Energy lawyer and military officer John Shepherd Jr. seems to have boundless stamina for helping the underdog in pro bono housing and veterans’ rights cases. He’s counsel to Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and a major in the U.S. Army Reserve but has found time in his busy schedule to devote to his pro bono clients. Since joining Skadden in 2000, he has logged more than 1,300 pro bono hours.
Shepherd has been deployed twice since joining Skadden, including a combat tour in Iraq from May 2007 to May 2008. “The reason I became a lawyer and the reason I became a soldier are exactly the same reason: to fight bad things and to make good things happen,” Shepherd said. “You’re either a person who is convicted about trying to make the world a better place or you’re not.”
