You Can't Beat Pro Bono

‘Thank God you’re here” . . . “You’re a lifesaver” . . . These are comments you’ll probably never hear from your firm’s corporate clients following a successful hearing on a motion, or the closing of a transaction, or the settlement of an adversary proceeding. However, I guarantee that if you make pro bono work part of your practice, you will hear those words and other heartfelt expressions of relief and gratitude from your pro bono clients.

As every volunteer attorney will tell you, there is no professional experience as satisfying or uplifting as using the legal system to help someone with a critical problem who cannot afford an attorney. Plain and simple, providing services to people who would not otherwise have their rights protected will make you feel good about yourself and your decision to become a lawyer.

The effect that pro bono work can have is explained by Catherine Douglas, executive director of inMotion, an organization with offices in Manhattan and the Bronx that offers assistance to low-income women who need free legal services in matrimonial, family and immigration law:

“We at inMotion see the dramatic difference that a committed and focused pro bono lawyer makes to a poor woman and her children in Family Court. The playing field is instantly leveled when the judge and opposing counsel are forced to deal with a knowledgeable, well-prepared attorney.”

William F. Kuntz II, a litigation partner in the New York office of Baker & Hostetler and a pro bono activist including service as a member of the boards of directors of the Legal Aid Society of New York and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, says the following to young associates:

“You will discover that the lawyers in your firm to whom you are drawn, whom you admire or who influence you the most, are those who are involved with legal service organizations or community groups. It’s never too early to become a busy, well-rounded, committed lawyer.”

Lynn Kelly, Executive Director of the City Bar Justice Center, agrees:

“The satisfaction of doing pro bono work is sustaining. If you start early in your career you will continue to do pro bono work; for many attorneys it reconnects them with the sense of helping others that brought them to law school. Over the years, attorneys have told me how much they learned from helping a low income client or the insight they gained from working with a poor mother or a disabled person or a struggling immigrant.”

Pro Bono Work Will Be Noticed

Most law firms are committed to doing pro bono work for altruistic as well as business reasons, and it comes into play in various ways.

For example, The American Lawyer magazine’s “A-List” measures the performance of the so-called “Am Law 200″ law firms (those that ranked 1-200 in the magazine’s list of the nation’s highest-grossing firms) in four areas, including pro bono. Two of those categories, one being pro bono, count double. See The American Lawyer, July 2008, at p. 88, available at americanlawyer.com.

Also, these days most Fortune 500 companies not only tout their own public service projects on their Web sites, but expect their outside counsel to participate in pro bono activities. Many requests for proposals (RFPs) – used to solicit law firms – contain sections devoted to pro bono and community service work.

What this means for you is that not only will most large and medium-sized firms not object to you taking on pro bono work, they will encourage it.

You Get Hands-On Responsibility

As you have undoubtedly discovered (or are about to), it is difficult for junior associates to get hands-on responsibility for cases and projects. Not so in the pro bono world.

Junior lawyers have direct client contact and full responsibility for cases. It is not unusual for a pro bono attorney to take and defend a deposition, argue a substantive motion, examine witnesses at a hearing, negotiate a settlement and even try a case. Also, the skills and confidence you will develop handling a pro bono matter translate to your other cases.

If that sounds exciting but scary, keep in mind that the first-rate pro bono legal services groups understand that it can be intimidating to handle cases outside your practice area, and they make sure that their volunteers receive necessary training. Jeannie Costello, Executive Director of the Brooklyn Bar Association’s Volunteer Lawyers Project (VLP), explains:

“The VLP considers the volunteer attorneys part of our team; we’re there to help out every step of the way. In practical terms, this means that we supply comprehensive written materials, we conduct training sessions, we make sure that our staff is accessible to our volunteers and we’re happy to match a volunteer attorney with a mentor who is an expert in the field.”