Law for The Poor

20101 MANAGING PRO BONO
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INTRODUCTION
Is pro bono work "recession-proof'? That was the question The
American Lawyer asked in its 2009 ranking of large-firm pro bono
performance.' As the nation's most profitable firms suffered their worst
financial year since the early 1990s, they nonetheless managed to devote
more hours than ever to public service. The average attorney at an Am Law
200 firm logged over sixty hours of pro bono contributions per year. 2
Contributions were also up among participants in the Pro Bono Institute's
Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge. 3 This achievement reflected the firms'
response to increased demands for assistance, as well as their desire to
provide meaningful opportunities for underemployed lawyers.
The trend also reflects pro bono's changing institutional status. A
growing number of firms have professionalized pro bono service by
dedicating personnel to coordination and supervision. 4 This institutional
infrastructure serves as a bulwark against declining volunteerism, while also
providing readily accessible-and institutionally legitimate--opportunities
for attorneys with insufficient billable work. 5 Such an infrastructure also
gives firms additional flexibility in responding to changes in market
conditions. In the current economic crisis, this flexibility has been most
clearly on display as firms have helped to find placements for associates
who deferred their start dates or accepted temporary furloughs into public
interest and legal aid organizations while waiting for the market to
rebound. 6
This article explores the changing status of pro bono work by providing
empirical data on its institutionalization in large firms. We chose to study
this sector of practice for several reasons. Large firms play a central role in
1. David Bario, Recession-Prooj?, AM. LAW., July 2009, at 53.
2. Id. at 53.
3. Hours increased by thirteen percent during 2008 among the 135 firms that
committed to investing three to five percent of their billable hours toward pro bono work.
See Karen Sloan, Pro Bono Hours Rise at Major U.S. Law Firms, NAT'L L.J., July 29, 2009,
http://www.law.com/jsp/law/careercenter/lawArticleCareerCenter.jsp?id= 1202432603666.
4. PRO BONO INST., LAW FIRM PRO BONO STAFFING AND SALARY SURVEY REPORT
(2007); Scott L. Cummings, The Politics of Pro Bono, 52 UCLA L. REv. 1, 58-61 (2004);
Stephen Daniels & Joanne Martin, Legal Services for the Poor: Access, Self-Interest, and
Pro Bono, in 12 SOCIOLOGY OF CRIME, LAW AND DEVIANCE 145, 157-59 (Rebecca L.
Sandefur ed., 2009); see also Daphne Eviatar, Pro Bono Pros, AM. LAW., July 2008, at 104.
The institutionalization of pro bono programs is related to the broader bureaucratization of
large law firms. See RICHARD L. ABEL, AMERICAN LAWYERS 10 (1989) (noting that "[t]he
size, internal differentiation, and stratification of [firms] demands more bureaucratic
structures").
5. Bario, supra note 1, at 54 ("Now firms are more likely to see pro bono work as a
way to take up slack when billables are down ...").
6. See ASS'N OF PRO BONO COUNSEL, CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE PLACEMENT OF LAW
FIRM ATTORNEYS INTO PUBLIC INTEREST ORGANIZATIONS (2009), available at
http://www.abanet.org/legalservices/probono/downtum/docs/apbco-considerations.pdf, PRO
BONO INST., LAW FIRM ATTORNEYS DISPLACED BY THE ECONOMIC DOWNTURN: BEST
PRACTICES AND GUIDANCE FOR EFFECTIVE PRO BONO ENGAGEMENT (2009), available at
http://www.probonoinst.org/pdfs/DisplacedAttomeys.pdf.