Renee M. Schoenberg
Renee M. Schoenberg’s work is literally all over the map.
The DLA Piper senior counsel has helped and structured so many nonprofit organizations across five continents that she can’t even name how many countries they’re in off the top of her head.
The organizations work in a wide variety of fields, ranging from offering low-income Washington, D.C., residents affordable legal services, getting Chicago’s youth interested in science experiments, fighting global hunger and protecting silverback gorillas in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Each cause Schoenberg aides presents a new technical challenge when applying for tax-exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service.
That’s how she got hooked on pro bono, she said — the technical side came first and the emotional side followed.
“I’m hardwired that way,” she said. “That’s how my brain functions.”
Schoenberg was one of five recipients of this year’s Pro Bono Publico Awards from the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Pro Bono, recognizing her “outstanding commitment” to volunteer legal services.
Anne Geraghty Helms, DLA Piper’s U.S. Pro Bono Programs director and counsel, described the awards as the Oscars of the pro bono world.
“To me, it’s the pinnacle of recognition, like a lifetime-achievement award,” she said.
Helms said it’s usually the pro bono litigation lawyers who get this kind of recognition. It may be easier to see the impact of an attorney winning a big, splashy case than an attorney helping a charitable idea become a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
“Renee has just been somebody who is quietly committed to her craft,” Helms said.
Schoenberg said her work helping nonprofits decide how to structure and earn tax exemption started as a spin-off of her trust and estates work. A real estate family whose foundations she had set up wanted to underwrite a psychiatrist’s fees to treat people who otherwise couldn’t afford therapy.
The IRS rejected Schoenberg’s first application, fearing the psychiatrist was trying to turn his private practice into a tax-exempt organization.
But on appeal, she showed that psychiatrist was charging low-income clients significantly less than market value for his services — thereby providing a charitable service to a charitable group — and it was approved.
“That taught me a very important lesson, which was: Do your research first,” Schoenberg said. “Know where the hot-button issues are going to be, and diffuse them in the exemption application.”
She became interested in how many different types of structures are possible for nonprofit organizations.
For example, a nonprofit in Illinois needs at least three directors. A trust, meanwhile, doesn’t require as many trustees. And sometimes there’s benefits to incorporating in other states like Delaware, where directors can have variable voting rights, or in Texas where directors in can vote by proxy.
“That’s why pro bono matters,” Schoenberg said. “You’re applying technical skills in a manner that will have a beneficial impact for lot of people. I think that’s what’s most satisfying about it.”
Schoenberg assisted with the incorporation of a Chicago nonprofit, Project Exploration, in 1999 and has been a “godmother” since as legal counsel.
The after-school program brings in local scientists and creates hands-on group activities to get middle and high school students from communities like Woodlawn, Englewood, Austin, Back of the Yards and Pilsen who are excited about science, technology and engineering.
Its tagline, “changing the face of science,” reflects both how it makes science engaging for kids and how it brings new kids’ faces into STEM careers, Schoenberg said.
Project Exploration serves about 900 Chicago Public Schools kids each year, she said, and 95 percent of them graduate high school. Sixty percent of Project Exploration participants pursue STEM degrees, some becoming the first in their families to attend college. And 32 percent have science-related jobs after completing their education.
“I don’t like to use nonprofit speak very often, but it really is an empowering situation,” Schoenberg said. “It’s transformative.”
Another project the award recognized Schoenberg for is her work structuring the DC Affordable Law Firm and getting it granted tax exemption.
The firm provides legal representation at low costs for the more than 100,000 residents of the District of Columbia who are above the poverty line but can’t afford a full-price attorney. Attorneys there are recent Georgetown University Law Center graduates financially backed by their alma mater and are mentored by Arent, Fox LLP and DLA Piper attorneys.
Sheldon Krantz, DC Affordable Law Firm’s executive director and a former DLA Piper partner at its Washington office, said he witnessed Schoenberg’s ability to help nonprofits when he was head of DLA Piper’s New Perimeter international nonprofit. She was able to get the 501(c)(3) designation approved by the IRS with zero follow-up questions in 2014, he said.
Krantz said the low bono law firm could not have been up and running so quickly without Schoenberg. He described her work for them as “just extensive.”
“I cannot even imagine the number of hours she spent,” Krantz said.
Schoenberg said most transactional lawyers could probably figure out the tax-exemption statutes and IRS application process. Krantz, however, said few attorneys understand the complexities like Schoenberg.
“It is a very complicated area,” he said. “I can tell you because I initially looked into it before I approached Renee.”
Helms said DLA Piper calls Schoenberg its nonprofit “guru.” She supervises and mentors young attorneys interested in nonprofit tax law and she serves as the go-to person for the firm’s thousands of attorneys in offices across 30 countries, Krantz said.
Still, Krantz said she has never heard of Schoenberg declining to help anyone.
“There are very few Renee Schoenbergs anywhere,” Krantz said.
Other 2016 Pro Bono Publico Award recipients were Katten, Muchin, Rosenman LLP in Chicago; Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton LLP in New York; John O. Goss of Goss & Fentress in Norfolk, Va. and Hillary Gaston Walsh of The Law Office of Hillary Gaston Walsh in South Korea. They received their awards at the ABA annual meeting in San Francisco on Aug. 6.