Get legal help

Stay Informed With LSC

Legal Services Corporation Honors Arkansas Attorneys for Pro Bono Service

January 28, 2020

LITTLE ROCK, ARK. – The Legal Services Corporation (LSC) Board of Directors will present Pro Bono Service Awards on Thursday, January 30, to Arkansas attorneys in recognition of their extraordinary commitment to equal justice. The LSC Pro Bono Service Award Reception will be held in conjunction with the LSC Board of Directors’ quarterly meeting. The reception will take place at 6:00 p.m. CST at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service inside the Clinton Presidential Center.

Dean James L. "Skip" Rutherford, University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, will provide opening remarks. He will be joined by Amy Dunn Johnson, Executive Director, Arkansas Access to Justice Commission and Foundation.

Recipients of LSC’s Pro Bono Service Awards were nominated by LSC’s grantees in the state, the Center for Arkansas Legal Services and Legal Aid of Arkansas. The recipients are:

  • David Biondolillo, a solo practitioner based in Wynne who has served as a pro bono volunteer with Legal Aid of Arkansas for more than 16 years. He has closed more than 40 pro bono cases during that time, mostly focusing on helping survivors of domestic violence.

  • Arthur Paul Bowen, a private attorney in Little Rock who previously served in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of General Counsel. He has been an important pro bono partner with the Center for Arkansas Legal Services and a member of the Volunteer Organization of the Center for Arkansas Legal Services (VOCALS) for the past six years.

  • Harry A. Light, an attorney with Friday, Eldredge & Clark LPP in Little Rock, the largest law firm in Arkansas. For more than seven years, he has helped Legal Aid of Arkansas by traveling monthly from Little Rock to the small rural community of Clarendon to provide pro bono help focusing on wills and estates, housing, guardianship, and consumer law.

  • John M. Rainwater, a partner and founder of Rainwater, Holt & Sexton PA in Little Rock. He has been a member of VOCALS since 2014 and serves on the VOCALS board. In that position he has worked to recruit pro bono attorneys and raise funds to support the Center for Arkansas Legal Services. 

  • Carolyn Witherspoon, is an attorney with Cross, Gunter, Witherspoon & Galchus, P.C. in Little Rock. She has been a member of VOCALS for more than 25 years.  During that time, she has helped numerous clients in complex domestic abuse and minor guardianship cases and contributed to the organization financially.

Legal Services Corporation (LSC) is an independent nonprofit established by Congress in 1974. For 50 years, LSC has provided financial support for civil legal aid to low-income Americans. The Corporation currently provides funding to 131 independent nonprofit legal aid programs in every state, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories.