Fish & Richardson Associate Jared Smith Receives Pro Bono Publico Award

Jared Smith, an associate in our Southern California office, received San Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program's 2018 Pro Bono Publico award at the organization's annual Justice for All Celebration on Friday, September 21.

Smith was recognized for donating 269 hours of his services to SDVLP since taking on a pro bono case in September 2016. Through his volunteerism, Smith worked with a pro bono client suffering from multiple chronic health conditions, who had been denied Social Security disability benefits. A patent litigator whose practice focuses on complex issues across a wide range of technologies, Smith learned the intricacies of Social Security law to best serve his client. Ultimately, he helped establish ongoing benefits for his client, as well as back payments that were previously denied.

When accepting the award, Smith called the experience the "most rewarding thing" he's done in his career as an engineer or as a lawyer.

The Justice for All Celebration also featured special guest Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the Director of Retirement Security for the Economic Policy Institute and the former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland. Among the many topics Townsend discussed were her thoughts on the legacy of her father, Robert F. Kennedy.

About San Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program

For 35 years, San Diego Lawyer Volunteer Lawyer Program has changed the lives of thousands of disadvantaged women, children and men throughout San Diego County. A private, nonprofit organization, SDVLP is the county's oldest and most comprehensive pro bono legal services program. Annually, SDVLP's hundreds of volunteers provide more than 20,000 hours of donated time, delivering the equivalent of more than $5 million in legal services, free of charge, to struggling San Diegans.