Rashida West, the director for pro bono and public interest programs, joined a panel of practitioners at The Behavioral Psychology of Giving, a community forum sponsored by the Philadelphia Bar Association on Oct. 17.

West, who discussed the current state of pro bono and patterns of giving and giving back to the community, teaches Children and the Law as a member of the adjunct faculty. She previously was a staff attorney at the Support Center for Child Advocates.

The panel also featured Syon Bhanot, assistant professor of economics at Swarthmore College; Sophie Bryan, executive director of Philadelphia VIP; Jessica Hilburn-Holmes, executive director of the Philadelphia Bar Foundation; John P. Lavelle, a partner at Morgan Lewis and co-chair of the PBA Pro Bono Task Force, and the Hon. Annette Rizzo, co-chair of the PBA Pro Bono Task Force and former judge with the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.

The event served as the unveiling of the association’s 2017 Pro Bono Task Force Report.

West oversees the law school’s pro bono service program, through which all JD students provide legal services to under-represented constituencies including victims of domestic violence, homeless individuals and immigrants. While each JD student must complete at least 50 hours of service as a graduation requirement, the average Kline student completes far more.