Many lawyers head to law school with the hopes of helping improve the world—or at least their local communities.

Monica Johnson, the assistant general counsel for Ventura Foods, is making that dream a reality, despite the fact that her legal department only has three employees. She's always been interested in giving back, and she saw the opportunity at Ventura to start a pro bono program that would do just that.

Three years in, Ventura's three-person, “small but mighty” team has provided legal help for local students, veterans and entrepreneurs. Corporate Counsel spoke with Johnson about how the program began and the challenges of pro bono in a smaller department. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Corporate Counsel: Can you tell me about your pro bono program?

Monica Johnson:  We started it about three years ago. And I should share that we are a mighty and lean legal department of three attorneys.

We were looking for the opportunity to give back, and I identified one and presented it to our GC [Rebecca Smith Walsh]. She was fully on board, 100 percent. We started doing pro bono through Street Law, a program where we go into the high schools into the classroom and teach a legal subject. We taught copyright law the first year. We did that by talking about infringement. 

It's really a neat process, because it allows you to directly interact with students using something they would understand. With copyright infringement, we talked about popular music songs [involved in cases]. And having that opportunity to relate to those students with music they understand and relate to helps drive home the concept you're trying to teach.

It also provides a lovely opportunity to share what you do in your day to day legal professional life. So, aside from giving back and teaching, you're also opening the door for the students to see what a legal career looks like. I share with the students that I was the first lawyer in my family.

CC: Was it challenging to start a pro bono program in such a small legal department?

MJ: We're small and mighty. One of the ways we leveraged expertise was we reached out to the ACC Southern California and we partnered with them. Through that, we were able to participate in a veterans' discharge program. They  provided the training. We went to the training, met with the veterans and helped those who were [unfairly] given less than honorable discharges.

One of the other ways we mitigate the effect of [being small and doing pro bono] was through the ACC and a small business law program we did. So we went and we taught the basics of business law to people with emerging businesses who didn't have the first idea of, “Where do I need to go? What are the legal aspects of setting up a business?” 

CC: Why were you interested in starting this program?

MJ: It's always been something that's been on my personal radar. I've always had a track record of giving back, and I always understood the value of paying it forward.

I served on the California State Board of Optometry, appointed by Gov. [Arnold] Schwarzenegger. That was the first opportunity I ever had to leverage my legal skills as well as my communication skills to make a difference. We made a difference, as we actually drafted and had legislation passed that grew the scope for optometrics to diagnose glaucoma. That helped optometrists in more rural settings to identify glaucoma earlier. So having that expand the legislation got my thinking cap on. I thought, I do this whole law thing every day, how can I pay it forward and how can I give back?

Previous to Ventura, I was in a large legal department, and that wasn't the optimal place to launch a program because of the sheer fast nature of the business. Here at Ventura, I saw the opportunity and brought it to the attention of my general counsel. 

Now at Ventura Foods, we've also launched a corporate social responsibility initiative, about two years ago. When our CSR strategy was launched, it was a natural fit for us to talk about our pro bono work, and how we can do [CSR] in a legal setting as well. We share our legal pro bono work with the CSR committee, and it really showed how we are in sync with where our company is going.

CC: How do you decide what pro bono work your department takes on?

I think it's a matter of focusing and looking in our community—our local community, where we do business, where our company does business and what that community's needs are.