Word: bonos
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...these are not good days for pro bono. The American Bar Association reports that only 17.7% of the nation's 659,000 private attorneys perform this task. At Public Counsel, a Los Angeles group that receives about 1,000 calls a day for legal assistance, participation by outside law firms has dropped more than 30% since 1986. "It's the biggest pro bono crunch we've ever seen," says Executive Director Steven Nissen. The trend toward giant law firms that operate like corporations gets much of the blame. Goaded by a bottom-line mentality, devoting nearly every moment to revenue...
Last week, in a move that could help resuscitate the pro bono cause, the legal world's No. 1 revenue earner announced an extraordinary program to encourage lawyers to give legal aid to the needy. As a supplement to the time that its lawyers volunteer, the New York City megafirm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom will establish a $10 million legal fellowship program to place 125 new law school graduates with legal-aid groups around the country over the next five years. "This fellowship is a further way for us to demonstrate that large law firms are concerned about...
Meanwhile, one solution to the legal-aid crisis being debated more frequently is mandatory pro bono, a system by which courts, legislatures or bar associations would compel attorneys to donate their time, sometimes with the option of paying a fee to be excused. Programs of that kind have been imposed by courts in a number of areas around the country, including Westchester County, N.Y., and El Paso, as well as at least four local bar groups. Legislatures in Oregon and Washington have also looked into it, though with no action...
...mandatory pro bono raises problems for both lawyers and poor clients. For one thing, it would weigh most heavily on solo practitioners and small firms; big outfits have squads of young associates who can be assigned to satisfy pro bono requirements. And even legal-aid attorneys say simply drafting lawyers is no answer. It could lead to inadequate representation by advocates who lack the conviction or specific legal skills to defend the poor. "How much help is a divorce lawyer to a farm worker poisoned by pesticides?" asks Edward Tuddenham of the Migrant Legal Action Program in Washington...
Part of the solution to the pro bono problem is exemplified at the big Los Angeles firm Latham & Watkins, which pays its lawyers for the time they spend doing such work. Forty percent of the firm's 480 attorneys got involved last year in 107 pro bono matters, including death-penalty appeals. And at law schools there are promising signs that younger lawyers may remember duties that many of their elders have forgotten. Columbia University law students have been flocking to a program of summer legal-aid work, though it means forgoing the opportunity to make $1,200 a week...