Law for The Poor

2420 FORDHAM LAWREVIEW
[Vol. 78
counsel play a pivotal role in balancing these demands. One counsel put it
this way: "There's a massive supply and massive demand for pro bono. I
am one of the people who is a conduit. '353 Within the firms, counsel
respond to managerial priorities and associate preferences, while lobbying
for cases and causes they believe will best serve community interests.
Outside the firms, counsel identify and screen opportunities, promote their
programs, evaluate requests from nonprofit groups for money and
manpower, and troubleshoot problems in case management. As in many
negotiations, the stakeholders are not equally situated in bargaining
leverage, and the outcomes reflect complicated power dynamics. 354 In the
discussion that follows, we examine the major implications of this process
of "managing" pro bono.
a. Internal Formality, External Informality
Pro bono counsels' overall approach to monitoring and evaluation
reflects a divergence between internal operations and external interactions.
Inside law firms, quality control is relatively formal. The vast majority of
firms have standardized mechanisms in place to track cases and lawyer
performance: rigorous conflicts screening standards, annual performance
evaluations, partner and pro bono counsel supervision, and case-tracking
systems. Although these mechanisms sometimes break down in practice,
firms have put considerable effort into their development and
implementation. Relatively speaking, firms do well in tracking cases,
counting pro bono hours, and monitoring expenses. These functions all
relate quite strongly to firm interests in maintaining basic quality standards,
minimizing liability exposure, performing well in outside ranking schemes,
and reducing costs.
Although lawyer satisfaction with pro bono programming receives less
attention, it is still more systematically assessed than client and nonprofit
partners' satisfaction, and other measures of social impact. One reason is
convenience. Pro bono counsel can readily interact with firm lawyers and
rely on already established strategies for monitoring performance and
discontent. As noted earlier, about a quarter of our surveyed counsel used
some type of lawyer satisfaction survey to help ensure a good fit between
preferences, skill development, and pro bono opportunities, as well as to
identify any chronic sources of dissatisfaction. Most other counsel have
found other less formal ways of monitoring those issues. In effect, pro
bono programs operate with a customer service orientation toward lawyers
within the firm.
By contrast, the approach to outside stakeholders reflects more of a case
management model. An important way that pro bono counsel receive
information about the experiences of nonprofit partners and clients is by
fixing problems that come up in the course of representation. One counsel
353. Interview 4, supra note 164.
354. See Daniels & Martin, supra note 4, at 149-51.