Connie Fratianni was a model citizen. When she wasn’t at her desk logging 2,200 hours as a Shearman & Sterling bankruptcy/restructuring partner, she was running a Girl Scout troop in Manhasset, New York, volunteering at her children’s school, and keeping a lively e-mail correspondence going with U.S. soldiers in various war zones. But when it came to pro bono legal work, Fratianni was literally nowhere. She didn’t like to even discuss her one pro bono attempt.
All that changed last year. In response to an e-mail chat with an Army captain serving in Afghanistan, Fratianni launched a drive to collect classroom supplies for Afghan children; Operation Crayola, she called it. A separate e-mail exchange with Shearman’s pro bono coordinator, Saralyn Cohen, led to a request from Afghanistan to convert the fledgling school supplies project into a nonprofit outfit. Cohen brought it to Fratianni, who packed up the coloring books and picked up the tax code. A few months later, thanks to the work of eight Shearman lawyers in three offices, Operation Dreamseed was incorporated, and Fratianni went from being a pro bono MIA to a 60-hour-a-year volunteer. “I was looking for a project I could be committed to,” says Fratianni. “Dreamseed touched on so many of my interests that it was the perfect storm.”
