Law for The Poor

2010] MANAGING PRO BONO
2373
bono lawyer or coordinator," compared to only "about a dozen" in 2000. 74
Similarly, ninety-six percent of the participants responding to a 2007 Pro
Bono Institute survey reported such positions. 75 To gain a fuller
understanding of the development of these positions, we asked all the firms
that had appeared in The American Lawyer pro bono ranking since its
inception (and still exist) to indicate when they established a pro bono
counsel position. 76 Out of 236 firms, 127 responded, reporting a total of 91
positions in 2008. 77 The results appear in Figure 1 below.
Figure 1: Number of Pro Bono Counsel Positions
(by Type), 1993-2008 (fiscal year)
J I
R -
* Nontawyer
O Part Time
0Full Time
Our findings confirm that the creation of pro bono counsel positions in
large firms has occurred primarily within the past decade. In 1998, eighteen
positions existed; in 2008, there were ninety-one. Over half (fifty-five
percent, n=50) were created after the inauguration of The American
74. Eviatar, supra note 4, at 104. For earlier discussions of pro bono counsel in the legal
trade press, see Terry Carter, Building a Pro Bono Base: Dedicating Resources Proves To
Be Good for Firms and Clients, A.B.A. J., June 2003, at 30; Wendy R. Leibowitz, Full-Time
Do-Gooders a Rarity but on the Rise, NAT'L L.J., Aug. 19, 1996, at B9.
75. Fifty-six of fifty-eight responding firms assigned one or more persons to oversee
their pro bono programs. PRO BONO INST., supra note 4, at 4. A previous version of the
survey, with a higher number of respondents, had found that there were ninety firms with
such a position. Cummings, supra note 4, at 59 n.353 (citing PRO BONO INST., UPDATE ON
THE 2001 LAW FIRM STAFFING SURVEY 1 (2003)).
76. We defined pro bono counsel according to the definition used to determine
membership in APBCo. See supra note 12 and accompanying text.
77. In all, there were 271 firms in The American Lawyer pro bono ranking since its
inception; 35 of those firms no longer exist due to merger or dissolution, leaving a total of
236. Of the 127 firms that responded, 49 stated that they had no pro bono counsel positions,
leaving 78 firms with such positions during the period covered by the rankings. The number
of positions reported (91) is greater than the number of firms (78) because some firms had
more than one pro bono counsel position.