When we say pro bono, many think of assisting litigants through navigating the many ins and out of the court system, but that’s not the only place our legal system asks non-lawyers to have an understanding of the law. There are many opportunities for pro bono representation in transactional matters. From setting up businesses to providing tax advice, knowing the right forms and how to fill them out can make all the difference. Trained lawyers can draft wills for veterans, navigate uncontested divorce proceedings, research novel issues, and much more. If you want to support your community but hope to stay out of the courtroom, this is the panel for you!

Learn more about the wide-ranging legal issues transactional attorneys can get involved with at our 2026 Summer Forum Panel on Non-Litigation Pro Bono Law on Thursday, July 9. Register here! 

Susie Hoffman will moderate the Non-Litigation Pro Bono panel. Susie is the Public Service Partner at Crowell & Moring, where she promotes, supervises, and participates in the pro bono work performed by the firm’s attorneys. Susie is also a past D.C. Bar President and has spent a lifetime building great familiarity with transactional pro bono opportunities and decades of experience in guiding partners and associates to connect with all kinds of meaningful pro bono work.

And here’s a little more about our panelists:

Phil Brest, American Constitution Society

Phil Brest became the American Constitution Society’s (ACS’s) President in January 2026. Prior to joining ACS, from 2023-2025, Brest served as the White House Senior Counsel who directed the Biden administration’s judicial nominations. In his time in the Office of the White House Counsel, Brest helped lead efforts to confirm 235 Article III judges—the most by any Presidential administration in nearly five decades.

Before joining the Biden White House, he spent six years working for the Senate Judiciary Committee, most recently as Chief Counsel for Nominations and Senior Advisor to U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill). He led the Senate’s confirmation of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and nearly 100 federal judges. He previously served in a variety of roles for the late U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), including as her Acting Staff Director, where he oversaw the Judiciary Committee’s work on civil rights, intellectual property, national security, and other matters within the Committee’s jurisdiction.

Prior to joining the Judiciary Committee staff, Brest spent several years as an attorney specializing in white collar criminal investigations. Working for two different large law firms, Brest focused on representing clients in cases brought under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and in various banking, antitrust, accounting, and pharmaceutical investigations. He clerked for Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar on the California Supreme Court, where he advised the Justice on civil, criminal, administrative, and constitutional legal matters.

Brest received his A.B. magna cum laude from Cornell University’s College of Arts and Sciences, and his J.D. from Stanford Law School, where he served on the Stanford Law Review.

Darryl Maxwell, D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center 

Darryl Maxwell is the Director of Nonprofit & Small Business Legal Assistance Programs for the D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center. His work is focused on providing pro bono legal support, education, and counsel to community-based nonprofits and disadvantaged small businesses. Prior to joining the Pro Bono Center, Darryl worked in private practice. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the George Washington University Law School.

Darryl currently serves as Board Chair of the Latino Economic Development Center, an organization that assists Latinos and other D.C.-area residents with small business development, microlending, affordable housing preservation, and pathways to homeownership. He also serves at his law school alma mater as a Professorial Lecturer in Law.

Bridget M. Weiss, Arnold & Porter

Bridget M. Weiss is a partner at Arnold & Porter. Bridget brings a mission-first approach to her representation of tax-exempt organizations and philanthropists. With deep experience across the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors, she provides strategic, solutions-oriented counsel to help clients align legal compliance with organizational goals and charitable impact.

She advises a wide range of tax-exempt organizations—including charities, private foundations, advocacy and political organizations, hospitals and medical research institutions, and international NGOs—on formation, tax-exempt qualification, governance, operations, and regulatory compliance. Her experience includes designing complex international affiliate structures, advising on lobbying and political activity compliance, and supporting impact investment vehicles that advance charitable missions. She also works with for-profit companies on corporate philanthropy initiatives, employee engagement programs, and related partnerships with nonprofit organizations.

Bridget regularly counsels family offices and high-net-worth individuals on structuring and managing multi-entity philanthropic and impact platforms. This includes developing shared services arrangements among family offices, social enterprises, and affiliated nonprofits. She advises on charitable gift planning and helps clients select the most appropriate philanthropic or mission-driven vehicles to achieve long-term legacy and impact goals.

Misty Thomas Zaleski, Council for Court Excellence 

Misty Thomas Zaleski joined the Council for Court Excellence (CCE) in 2018 as Executive Director. She brings years of experience representing clients in both civil and criminal matters in the District and directing two legal reform organizations to further CCE’s mission to bring people together to make D.C.’s unique legal systems more just, equitable, and accountable to the community. 

Prior to joining CCE, Misty served as the Director of the ABA’s Death Penalty Due Process Project, focused on research, education, and policy advocacy related to capital punishment and other criminal justice issues. She previously was an Affordable Housing Initiative attorney at the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, where she represented homeless individuals and tenants in cases to preserve their access to housing or shelter, and advocated to government agencies for more effective affordable housing laws and regulations in D.C. She also worked at Howrey LLP as the Pro Bono Fellow, where she represented clients in a wide range of criminal and civil cases and supported the pro bono practices of other lawyers at the firm. 

Prior to law school, she served as the inaugural Executive Director of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, which works to correct and prevent the wrongful conviction of innocent people in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. Misty holds a B.A. from Claremont McKenna College, and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, where she was a Public Interest Law Scholar and where she has taught as an adjunct professor of law.

We look forward to seeing you at this panel! Register here to get your ticket to the keynote and the substantive panels. Join the conversation using #SumFo26!