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Sunday, July 01, 2007

Law - More on "Some law firms paying to do pro bono work"; More on pro bono in general

This June 19th ILB entry quoted from two Wall Street Journal articles, the first from Dec. 1, 2005, titled "Trial-less Lawyers: As more cases settle, firms seek pro bono work to hone associates' courtroom skills," and the second, from June 19, 2007, titled "Law Firms Willing to Pay to Work for Nothing."

This story from the June 24th Boston Herald editorial staff, described charities requiring law firms to pay to do their pro bono work as engaging in a "shakedown":

The legal profession never ceases to astonish us. Big law firms now are paying charities for access to cases the firms can then handle without a fee.

These cases are not landlord-tenant squabbles, divorces of poor couples or fights between neighbors, all of which go begging for lawyers who will donate their services, The Wall Street Journal reports. No, the cases in question will dress up any lawyer’s resume - things such as overhauling the legal system of Liberia - and augment the bragging rights of his or her firm, especially when it comes to recruiting at upper-echelon law schools. For that, big firms like to stress the amount of pro bono work (from the Latin pro bono publico, “for the public good”) they handle.

Lawyers Without Borders, which tries to strengthen legal systems overseas, was reported to require law firms to donate $7,500 a year if they want to get referrals. Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts Inc. “gives first crack at desirable cases” to firms that contribute.

More on the boom in pro bono in general. A press release from Winston & Strawn last week announced that:
CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--McDonald's Corporation announced today that it has entered a partnership with its law firm Winston & Strawn LLP designed to enhance its current substantial pro bono program by encouraging participation among personnel across McDonald's legal department.

"McDonald's is a terrific corporate citizen, and their partnership with us to assist the underserved in our society is just another demonstration of their spirit of goodwill," said Winston & Strawn chairman Dan K. Webb.

The partnership is part of McDonald's May Pro Bono Month initiative and will include training of volunteers, currently underway, to provide pro bono assistance in three distinct areas:

* Adoption assistance: Volunteers will help process the adoptions of Illinois children for low-income guardians.
* Domestic violence victim assistance: Volunteers will assist victims of domestic violence in obtaining asylum relief through a program initiated and funded by the United States Department of Justice.
* Low income home buyers program: Volunteers will represent clients who receive housing choice vouchers in applying these vouchers toward a home purchase.
"We're thrilled to partner with our longtime law firm, Winston & Strawn, to do something so important for the community," said Gloria Santona, executive vice president, general counsel and secretary, McDonald's Corporation.
The New York Lawyer reported on June 19th:
Wounded soldiers who allege that the government is downplaying their injuries and cheating them out of benefits have some new legal ammunition: three major law firms offering free legal services.

Concerned that injured soldiers are getting a raw deal upon returning home, three firms: Foley & Lardner; Atlanta's King & Spalding; and New York's LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae, have offered to do pro bono work on behalf of veterans who are appealing low disability ratings made by the government.

Those ratings dictate how much money injured veterans are entitled to, along with any medical and retirement benefits.

According to attorneys, numerous veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan have claimed that the military is underrating their injuries, thus shortchanging them of benefits they've earned.

Ehren Halse, one of 15 King & Spalding attorneys who has volunteered to help the veterans, said, "it's outrageous to think that these people would suffer in the line of duty and then not be given their disability.

"When I first heard these stories, I thought, 'You know what, there's got to be a role for lawyers here,' just to advocate and help these veterans through the process. "

A July 2 story from The American Lawyer is headlined "Pro Bono Starts at the Top." Some quotes:
"Historically, I had always been a busy lawyer," says the former litigator, who has served as head of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius since 1999. "I billed large hours. But I had not spent any time on pro bono since my early days as an associate. Once I became chair, I began to think about the glue that holds an organization together. I began to think about our obligations as lawyers."

Those obligations, he decided, went beyond profits. In 2005 he told Morgan Lewis partners at an annual retreat that they must rededicate themselves to pro bono work. He also announced that he would lead by example. Milone took on his first case in many years -- representing a disabled teenager who is suing a public school district outside Philadelphia for better educational opportunities -- and went on the road, preaching the good word about pro bono to lawyers in the firm's 11 largest American offices. "I found pent-up demand for attention to this area," he says. * * *

Our five-year review also shows that for a pro bono revolution to stick, it had better begin at the top. That was true at Morgan Lewis, where lawyers, spurred by Milone, devoted an average of 67.1 hours each to pro bono matters in 2006, a 90 percent increase from 2002, when they averaged 35.4 hours. It is also true at DLA Piper, where a long-serving pro bono partner has the ear of co-chairmen Francis Burch Jr., and Lee Miller and has helped the firm nearly double its pro bono average, to 89 hours from 45 hours in pre-merger 2002; and at Hogan & Hartson, another firm that has spent the last five years chipping away at the competition.

"A move toward a common definition of pro bono work" is the title of a second American Lawyer article, also dated July 2nd. This is an important article. Here are some quotes:
When we began measuring pro bono activity in the '90s, we relied on a version of what's come to be known as The Pro Bono Institute's definition, also known as the Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge. With the exceptions and modifications below, we once again adopt it as our own. Here's the pertinent text:

The term "pro bono" refers to activities of the firm undertaken normally without expectation of fee and not in the course of ordinary commercial practice and consisting of (i) the delivery of legal services to persons of limited means or to charitable, religious, civic, community, governmental, and educational organizations in matters which are designed primarily to address the needs of persons of limited means; (ii) the provision of legal assistance to individuals, groups, or organizations seeking to secure or protect civil rights, civil liberties, or public rights; and (iii) the provision of legal assistance to charitable, religious, civic, community, governmental, or educational organizations in matters in furtherance of their organizational purposes, where the payment of standard legal fees would significantly deplete the organization's economic resources or would be otherwise inappropriate.

The PBI definition comes with a body of commentary, some of which can be found at probonoinst.org. We ask firms that report their pro bono numbers to The American Lawyer to follow the PBI rules with the following exceptions:

# We do not include pro bono hours by summer associates or paralegals.

# We understand that in a limited number of cases, firms will seek court-awarded legal fees. We ask that at the beginning of cases where such fee applications may be possible, firms commit to donate their fees to legal service organizations, to their own charitable foundations, or into an earmarked firm account to cover pro bono expenses. If a firm does not make that commitment, we ask that hours on these cases not be reported to us as pro bono work. This is in line with pro bono principles announced by the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

# We ask that firms interpret strictly the rules governing pro bono activities for well-endowed nonprofit organizations, such as human rights, animal rights and cultural institutions. Work that furthers programs that address the needs of poor people or protects civil or public rights qualifies as pro bono for these purposes. Work that organizations could otherwise pay for that does not address those goals does not qualify. The work may be worth doing -- we have high regard for symphonies, art museums and humane shelters -- but it doesn't count as pro bono. Please don't include it in the number you report to us.

# We underline PBI's decision not to count hours spent on board service for nonprofits or general bar activities unrelated to performing legal services for poor persons or fulfilling civil or public rights.

We have tried to keep this simple and have kept our exceptions to a minimum. Undoubtedly there will be further modifications in the coming years as PBI and The American Lawyer gain wisdom. There are several definitional issues that PBI is confronting, and we await the results of its work, reserving the right to disagree. For one thing, at some point we expect that the PBI drafters will do better than the phrase "persons of limited means." On its face, who doesn't meet that test? We'd prefer something more objective, such as "income pegged to 200 percent of federal poverty guidelines."
Re issues about what constitutes pro bono reported in earlier ILB entries, see this entry from Nov. 15, 2005, titled "More on Winston & Strawn LLP's free defense of former Illinois Gov. George Ryan,", and this one from Nov. 10, 2005, titled "Definition of "pro bono" at issue in Milwaukee Clean Water Act case."

Read about the Indiana Pro Bono Commission here, on the Indiana Courts website.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on July 1, 2007 06:05 PM
Posted to General Law Related