A partner in Venable's recently opened Denver office, Beth Ann Lennon guides employers through the tangled web of employment laws to help them minimize legal risks so they can focus on their business goals. In this Q&A, Beth Ann talks about why providing pro bono services is essential to her career.
Q: You are highly involved with the Colorado Lawyers Committee (CLC). What led you to cofound the organization's Young Lawyers Division?
Beth Ann: The CLC is a phenomenal group that's been around for a long time. I love the support and infrastructure it provides, but the YLD allows a younger generation of attorneys to have more of a voice at the table in deciding where the CLC should focus its efforts. I think having every generation at the table when making these decisions just makes for a healthier organization.
Q: You also serve as a co-chair of the Hate Crimes Education Task Force. What does that entail?
Beth Ann: I've volunteered and worked with many CLC committees, but the Hate Crimes Education Task Force is one that I particularly enjoy. We go into classrooms and start teaching young people about important topics a lot earlier than would be happening otherwise – while they are still in junior high and high school. We talk about what constitutes a hate crime and why these laws matter. As a co-chair, I have helped to expand the program to reach more people, and we've been able to roll it out nationally.
Q: Do you remember your earliest pro bono work?
Beth Ann: My first summer of law school I ended up with five jobs, and three were doing pro bono-type work. I worked for Colorado Ethics Watch. I worked with a women's initiative. I also worked at Colorado's LGBT Center doing legal outreach. So, it's always been something that is really core to my sense of what we're supposed to be doing as attorneys.
One of my favorite things is providing guidance to people who are trying to navigate a legal issue for the first time. The law and the systems that enforce it can be completely overwhelming to those who are not intimately familiar with them. A lot of people don't have the resources or education to even know where to start. Helping people take the first step is huge and one of those things I keep going back to, because being that resource in that moment of need is very rewarding.
Q: Would you say that your pro bono work has helped you in your legal career?
Beth Ann: I would definitely say so. For a lot of new attorneys, it is difficult to get hands-on experience practicing law early in their career. For many people, then, pro bono work is a great way to get opportunities that otherwise might be harder to come by. While that's true for most attorneys, I'm a very proactive person, so I was going to have hands-on experience early in my career no matter what.
What was most valuable to me, especially as a younger associate and first-generation lawyer, was creating community connections. I personally know judges serving on both the federal and state benches, including justices on both the U.S. Supreme Court and Colorado Supreme Court, as well as people heading agencies responsible for employment laws my clients navigate on a daily basis. Many of these connections happened through pro bono activities.
Additionally, these connections I'm making go far beyond what you get when simply attending networking events. For example, with the CLC Hate Crimes Education Task Force, we go into classrooms and do presentations, similar to mock trials. My "opposing counsel" in those mock trials is often a District of Colorado judge who volunteers with the program all the time. In these instances, we're not interacting in the adversarial setting of court or standing awkwardly at a table with cocktail in hand while half a dozen people try to get her attention.
Rather, we are connecting over a shared desire to give back and make the world better in some small way, allowing us to build a connection as human beings. If you're later standing in front of a judge in court and she sees you as a human being first and then as an advocate for your client second, you are providing a better service for your client.
Q: Has Venable has been supportive of your pro bono work?
Beth Ann: One thousand percent. When I first joined, I mentioned my work with the CLC, and members of the Pro Bono Committee asked if I'd like to join them. This was on my second day at the firm. Since then, the firm has given us great resources to help expand the pro bono work Venable attorneys are doing here in Colorado and find ways to connect the Colorado pro bono work to others across the firm as well.
