Through recent interviews with lawyers, both partners and associates, undertaken in connection with the 25th anniversary of Volunteers of Legal Service (VOLS), I have come to appreciate the epiphanies lawyers experience from their pro bono work, the most important being immense personal and professional satisfaction and a deepening awareness of the vicissitudes and courage of poor people.
In the VOLS hospital-based Children’s Project, lawyers work with doctors and social workers as part of a team to improve health outcomes for poor children through the provision of pro bono legal services. For example, a child under medical treatment for asthma, whose asthma may be triggered by conditions in the family’s apartment—falling plaster, rodent infestation—will have a lawyer available to obtain needed improvements from the landlord. Last year, 143 volunteer lawyers—transactional and litigators, partners and associates—participated in the project.
