Over the past decade, the legal community has experienced a fundamental change in the way law firms view, value and promote pro bono. Today’s law firms have significantly more developed or established pro bono programs, provide an exciting range of opportunities for transactional attorneys and litigators alike, and exhibit a stronger support of corporate responsibility initiatives.
Once viewed as a professional obligation left to the discretion of the individual attorney, today’s pro bono is backed by law firm support and has become a comprehensive part of many attorneys’ practices. Due to this positive shift in law firm culture, not only has pro bono re-emerged as a cornerstone of law firm practice, but attorneys also are becoming frontrunners in providing access to justice on a larger scale.
Almost every major law firm now has a pro bono counsel or coordinator in addition to an active pro bono committee. According to Andrew Guy, a partner in Stoel Rives’ commercial litigation group and the firm’s pro bono coordinator, this positive increase in pro bono visibility developed steadily over the years.
In developing pro bono programs, firms discovered an important tool for recruiting and retaining lawyers, for collaborating with corporate clients on innovative pro bono projects and for reaching out to a diverse constituency of indigent persons. Additionally, nonprofits have made a strong effort to make attorneys cognizant of urgent legal matters.
“Firms are seeking ways to track and increase pro bono work and there has been an increased communication generally of the plight of indigent clients in various areas of the law, such as immigration, housing, and domestic violence,” Guy said. This is facilitated by the 2003 Civil Legal Needs Study and a weekly Seattle-area email referral list serve system, which also “educates lawyers as to the number, variety, and poignancy of pro bono matters with which indigent clients need legal assistance.”
In 1992, when Jake Larson, a member in Foster Pepper’s litigation group and currently the firm’s pro bono chair, started his legal career, pro bono was an important part of an attorney’s role and responsibility as a professional in the legal system, but it seemed to have a more circumscribed scope.
“Pro bono was an adjunct of an attorney’s privilege to represent others in our courts, but back then it meant representing an individual indigent in some legal scrape or, if it was an organized program, it meant working with a defender program or a guardian ad litem program, doing death penalty appeals or something of that sort,” Larson said.” Now, law firms are extending their reach by providing a diverse range of opportunities and developing a true alignment of skill sets, interests and maximum utility in legal advocacy.
“Especially the Appleseed of Washington-type programs that involve attorneys in non-litigation-related pro bono projects and provide systemic change,” Larson said. This is not to say that it is any more or less valuable than individually focused pro bono, “it just provides a different range of solutions for a wide range of problems.” Law schools also have stepped up their support, establishing pro bono opportunities and teaching the importance of giving back to the community as a professional.
“I believe that both law schools and many of the firms located in Seattle have heightened their pro bono-related efforts over the 28 years during which I’ve been practicing law,” said Guy. “Both U.W. and S.U. have developed clinical and other programs related to pro bono activities and have hired experienced public service lawyers to head up access to justice programs.”
In particular, several individual faculty members and administrators have been instrumental in increasing the focus on pro bono and public service programs. One such notable example is Seattle University School of Law Dean Kellye Testy, an original pioneer who continues to promote incorporating social justice ideals into students’ overall law school experience. Her efforts have changed the way law schools manage pro bono and put S.U. on the map as an access to justice leader.
According to Testy, there has been a positive shift toward promoting pro bono in the law school setting. “When I founded our Access to Justice Institute in 2000, it was the first of its kind in the country,” she said. Others have since followed suit, including the University of Washington and Gonzaga, which each offer pro bono opportunities via flagship projects, legal clinics or seminars on public interest law.
At S.U., the leadership has always opted to provide opportunities for public interest and pro bono work and to stress its importance without requiring students to engage in it. “We think that the carrot works better than the stick in getting students to take this on as their own values and commitments, not because they ‘have to’ but because they ‘want to,’” said Testy.
Law students are internalizing this commitment and making pro bono a comprehensive part of their practices at law firms. Law firms, in turn, are supporting this desire via diverse opportunities and developing strong pro bono programs.
It is no surprise then that the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service and its Center for Pro Bono recently reported that law school pro bono and public service is sweeping the nation. “Because of this increase,” said Diana Singleton, director of S.U.’s Access to Justice Institute, “I believe that synergy is growing and the equal justice movement is advancing.”
And law firms, law students and public service leaders would most likely proudly agree with Singleton, as they are (and will continue to be) the primary catalysts for this fundamental and exciting pro bono revolution.
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