Lex Mundi Pro Bono Guide offering suggestions for how firms can best adopt and implement pro bono policies, including sample definitions, suggestions for committee structure, approval criteria, supervision and examples of pro bono initiatives

Defining Pro Bono. Pro bono legal services are those provided for the public good without a fee principally to benefit poor, underprivileged or disenfranchised persons or communities. Recommended definition does not include non-legal volunteer activities; uncollectible fee-generating or contingency fee matters; legal services to friends or family; CLE instruction; board of directors or bar association participation or legislative or other lobbying efforts (unless related to the primary purposes of pro bono). Can be useful for a firm’s pro bono policy to explicitly define what does not constitute pro bono work.

Reasons for Providing Pro Bono. Lack of access to justice and legal representation undermines public confidence in governmental and judicial institutions and jeopardizes the rule of law. The legal profession has a privileged role with a responsibility to provide pro bono legal services. There are also strong business reasons to do pro bono work, including recruitment and retention of new lawyers, increasing moral, providing training and allowing lawyers to connect with clients and communities in meaningful ways.

Building a Pro Bono Culture. A structured approach can help a law firm pro bono program succeed. A strong pro bono culture means that a firm has embraced pro bono work as a fundamental part of its practice, with the clear support of firm leadership. Two fundamental internal messages must be conveyed: the conduct of pro bono work is the shared professional responsibility of all lawyers at the firm; and pro bono work must be seen by lawyers and partners as valued and recognized. Avoid a situation where pro bono work is undertaken by a small number of lawyers. It is important to develop clear pro bono guidelines to ensure integrity. Avoid having the pro bono program be viewed as simply a marketing strategy or as a way to provide free legal work to friends, family and commercial clients. Pro bono work should look and feel like all other legal work performed at the firm. Pro bono work needs to be recognized as work of equal value to commercial work from both a financial and performance perspective.

Establishing and Empowering a Pro Bono Committee. A committee is an essential first step in developing a pro bono program. A committee signals that the firm takes pro bono seriously. The committee should include people from different seniority levels and practice groups, and should include at least one or two “heavy hitters”. The committee should leave individual decisions about specific pro bono matters to a coordinator or individual committee members. The committee is responsible for:

• developing and implementing a pro bono policy (which includes a definition of pro bono)
• identifying how pro bono work will be counted and credited for purposes of assessing performance and remuneration
• determining processes for overseeing, administering and periodically evaluating the program with clear lines of responsibility

Recognition of Pro Bono Time as Equivalent to Billable Time. Time spent on approved pro bono matters should be regarded as equal in value to billable time. Capping the number of hours can have negative effects, such as discouraging lawyers from taking on complex pro bono matters or cause lawyers to not record time properly spent. However, the amount of pro bono work a firm can take on will vary widely based on size and capacity.

Approval of Pro Bono Matters. Decisions about whether to take on pro bono matters should be based on appropriate objective criteria, which may include:

• financial means of client
• public policy issues involved
• whether the matter makes special use of firm resources
• ability of the client to obtain other counsel
• whether the matter will provide useful training to associates
• merits of the case
• whether the firm has undertaken similar work in the past or otherwise has knowledge and expertise to handle the matter
• amount of pro bono work already being performed by the firm and/or the lawyer(s) involved

Clarifying the Relationship With the Client. Firms should enter into written retainer agreements for all pro bono matters which address the scope of representation, how costs will be handled and the client’s objectives and expectations.

Examples of Pro Bono Initiatives.

• Partnerships with community legal clinics or charitable organizations to provide legal services to the clinic or organization or the individuals they serve
• “Signature projects” where the firm identifies a particular social issue (e.g., human trafficking or predatory lending)
• “brief advice” clinics where lawyers sign up for a time slot to provide advice
• Secondments where a lawyer spends a set period of time with a public interest organization

Lex Mundi: A Guide for Pro Bono Services of Legal Mundi Member Firms