My Shingle

Pro Bono

To the Bars: Don’t Make Me Part of Your PR Scam With Mandatory Pro Bono Reporting

June 21, 2006 by Carolyn Elefant

Evan Schaeffer posts here that the Illinois Bar is the latest bar to implement a mandatory pro bono reporting requirement whereby lawyers must report pro bono activity annually to the bar.  According to Schaeffer, “the Illinois Supreme Court hopes that the new reporting requirement will serve as a reminder that pro-bono work is important. In [...]

Read more Legal Profession Trends 18 comments

Please Don’t Call This Pro Bono

April 30, 2006 by Carolyn Elefant

Why is it that when small firm attorneys represent court appointed indigents at rates equivalent to one third of market that the work is not classified as “pro bono,” but when a large firm takes a bath on fees for representing the former governor of Illinois, an ABA committee chair recognizes that as pro bono? [...]

Read more Big Law/Small Law 0 comments

Business As Usual When It Comes to Pro Bono

January 7, 2006 by Carolyn Elefant

Last Saturday, the Washington Post published this op-ed piece, Pro Bono:  A Better Alternative by Joel Sheptow, a Stanford Law student who’s participating in a student project that provides pro bono service.  Based on his experience, Sheptow proposes that rather than refer pro bono matters to already over-worked large firm associates, the bar should encourage [...]

Read more Biglaw Practice and Issues 6 comments

Can We Lawyers Please Stop Patting Ourselves on The Back?

August 7, 2005 by Carolyn Elefant

What if you went to a client and boasted that in the past year, you spent 300 hours working on his case?  The client would probably respond, “So what, what kind of results did you get me?”  Yet apparently, the American Bar Association (whose efforts at blogging the ABA annual meeting are a little bit [...]

Read more Legal Profession Trends 8 comments

How Is this Pro Bono – Sounds Like Marketing To Me!

August 7, 2005 by Carolyn Elefant

This Press Release (PR Newswire 8/4/05) proudly proclaims that “for the first time in the history of bioethics, a major global law firm, (that would be Milbank, Tweed) makes its legal resources available, pro bono publico, for the analysis of biotechnology and its impact on women.”  The release goes on to describe that Milbank will [...]

Read more Marketing & Making Money 0 comments

Federal Judges Honor Pro Bono – But Exclude Solos

April 19, 2005 by Carolyn Elefant

According to this Press Release, the Chief Judges of the D.C. Circuit will be honoring eight Washington D.C. law firms for commitment to pro bono as evidenced by meeting a benchmark of 40 percent of lawyers performing 50 hours or more of pro bono service.  But sadly, though I’m a member of the DC Bar, [...]

Read more Pro Bono 12 comments

The Law School Consortium

March 31, 2005 by Carolyn Elefant

Here’s a news item about the Law School Consortium.  It’s a program that recognizes the role that solo and small firm lawyers play in meeting the legal needs of the poor – and provides support for those who choose that route: [CUNY Program Director Fred] Rooney calls this Low Bono legal assistance. By joining forces, [...]

Read more Ideas & Tips 0 comments

Small Firm Does Pro Bono

February 23, 2005 by Carolyn Elefant

Bob Ambrogi reports here on the pro bono work of a two attorney firm, Moran and Gottlieb and links to this story about the firm in the Poughkeepsie Journal.  Subsidizing their pro bono work with revenues from paying clients, Moran and Gottlieb maintain a free telephone hotline to field questions from anyone who cares to [...]

Read more Pro Bono 2 comments

Is $400 an Hour Pro Bono?

February 9, 2005 by Carolyn Elefant

In this prior post, we discussed whether discounts given by solo and small firm lawyers on work performed for low income clients might count as pro bono.   For those who don’t endorse that idea, consider this:  big law firm Skadden Arps wants to claim that its work to bring a school district into compliance with [...]

Read more Biglaw Practice and Issues 16 comments

A2J Project

January 18, 2005 by Carolyn Elefant

This article, Internet Attorney:  More Than Pro Se, New Factor Network (1/17/05) reports on the Chicago-Ken College of Law’s Access to Justice (A2J) program that includes a sophisticated computer system for pro se litigants to file complaints and pleadings.  But it also includes other toosl such as a “Logic Learner” that teaches litigants how to [...]

Read more Legal Profession Trends 6 comments

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →