Pro Bono & Community Service

Pro Bono for the Legal Profession in General

"The legal profession is, at its foundation, about service; service to individuals, to society, to organizations, and to private and public entities. “Public service,” however has a special meaning for the legal profession. This meaning may be debatable around the edges, but at its core is the responsibility of the profession to insure access to justice for all by meeting not only the legal needs of those who can afford a lawyer but also the legal needs of those individuals and communities that cannot.

This responsibility is met both by lawyers working fulltime in the public sector and by lawyers in the private sector who provide pro bono service. Pro bono comes from the Latin “pro bono publico” and means “for the public good.” For the practice setting, the American Bar Association (ABA) has set forth a lawyer’s pro bono responsibility in Model Rule 6.1, which encourages lawyers to aspire to render at least 50 hours of pro bono legal services per year without fee or expectation of fee to persons of limited means or to organizations designed primarily to address the needs of persons of limited means.”

Law School Raises Over $300.00 for Community Legal Aid Services as part of National Pro Bono Week!

Statement of the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Pro Bono & Public Service

Mandatory Pro Bono Policy for All Law Students Entering Fall 2010 and After 

Pro Bono Award

Pro Bono in the Law School Setting

In a law school setting, the ABA defines pro bono work through Proposed Interpretation 302-10 which states:

Each law school is encouraged to be creative in developing substantial opportunities for student participation in pro bono activities. Pro bono opportunities should at a minimum involve the rendering of meaningful law-related service to persons of limited means or to organizations that serve such persons; however volunteer programs that involve meaningful services that are not law-related also may be included within the law school’s overall program. Law-related pro bono opportunities need not be structured to accomplish any of the professional skills training required by Standard 302(a)(4). While most existing law school pro bono programs include only activities for which students do not receive academic credit, Standard 302(b)(2) does not preclude the inclusion of credit-granting activities within a law school’s overall program of pro bono opportunities so long as law-related non-credit bearing initiatives are also part of that program.

American Bar Association Standards for Approval of Law Schools, Interpretation 302-10.