Nearly 1,500 lawyers donated at least 50 hours of pro bono legal work last year to earn designation by the New York State Bar Association as "Empire State Counsel." The 247,550 hours of legal work donated by the 1,438 attorneys was more than double the time given by lawyers under the program in 2008.

Among the firms donating at least 10,000 of pro bono services were David Polk & Wardwell (32,665 hours), Sullivan & Cromwell (20,245 hours) and Proskauer Rose (16,342 hours).

Attorneys at several large firms were the year's top individual pro bono service providers, such as Joshua Thomas of Davis Polk & Wardwell (1,471 hours), Diana Goff of Shearman & Sterling (1,269 hours) and Laurie L. Levin of Goodwin Procter (1,219 hours).