Recently, litigation partner Jeremy Sacks appeared as a guest on Furia Rubel’s “On Record PR” podcast, where he spoke with guest host Caitlan McCafferty. Sacks talked about how his day-to-day routine has changed due to the pandemic and discussed Stoel Rives’ Main Street Relief Project and participation in the Law Firm Antiracism Alliance. Click to listen to the podcast, “How an Am Law 200 Firm is Working Towards Solutions to 2020’s Challenges with Jeremy Sacks.”
Sacks outlined the Main Street Relief program, which the firm created to provide pro bono assistance in four primary ways to local businesses affected by the pandemic:
- To obtain insurance for business disruptions.
- To resolve real estate landlord/tenant issues.
- To learn how to help their employees through federal loan programs or by other means.
- To provide them with general counsel about SBA loans and other forms of financial assistance.
“One thing that was important to me in the Main Street Relief Project is that the firm stand up and do it because we’re kind of the institutional memory, we and other firms like us in cities like Portland, where a lot of our headquarters companies have left,” Sacks, chair of Stoel Rives’ pro bono committee, said. “Yes, Nike’s here, and there’s a number of other companies here too, but a lot of the homegrown companies have been bought out.”
Sacks also talked about Stoel Rives’ participation in the Law Firm Antiracism Alliance (“LFAA”), in which more than 125 firms committed to working together to devote pro bono resources to address systemic racism. LFAA members are combing laws throughout the U.S. for built-in racist assumptions and seeking to change or overturn them. The members are also involved in an “antimilitia” project to create a toolkit to help states and individuals identify and enforce existing laws in many states that prohibit militias from acting as a “police force” if the police or other authorities are already present.
For more on the Main Street Relief Project, visit Stoel Rives Launches Main Street Relief Project.