Volunteer of the Month – January 2021

Weston M. Love is an associate at Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP.

• • What type of cases have you accepted?

I have personally worked on immigration cases relating to clients hoping to secure Special Immigrant Juvenile Status and cases relating to clients who desire to have certain arrests and misdemeanors expunged from their records in order to remove certain barriers from housing, employment, and military service opportunities. Additionally, I have volunteered at many legal aid clinics around Dallas during which I worked on client intake matters.

• • Why do you do Pro Bono?

Katten does a wonderful job in prioritizing initiatives that allow us to give back to the community. I feel extremely grateful to the firm for this. Additionally, there is no sense of happiness like helping those in need and seeing before your eyes the very real impact that your work has made in improving their quality of life.

• • What impact has pro bono service had on your career?

Engaging in pro bono activities has given me the opportunity to meet wonderful people, whether through the Human Rights Initiative of North Texas, the Dallas District Attorney’s Office, or through DVAP. I have never had a negative experience with a client or any representative of any of the aforementioned organizations. Everyone has proven himself or herself to be a consummate professional who exhibits the highest forms of courtesy and civility.

• • What is the most unexpected benefit you have received from doing pro bono?

I remember volunteering at several legal aid clinics all over Dallas during a short period of time. Nearly every time I went, I saw another volunteer attorney there. I met this man on one occasion, though candidly I do not remember his name. In any event, this attorney spoke with numerous individuals with all manner of legal issues. I came to find his approach to client interactions to be both empathetic and extremely informative. He presented matters with great confidence and his clients almost invariably left feeling more secure in their positions then they did when they arrived. While I fully expected to do my very best at each intake clinic, because the legal issues discussed there rarely, if ever, had anything to do with my specialty of corporate law, I did not expect that I would learn portable legal skills (in the form of a unique and effective style of communicating directly with individuals at the intake clinic) that I could easily apply to my everyday work in corporate law. By emulating this attorney, I have improved my direct client communications. I am grateful to this man and I wish I could remember his name so that I could thank him.