As a stereotypical inside-the-Beltway political junkie, one of my favorite media features — especially in election years — is The Washington Post‘s “five myths” column. The columns are timely (“Five myths about the Iowa Caucuses” being a recent entry) and quirky, as in the “Five myths about Margaret Thatcher” piece that arrived just in time for the release of the Thatcher film The Iron Lady. What I like best about the feature, other than the opportunity to be informed, is its approach as signaled by the tagline “challenging everything you think you know.”
As 2012 gets under way, and the number of inquiries we at the Pro Bono Institute receive from firms, legal departments and the media spikes after a somewhat quieter holiday season, the questions we are getting — and the assumptions underlying them — have inspired me to write this piece. We could even take a page from the Post and subtitle it “challenging everything everyone thinks they know about pro bono.” At the Pro Bono Institute, we are committed to a data- and evidence-based approach to expanding and improving pro bono service, and so, with a tip of the hat to The Washington Post, the following are the most common myths we’ve heard recently about law firm and corporate pro bono.
