Originally published in Student Lawyer magazine, February 2006 (Vol. 34, No. 6). All rights reserved.

Help Yourself and Others With Pro Bono

In addition to serving those who can’t afford legal services, pro bono work provides relevant work experience and other career-development benefits for law students

by Melanie Kushnir

Melanie Kushnir ( kushnim@staff.abanet.org) is assistant staff counsel with the ABA Center for Pro Bono.

Pro bono is on the minds of many lawyers these days, particularly within the American Bar Association. In February 2005, the ABA amended its accreditation standards to require approved law schools to offer “substantial opportunities for student participation in pro bono activities.” Later in the year, incoming ABA president Michael Greco issued a call for a “Renaissance of Idealism” in the legal profession. The initiative is designed to help lawyers and law students provide free legal services for those who need but cannot afford them.

The term “pro bono” comes from the Latin “pro bono publico,” which means “for the public good.” Rule 6.1 of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct encourages lawyers to provide at least 50 hours of legal services a year without fee or expectation of fee. The rule recognizes that only lawyers have the special skills and knowledge needed to secure access to justice for community organizations and low-income people, whose enormous unmet legal needs are well documented.

In the law school setting, pro bono generally refers to student provision of voluntary, law-related services to people of limited means or to community-based nonprofit organizations, for which the student does not receive academic credit or pay. Law students who do pro bono work accomplish more than fulfilling a much-needed community service. They also enhance their career development and make themselves more attractive to potential employers.

Despite the drumbeat for pro bono in the legal profession and at law schools, many students have legitimate questions: Why should I take time from studies to do pro bono work? Where can I find good opportunities? What if pro bono work doesn’t have anything to do with my practice interests and career goals?

These good questions have good answers. Consider these issues as you seek pro bono opportunities in law school and throughout your legal career.

What’s in it for me?
The legal profession promotes pro bono work as a means to address the growing gap between the legal needs of those who cannot afford legal services and the resources available to meet those needs. At the same time, pro bono offers many benefits for law students:

Legal skills development. Pro bono participation is an opportunity to work with real clients. This experience enables students to develop a variety of fundamental legal skills that law courses alone cannot teach, such as problem solving, legal research and analysis, counseling, negotiation, litigation, and the recognition and resolution of ethical dilemmas. Having developed such skills, a student can market herself to future employers by demonstrating that she has relevant and practical work experience.

Introduction to practice settings. Pro bono helps law students explore various practice settings and client bases. Students have been placed with legal services organizations, public defender and prosecutor offices, other government agencies, and lawyers in private practice. They have performed pro bono work in areas such as criminal prosecution and defense, environmental issues, health access and mental health, community economic development, consumer protection, domestic violence, child support, land use, education, employment, civil rights and liberties, immigration, tax preparation, international law, and Social Security and other government benefits.

Networking and mentoring. Pro bono work opens the door to these two important career development tools. It helps students build relationships with practicing lawyers who can serve as important contacts for future employment. The lawyer supervising a student’s pro bono work can provide helpful feedback. The lawyer can also provide references, career guidance, and job leads.

Leadership skills development. Pro bono participation frequently offers students a chance to exercise leadership skills, a quality viewed favorably by employers. At many law schools, students have developed pro bono projects after identifying a need for them. If you see an untapped opportunity for pro bono service in your community, you can do the same. Such experiences make great stories to tell in cover letters and job interviews.

Where can I find pro bono opportunities?
Pro bono opportunities at the 190 ABA-approved law schools vary greatly. Before searching for pro bono work, find out whether your school has a pro bono program and, if so, how it’s structured. Some schools have designated pro bono programs, staffed by professionals who help match students with outside organizations that do pro bono work. Other schools provide administrative support for student groups engaged in pro bono work. Some schools require students to fulfill a specified number of pro bono service hours prior to graduation, while others offer purely voluntary programs.

If your school doesn’t have a formal pro bono program, you can learn how to become involved by meeting with your school’s public interest law office or career services office. In addition, these resources can help you:

ABA Directory of Pro Bono Programs. The directory lists more than 900 state, local, and specialty pro bono programs across the country in a state-by-state format.

Directory of Law School Public Interest and Pro Bono Programs. This web site from the ABA Center for Pro Bono provides information about law school pro bono programs and examples of student-run pro bono projects that may be adapted at your school.

Public Service Law Network Worldwide (PSLawNet). The web site contains a database of more than 12,000 law-related public interest organizations in the U.S. and around the world. It enables users to perform customized searches for a variety of pro bono opportunities.

Local and state bar associations. Call your local or state bar association and ask about volunteer legal opportunities in the community. Most offices have staff members who can put you in touch with projects that need student volunteers.

Local service providers. You can contact local legal services and pro bono providers in your community about volunteering. Many nonprofit organizations, whether or not they are legal-related, have legal needs that law students can assist with.

Faculty and administration. Seek a sympathetic faculty member to help you develop pro bono ideas. Consider organizing students to lobby your dean and faculty to create a pro bono program at your school.

Other resources. The ABA Center for Pro Bono and other national organizations work with law students and schools to promote pro bono at law schools and in the legal profession. Equal Justice Works and the National Association for Law Placement’s (NALP) Public Service Law Network Worldwide offer publications, conferences, and other resources to help you learn more about pro bono. The ABA Commission on the Renaissance of Idealism in the Legal Profession has an online best practices guide to help lawyers and law students find pro bono ideas that they can implement in a range of practice areas and settings.

What practice areas mesh with pro bono?
The short answer: all of them. Whether you are interested in pursuing a particular practice area or exploring a new one, pro bono work offers hands-on experience involving a broad spectrum of substantive areas and legal skills. Some examples:

Arts and entertainment. This area, which incorporates aspects of business law, is ripe for pro bono work. For example, a program at Washington University School of Law trains students to help arts-related organizations with the nonprofit incorporation process. Students counsel clients, get transactional work experience, and network with local lawyers in private practice who perform pro bono on behalf of nonprofit arts organizations.

Bankruptcy. Pro bono legal services are greatly needed in this area. At Rutgers University School of Law in Camden, N.J., for example, students interview clients and prepare bankruptcy petitions while learning from their lawyer supervisors who, in turn, are fulfilling their own pro bono obligation.

Business and real estate. Many legal services and pro bono organizations seek law students and lawyers to provide pro bono business law services. For example, students from several Philadelphia-area law schools volunteer for LawWorks, the transactional pro bono project of Philadelphia Volunteers for the Indigent Program. Students are paired with volunteer lawyers to perform legal services for organizations that serve low-income communities. The program also offers valuable experience for students interested in real estate law by assisting individuals who are seeking to obtain title to their homes.

Criminal law. At many law schools, students interested in criminal justice can volunteer for an Innocence Project, which provides representation or investigative assistance to prisoners who claim to be innocent of the crimes for which they were convicted. There is now at least one Innocence Project serving each state. For help on organizing an Innocence Project at your school, visit www.innocenceproject.org.

Domestic relations. Numerous pro bono opportunities are available in domestic relations law. At the University of Utah College of Law, for example, students work with Salt Lake City’s Legal Aid Society to help pro se litigants complete legal forms related to divorce or custody actions. At Rutgers University School of Law in Newark, N.J., law students educate plaintiffs on legal procedures and safety planning. And at the University of South Carolina, as part of the local Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) Project, students are trained to appear in family court on behalf of children in abuse and neglect cases.

Elder law (estate planning, medical malpractice, insurance, landlord-tenant). The rapidly growing senior citizen population creates many opportunities for law students to assist low-income elderly individuals on a variety of legal matters. For example, in an elder law program at the University of San Diego, students research legal issues that affect the elderly in the areas listed above, while gaining exposure to the litigation process.

Employment law. Students can provide assistance to individuals who are appealing denials of unemployment compensation. For example, students at Columbia Law School, working with a local community organization, interview clients, research applicable law, conduct direct and cross-examinations, and give closing statements before an administrative law judge.

Immigration. There are many opportunities for students to do pro bono immigration law work. An example is the ABA-sponsored South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project (ProBAR), which involves law students from across the country who work during semester breaks. Students complete asylum applications, develop supporting documentation and legal memoranda, prepare applicants to testify at their hearings, and argue under attorney supervision before the federal immigration court. For more information, visit www.abanet.org/immigration/probono/probar.

Juvenile law. Approximately 60 law schools offer Street Law programs, which train law students to teach law-related courses in local schools, prisons, and juvenile justice and community settings. The classes are designed to demystify the legal system, inform juveniles and others of their legal rights and responsibilities, and build critical-thinking and problem-solving skills.

Law student volunteers benefit from this experience because they receive in-depth training in the substantive law of their jurisdiction, develop oral advocacy and communication skills, and improve legal writing and research by preparing legal memoranda on aspects of the curriculum and researching answers to questions that arise in the classroom. For information on how to implement a Street Law program at your school, visit www.streetlaw.org.

Tax. Students at many law schools provide tax return preparation assistance to low-income taxpayers through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program. The IRS offers law students comprehensive training, materials, forms, and technical assistance, as does the ABA Law Student Division. To get involved with VITA, contact your school’s chapter or visit www.abanet.org/lsd/vita.

How can I fit pro bono into my schedule?
Making time to participate in pro bono is a challenge for both law students and lawyers alike. Fortunately, pro bono opportunities vary in length and in time commitment. They can be semester-long or only a week or two in duration, and students can volunteer as little as two hours a week. Some pro bono placements have to be scheduled during the organization’s workday, while others offer weekend and evening work.

The location of pro bono assignments varies as well. Some pro bono work must be performed at an organization’s office or elsewhere in the field, while other assignments can be done at the law school library or even at home, at a time that works with your schedule.

Some law schools with organized pro bono programs limit participation to upper-class students. It’s fairly common for first-year students to do pro bono work, but many prefer to wait until their busy schedules have subsided a bit and they have completed enough academic hours to meet their jurisdiction’s student practice rules. This allows them to have more enhanced pro bono experiences through the representation of clients in court or administrative tribunals under the supervision of a licensed lawyer.

Each semester will bring challenges to making the time to participate in pro bono. Whatever your circumstances, you should evaluate your workload and your personal capacity. Exercise caution before making a commitment so you do not shortchange yourself, the organization you volunteer for, or your clients.

If you are graduating this semester and have been unable to find time for pro bono, now may be the ideal time to get involved. Many recent law graduates find the period following law school graduation while waiting for bar results and searching for a job to be an excellent time to do pro bono work. They not only gain practical legal experience but can also use the opportunity to network with lawyers and establish contacts in the community.

The more legal experience you obtain during your law school years, the more you will be in a position to market yourself to prospective employers. Participation in pro bono enables you to gain relevant legal experience, explore a variety of career paths, and network with practicing lawyers. While performing a much-needed community service, you will enhance your professional development and ultimately become a better lawyer.

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