Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) says in the eight years since it started a pro bono program in Seattle for its in-house legal team, 700 of those employees have taken part, racking up 38,000 hours of volunteer legal work.
While the company has been tight-lipped about the overall size of its legal division, the details released in a new 86-page report shed light on the scope and impact of its pro bono program.
Chief among them are helping Mary's Place shelter residents secure permanent housing (the nonprofit has a family shelter inside a Seattle Amazon tower), and working with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients whose status had expired.
The company also said it helped overturn the wrongful conviction of Jason Lively, a person who spent 14 years incarcerated in a West Virginia prison on first-degree murder and first-degree arson charges. He was released in 2020.
"We believe that providing legal services to those unable to pay is not just an ethical obligation for all lawyers and legal professionals," wrote David Zapolsky, Amazon senior vice president and general counsel, in the report. "It gives Amazonians an opportunity to serve and learn about their communities in new and meaningful ways."
Zapolsky said he's championed the program since its inception in 2014.
Amazon isn't the only Seattle-area tech company that has launched a pro bono program. Microsoft, which also has a large in-house legal team, piloted a Protecting Journalists Program in 2020 in...
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