When Hallandale Beach attorney Anthony Musto was hired as chief appellate counsel for the Broward County Attorney’s Office in the 1990s, he found little excuse for why the office’s government attorneys couldn’t get involved in pro bono work.

They had no malpractice insurance, nowhere to meet clients or take depositions and, most of all, Musto’s coworkers worried about the appearance of a government lawyer representing a private citizen.