The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Maples v. Thomas contains several important lessons and reminders for those of us who maintain an active pro bono practice at large law firms or who manage large pro bono programs. Some of those lessons are more obvious than others.
In Maples, two associates from a prominent New York law firm took on the pro bono representation of Cory Maples, who was convicted in Alabama state court of murdering two friends after a night on the town. As has now been widely reported, Maples missed a state court appeals deadline because they had left the firm without telling him and without telling the court, setting in motion a chain of events in which the court clerk mailed the trial court’s final order to them at the law firm, which returned the envelopes to the clerk unopened and marked “return to sender.”
