N.Y. Chief Justice Boosts Efforts to Tap Retired Lawyers for Pro Bono

In the news: "N.Y. Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman has announced the appointment of an advisory council of 30 attorneys to develop a blueprint for his "attorney emeritus" program, which aims to achieve a "quantum jump" in pro bono activities by tapping a growing number of retired baby-boomer attorneys."

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Is the Practice of Law Still Mainly a Man's World?

In the news: "No one can dispute that historically, men have dominated the legal profession, writes attorney Jill Fisher. Is that still the case? The consensus among women she spoke with was that barriers are coming down, but there are still obstacles to overcome before real gender equality is achieved."

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You May Already Have the Software You Need

In the news: "The economic climate may not be ideal to purchase new software, but tools already on the desktop can help you prepare cases and exhibits for trial. Senior litigation paralegal Kim Walker goes on a mission to see how much she can do with software already licensed by Berger & Montague."

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Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 26 May 2010. Copyright 2009.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe  <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.

In the news: "Attorney Dawn Levine acknowledges that she likes to make money as much as the next person. But while "thanks" with a paycheck feels good, Levine notes that the thanks you get from your client when you took their case for nothing feels good on a completely different, but very real level. Levine counts off her eight top reasons to do pro bono work, including that it makes her a better attorney. Her No. 1 reason? For every pro bono case you take, that is one attorney joke that is undermined."

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Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 23 April 2010. Copyright 2009.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.

This post was written by Steve Marchese: "There are many reasons for doing pro bono work as a component of your practice. Besides the fact that it is strongly encouraged by the rules of professional conduct and is good for the community, doing pro bono work can pay big dividends for your career

Altruism is good, but pro bono practice can benefit newer, unemployed and underemployed lawyers in important ways.  Here are some (self-interested) reasons:..."

Continue reading this interesting post at the source site listed below.

Source: Lawyerist.com,  20 January 2010

© 2007-2010 Lawyerist Media, LLC. Reproduced with permission of the site editor, Sam Glover.

From the blog: "We are now almost mid-way through the first national Pro Bono Week, which is being sponsored by the ABA Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service. The ABA's initiative is dedicated to finding more lawyers to provide pro bono legal services, and local entities like the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association and The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland have really stepped up the plate. Check out the list of activities and events they and others throughout Ohio are sponsoring."

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Source: Cleveland Law Library Weblog, 28 October 2009

Posted by Jordan Furlong: "Eighty percent of the poor in the United States are unable to afford a lawyer or find pro bono help for their civil legal problems, according to the American Bar Association." That sentence, from an American Lawyer article last month, is not only embarrassing. It's also an omen.

The article in question, titled "Unmet Needs," was part of a special series on pro bono in the United States, including AmLaw's list of the top 100 pro bono-friendly law firms and a powerful critique of big-firm pro bono by Deborah Rhode. The latter piece highlighted how pro bono at many firms is less an exercise in professional and public responsibility than it is an opportunity to enhance associate recruitment and retention and score some easy PR points. The result, Rhode points out, is that the clients most in need -- the "sob stories" and "difficult clients" referenced in the article -- are the least likely to get pro bono help from these firms.

It reminded me of a conversation I had last year with two senior local practitioners. Both lawyers were partners in national firms; both were also extensively involved in volunteer and community activities. They were lamenting the pro bono culture that had taken hold in law firms, especially among newer lawyers. Young associates were constantly clamouring to do pro bono work for one socially aware organization or another. "What I'd like to see," one lawyer said, "is a lot more of them go down to family court and help out some of the unrepresented litigants there. That's where we need pro bono help right now."

Pro bono assistance of that kind is just the sort of "unmet need" that the American Lawyer article was talking about. The writers spoke with legal aid and pro bono lawyers across the US and identified five "needs baskets" where the demand for pro bono work is great and the supply from big firms is limited:

• Representing military personnel
• Helping the unemployed
• Easing the load in family court
• The cracking pro bono infrastructure
• Serving the rural poor...

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Source: Law 21, 4 August 2009

 In the news: "While working at one of the biggest financial institutions in the world, Kimberly Summe was thinking small. Last year, as a lawyer at Lehman Brothers, Summe developed an idea for a pro bono program that would assist microfinance projects around the globe that provide small loans to entrepreneurs in developing nations. Even as Lehman collapsed last fall, Summe managed to launch Paladin Connect, which now provides free legal help to more than a dozen microfinance groups from Bangladesh to Bosnia."

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Posted by Joe Hodnicki: "Thomson West has launched Do Justice, a pro bono outreach initiative to support law firm pro bono activities. The Company has also launched Between Cases, a new online resource for displaced legal associates seeking employment and networking opportunities. Details on Legal Current and the Company's press release."

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Source: Law Librarian Blog, 3 July 2009

In the news: "Attorney Christina M. Storm founded Lawyers Without Borders to connect attorneys with pro bono projects in Africa and elsewhere. The group now coordinates international projects geared toward protecting the integrity of the legal process abroad. Storm, a partner in three-lawyer Byrne & Storm, says about half of the group's projects are geared toward individual attorneys and half are projects for law firm groups. And due to the economy, there's a long list of deferred associates and other lawyers looking to help out.

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Posted by Carolyn Elefant: "Where a law firm allows an associate to handle a matter pro bono through a legal aid organization, does the firm retain an obligation to supervise the associate? Yes, said Acting Supreme Court Justice Ellen Gesmer in a domestic relations dispute where advice provided to a pro bono client by a Skadden staff attorney was so rife with errors that it justified voiding the ensuing settlement stipulation. The New York Law Journal covers the story.

Lisa Poursine, a staff attorney for Skadden volunteered through the firm's pro bono program to handle a case for inMotion, a non-profit legal group that assists low-income women in matrimonial, family and immigration law cases. Poursine inaccurately advised the client that she her divorce would go smoothly if the client signed a settlement agreement which made it more difficult for the client to relocate to another state as she hoped. Even worse, the settlement agreement forced the client to waive her rights to future claims for equitable distribution. The Poursine explained to the client that without the settlement agreement, the case would be constested and that Poursine lacked the experience or resources to handle a contested matter. 

The client sought to vacate the settlement agreement, testifying that Poursine never explained the equitable distribution waiver provisions or that the settlement would make it more difficult for the client to relocate. The Judge found that Poursine's advice was inaccurate and confusing, and resulted from lack of "appropriate training and supervision." Accordingly, she vacated the settlement.

Skadden says that it accords the same standard of care to pro bono clients as paying clients and now has an adequate system in place to assure that lawyers handling pro bono matters are properly supervised. Even so, this case is likely to make law firms with displaced associates think twice about dispatching them to legal aid organizations if the firm must retain a supervisory role." 

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From the blog: "Local attorneys who have been providing pro bono services for low-income clients and businesses are in good company. The Ohio Supreme Court just reported that Ohio attorneys spent 123,000 hours last year providing pro bono legal services. This equates to an average of 49 hours per attorney or a total of $16.6 million in legal services at a conservative rate of $135.00 per hour. The areas where the services were provided included housing, family law, consumer law, and employment law. In addition, the Supreme Court indicates that about 900 attorneys reporting giving a total of almost $700,000 in monetary contributions."

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Source: Cleveland Law Library Weblog, 12 May 2009