There is no shortage of people in Texas who need legal advice but cannot afford it. Attorneys with the state’s largest firms helped relieve some of that need in 2010 by donating 178,867 hours to pro bono matters.

“Most of our pro bono work is on very routine cases, family law, consumer claims, landlord-tenant disputes,” says James “Jody” Scheske, partner in charge of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld’s Austin office and a member of the firm’s pro bono committee. “Those cases don’t generate any publicity, but that’s where the greatest need is right now in our society.”