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Large Law Firms
A Larger Role to Play
by Michael Hertz
Pro Bono Net (PBN) began five years ago with a strong emphasis on the pro bono work done by large law firms, especially in New York City. Mark O'Brien, the co-founder of PBN, and I both came to this endeavor after years of experience running pro bono programs at major law firms. We were very interested in how innovative technology might be used to lower the barriers commonly faced by volunteers, and how to better integrate private attorneys into the greater public interest legal community. Bringing more volunteers into the system continues to be critically important when 80% of the civil legal needs of the poor still go unmet.
Since then, PBN's mission has expanded considerably and we have been working with all sectors of the legal community (law firms, legal aid groups, courts, law school programs, and bar associations) on issues of technology and access to justice. However, some recent reading has reinforced for me just how important the largest law firms are, not only to PBN's work, but also to the overall access to justice agenda in this country.
Over the last several months, The American Lawyer* magazine published its 2002 report cards on the 200 largest law firms in the United States, grading them on everything from profits to pro bono participation to associate satisfaction. (See an article from the September issue, "The A-List", that rates the 20 most "elite" firms in the country based on, among other things, each firm's pro bono score.) Here are some simple observations based on the statistics gathered by The American Lawyer:
- The total number of pro bono hours reported by the 200 largest firms in 2002 is just over 3 million hours.
- This number is impressive and the firms deserve the recognition that they receive for these efforts.
- Substantial room for improvement exists. For example, less than a quarter of the 200 largest firms report average pro bono hours per lawyer in excess of one common benchmark: Model Rule of Professional Conduct 6.1, which calls for each lawyer to dedicate at least 50 hours per year to pro bono.
- Increases in the hours and participation rates of private lawyers in line with that benchmark would have an enormous impact on the ability of the poor to receive adequate legal assistance. Hundreds of thousands of hours of additional service could be delivered.
- The 200 largest firms now employ over 90,000 lawyers out of a population of approximately 500,000 practicing lawyers (2001 Bureau of Labor Statistics) in the United States.
- The increasing percentage of active lawyers practicing in the largest firms impacts the ability of the public interest sector to recruit and retain these same lawyers. Competition among the large firms for talented lawyers has already driven salaries to high levels that the public interest sector cannot match.
- The silver lining of increased concentration of lawyers in large firms is that efforts targeted at these firms to increase pro bono (if successful) will have a significant impact on the overall contribution of volunteer lawyers to increasing access to justice in this country.
- Thus, targeted efforts, both traditional and innovative, are needed to increase pro bono hours and pro bono participation rates at the top 200 law firms.
- Funding for legal aid nationwide is approximately $900 million a year from all sources. Approximately $300 million of this amount is from the Legal Services Corporation, the federal entity that funds civil legal aid in the United States, ("Civil Legal Aid in the United States: An Overview of the Program in 2003" (links to PDF file), Alan Houseman, September 2003.) By comparison, the 200 largest firms ended 2002 with nearly $50 billion in gross revenue and approximately $17.5 billion in profits. Funding from the Legal Services Corporation does not represent even 2% of these profits.
These statistics highlight the critical role large firms do and can play in increasing access to justice. These firms have substantial resources (financial and human) that might be dedicated to public interest causes without meaningfully detracting from the firms' primary businesses. Moreover, these resources are expected to grow rather than decrease in the future.
While many major law firms already contribute generously to legal aid and public interest law groups, we must continue to search for ways in which the resources generated by the top 200 law firms can support more innovative and effective responses to a problem that in many cases prevents people with serious legal needs from accessing the assistance that they need.
The tools that PBN has developed were designed to provide innovative ways to streamline, increase, and, most of all enrich the experience of, pro bono work. I am very familiar with the pressures that life in a busy corporate law firm can exert on associates and partners, and this knowledge was incorporated into our services. Lawyers at 95 of the 100 largest firms are now registered on one or more areas on PBN and using those tools and services to perform pro bono work more efficiently and enjoyably. We look forward to expanding that partnership in the future, so that the promise of equality before the law can be better fulfilled.
* William Pollak, the Chief Executive Officer of American Lawyer Media, the publisher of The American Lawyer, sits on PBN's Board of Directors.
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