The Barone Winning Back Lives Foundation

The mission of the Barone Winning Back Lives Foundation is to help people battling significant challenges win back their lives.

Founded in 2014, the Barone Winning Back Lives Foundation was created to extend the Barone Defense Firm's mission beyond the clients we serve. Accordingly, the Winning Back Lives Foundation aligns with charities, organizations and faith-based institutions whose goals are to help people facing significant life-changing challenges overcome their adversities and reclaim the life they had prior to experiencing the often devastating impact of these challenges. Our hope is that those we touch will no longer view their recovery from these challenges as painful endings but instead see them as new beginnings.

In late 2013, Mr. Barone became dissatisfied at the Barone Defense Firm's ability to be a force for positive change. Seeking to expand the Firm's mission outside the "four corners" of the Firm and courtrooms, Barone made the decision to modify the Firm's mission statement from "helping our client's win back their lives" to "helping people win back their lives." While this one-word change was subtle, it was extraordinarily important because, with it, the Firm and the Foundation joined their efforts toward a common cause - helping people battle addiction and other challenging events or life traumas.

The mission is a purposeful double entendre that evokes the language of recovery. This is because after practicing for many years, Barone realized that helping clients with their legal problems, while important and meaningful, left the client's underlying problems unresolved. This is because many common crimes are only a symptom of an addiction or another life challenge.

Additionally, Barone repeatedly saw the terrible cost of addiction expressed in the lives of the Firm's clients. As part of an effort to directly address this specific challenge, lawyers at the Barone Defense Firm have learned how to become "interventionists" who, when appropriate, help guide clients toward recovery. This work and this mission are particularly salient to the attorneys at the firm whose own lives have been personally touched by the lasting ravages of addiction.

Because we receive so much personal and professional satisfaction from helping our clients with both their legal as well as their broader life issues, we formed the Barone Winning Back Lives Foundation so that we could greatly expand our mission. The Foundation accomplishes this by funding charitable organizations having mission statements in keeping with the Barone Defense Firm's mission. This includes both religious and secular organizations that help others address their addictions and any underlying life or mental health issues that contribute to them.

The Foundation is funded from a portion of the Barone Defense Firm's operating profits, a portion of all Michigan Psychodrama Center's workshops, book sales, and private contributions.

There are many ways to join in the Foundation's mission:

• Retain the Barone Defense Firm to help you with a legal problem (about 1-2% of Firm proceeds are donated to the Foundation monthly).
• Sign up and attend a Michigan Psychodrama Center Workshop (5% of workshop proceeds are donated to the foundation yearly).
• Purchase a copy of Entrepreneurs Guide to the Michigan Medical Marijuana Laws (100% of all book profits are contributed to the foundation).

If you would like to help in an even bigger way, download and complete this form to make a personal gift to the Foundation. (Feel free to contact us with any questions about how to complete the form).