employment group. But the desire to build a better world, brick-by-laborious-brick, was always an integral part of her personality. Even while a law student, she believed that attorneys can balance both private practice and public interest work simultaneously throughout their careers. At CUA, Walcott-Edim was active in the Law and Public Policy Program and supplemented her work for social justice with an externship in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

Despite the added responsibilities of marriage and motherhood over the past several years, Walcott-Edim knew that the path leading back to full-time service to others was the right one to take. From projects such as making health care more affordable for small business owners to offer their employees, to ensuring that attorneys understand the nuances of representing mentally ill clients, there is much work to be done. “I think that I ought to make a difference when I can,” she reflects. “Taking action that leads to positive change rather than lamenting over the state of affairs is a matter that requires more thought, creativity and frankly, responsibility."