Pro Bono

Community Service Highlights

Calvo Jacob & Pangelinan attorneys serve on the boards of directors and are actively involved in the following organizations:

  • Ateneo Center for Educational Development provides financial, educational and structural support to the Philippines Public Schools System.
  • Edward M. Calvo Cancer Foundation provides financial assistance to people in the Guam community who are fighting cancer and who need off island medical assistance.
  • Guam Bar Association is the governing body responsible for the admission and discipline of Guam’s attorneys.
  • Guam Museum Foundation is dedicated to preserving the culture, art and history of Guam.
  • Guam Sports Events, Inc., a non-profit corporation, promotes health and fitness in the Guam community by organizing and operating some of Guam's most well-known annual fitness events.
  • Guam Territorial Law Library provides access to legal reference materials to the legal community of Guam.
  • Public Interest Law Project provides litigation and advocacy support to local legal services and public interest law programs throughout California with a focus on protecting affordable housing, granting access to public benefits for lower income persons and persons with disabilities, and protecting neglected and abused children and persons displaced by major disasters and government action.
  • Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), founded in 1948, is the world's largest Human Resource industry professional association, serving the professional development needs of HR professionals in over 140 countries.
  • The San Francisco Legal Aid Society - Employment Law Center, founded in 1916, provides free legal assistance to low-income clients of all cultures and backgrounds.
  • The San Francisco Law Library Commission provides the judiciary, the public, the bar, and government officials free access to legal reference materials.
  • Tiba Foundation provides medical care, training and equipment to residents of Ugenya, Kenya, an extremely poor and disadvantaged area near Lake Victoria.

Pro Bono Highlights

  • Kheyrow v. Department of Homeland Security  In coordination with Casa Cornelia Law Center in San Diego, the Firm represented an indigent asylum seeker from Somalia who had fled that country to escape ethnic persecution and torture by inter-clan rivals.  After litigating the case before the immigration court for nearly two years, the Firm’s client ultimately prevailed was granted asylum in 2011.
  • Foster Parents v. Solano County Child Welfare Services  In 2011, the Firm successfully represented the foster parents of two children at a grievance hearing before the Solano County Health and Social Services Department which was brought by Child Welfare Services to permanently remove the children from the clients’ home based on highly unsubstantiated allegations of abuse by a former foster child with a history of making false abuse claims.  After a lengthy hearing in the matter, the SCHSS ruled in favor of the Firm’s clients.  As a result, the children were returned to the clients’ foster care.  The clients recently reported that they have formally adopted the children and everyone is doing well. 
  • Street v. Northrop Grumman Ship Systems, Inc. In coordination with the San Francisco Legal Aid Society - Employment Law Center and the Mississippi Workers' Center for Human Rights, the Firm represented nine current and former African-American employees of the largest employer in Mississippi in an anti-discrimination action pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Mississippi.
  • People v. Cepeda  The Firm represented Franklin Cabrera Cepeda, Jr. in his appeal to the CNMI Supreme Court in Saipan and obtained a reversal of his 2005 conviction of felony murder on the grounds that he was the victim of violations of his Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights.