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PRO BONO SERWCES
COMMENT
R
ule 6.1 of the hlodel Rules of Professional Conduct provides that "A lawyer should aspire to render
at last 50 homs of pro bono publico legal services per year? According to the Rule, in ful-
Uing this obligation, tl~e lawyer should provide a substantial majority of the 50 hours of legalsew
ices without fee or expectation of fee to (1) pelsons of limited rueam; or (2) charitable and other organizations
designed primady to address the needs of persons of limited n~eans and lmiy21s should provide
any additional se~vices through: (1) delivery of legal services at no fee or subs~antidy reduced fee to in&-
viduals, groups or o1;mimtions seeking to secure civil lights, civil liberties or public rigl~ts or to charitable,
religious commu~uty governmentnl and edncatio~d o~pyizations or where payneut of standard fees
would significantly deplete the organization's economic resaurces or would be othenvise inappropriate;
(2) delivay of legal services at a substantially redoced fee to persons of limited means; or (3) participztion
in activities for huproving the laur, legal system or profession.
According to the conunents to the Rule, evety lawr sleres this obligation regardless ofprofessio~~al
p~omine~~ce or urorkload. But what about ~ I~IM la~ers laborh~g for indigent defendants at low court
appointed wages? Accord'mg to the conlmeut, that doesn't count. Conunent one provides that "Senices can
be perfon~~ed in civil matters or in criminal or quasi-crin~inal nmtters for which there is 110 goxrelmlent
obligation to provide funds for legd representation, soch as post-convictio~~ de;rth penalty app~l cases.
When the governnlellt l~as taken on the respot~sibility of providit~g legd sewices, uitho~~t regard to the
adequacy of the fundi~~g, there is no pro bono obligation.
According to comnlent four, the intent of the lawyer to render free legal senices is essential. Selvices
rendered cmot be cons~dered pro bono if an auticipated fee is uncollected. Thefiual comment to the rule
provides that it is not a nlatter to be enforced tl~rough disciplinary sanctio~~s. The pro bone obligation is
purely volunta~y.
In 1992, the State Bar of Texas adoptedm aspilationd pro bone policy c7Lling on Texas 1axvels to volm~tarily
provide 50 hours of pro bono legal senices to thc poor each yea. This palicy includes a system
for volunfaiy reporting of pro bono se~vices. The response late has typically been around 25% reporting
a median of 20 to 25 hou~s. That adds up to a lot of IIOUIS. In the 1993-1994 reporting y).ea there was a
high response of 43% reporting 726,000 houn of pro bono. At a n~odest hourly late of $150 dollas el
houl; bat's a contribution by Tesas lawyels of $108,900,000 00 dollars worth of tlair time.
PIO bo11o legal se~vices are needed to M the void between goverluuent funded legd services and the
needs of he poor. Now Illat Texas lms a shtutoly pravisior for compensating counsel appointed to death
penalty post conliction representation, indigent paso~~s hi need of crinunal defense representation at all
levels caul geneiay III~II to the comt appointn~eut system hd even though the fees ;rre less than what we
nmdd charge ifwe had a solvent payjug client, we go into a court appointment expecthg to be paid. Two
th~ngs that make pro bono difficult arc the lack of that most inlpo~lant resource, time, and lack of knowledge
of the area of the law in uluch )our bee selvices may be needed. Today the profession is so specialized,
unless you regularlyp~xctice family law for example, you may never liave handled a divorce &mly
law is probably the area uhcre pro bono services are most i~ecded. Fo~lunately, ~INIY locd bar &=.sociations
now offer bee co~~ti~uinglegd etlucation invmous areas of the law to Iau~e~s mterested in pro bono
represeutatio~~. In addition, the pro bono obligation can be saisEied in rimy, nnn- tndiholld ways by making
contributions of your time to yam community. The rmmn we are asked to contdbulepri~~~artiytluough
the lendition of bee legd setvices is obviovbns, the slull is unique to our profession.
Menhers of tlus o~gmimtion spend a great deal of time helping people u h are ~ not IegaUy ent~tled to
free legal assistance. Responding to inquiries from prisoners, educating their fellow lawyen regarding the
needs of the poor, assissistmg coua appointed clients ;utd their fanlilies in adnunistrative ad other legd matters
that ae not an ohligatiou of the COIII~ appointment and witl~out ally expectation of compensation So
often these senkes are provided witlmut a tl~ougl~t tl~af the lauyer n m&ug an importmt contr~bbution to
society Ren~ember tl~ase hours ul~en the State Bar voh~ntay pro bono repo~?ing form comes he n~d.
Let the bar, and the public, knowvl~at you are doh~g for theneedy UI your conmunity. It can only inprow
our stmding in societ): and maybe, we can get people to stop abusing Shakespeare's clever bttlehe "Iilets
kill all the lauyen." W
8 VOICE FOR THE DEFENSE WWW.TCDLA.COM NOVEMBER 2001