Young Lawyers Division 2000-2001

 

The AFFILIATE

November/December 2000

Director's Column

By Judy Perry Martinez

Editor's Note: To commemorate twenty-five years of service to state and local young lawyer bar associations across the country, and to honor the many young lawyers whose good work has honored the ABA/YLD, The Affiliate will reprint articles of note from past issues. The following "Director's Column" appeared in volume 13, number 3, January/February 1988.

If one asked the majority of American lawyers what the term "pro bono" means, chances are that the responses would range from "rendering free legal advice" to "doing what otherwise would be fee-generating work for nonpaying clients." Yet, if these persons paused to think about it, they would remember that the term "pro bono" is actually a short-hand expression for the phrase "pro bono publico." Translated literally, the phrase means "for the public good." No one would disagree that the foremost reason for engaging in pro bono work is to help those who cannot otherwise obtain the services of a lawyer. Yet, members of our profession, and young lawyers in particular, would more readily provide pro bono services if they realized that they, too, as members of the public, can benefit from pro bono work.

To understand the true meaning of "pro bono publico," one must realize that the collective public, not just the individual recipient of the lawyer's legal services, should benefit. Young lawyers often begin their pro bono activities with the attitude that the only person who benefits will be the client who receives free legal advice. A more constructive approach recognizes that the lawyer and the community as a whole also benefit from pro bono work. Confronting a new legal situation, developing an understanding of another individual whom otherwise they would have not met, and exploring new areas of law, are just a few of the lawyer's opportunities in pro bono work.

The lawyer should grasp the pro bono case or project with vigor, with the recognized goal that he or she, along with the client, will gain. Of course, by its nature, pro bono work will not offer financial gain as its reward, but rather the opportunity for enrichment through gaining an understanding of another individual. This enrichment, applied to the lawyer's other areas of practice, helps all of the lawyer's clients.

Approximately two years into my practice, a federal judge asked me to represent a Title VII claimant. This appointment was to be my first true "pro bono work." The client lived over forty miles from my office and had no means of transportation. I remember my first visit to her modest rented four-room house: the mounds of discarded clothing and garbage, the broken furniture, and the lack of plumbing.

Although I always had considered myself a compassionate person, it was not until I heard my client talking about not having money to clothe and feed her kids, the problems that she had to deal with from a brother-in-law who was serving a jail sentence and the desire but lack of opportunity to be educated as she had dreamed, that I could begin to understand someone who had experienced a life completely foreign to mine. I can only believe that my client also received something from our relationship, yet possibly nothing more than a lessening of a sense of distrust that she had for the establishment of which she perceived that I was a member.

The outcome of my client's suit is not important. What is significant is that as a result of the relationship that we developed during our time together, a mutual trust and understanding of the other was instilled in both of us. My experience left no doubt in my mind that the public as a whole had benefited because we had each grown as individuals in a way that will stay with us for a long time and that we will share with other people.

Although I cannot say that I think of my Title VII appointment every day, there is no denying it has affected me positively as a lawyer. It has helped shape me into a better attorney, with a greater sense of responsibility to my own clients and to the clients of others. Thus, it fulfilled one of pro bono publico's major goals-providing value to a member of our society that he or she could not otherwise obtain. Through my pro bono case, I gained a perspective on life that was both new and challenging.

That is why programs such as the one at Tulane University Law School of New Orleans should be applauded. Tulane is the first ABA accredited school to require pro bono services of its law students as a requirement to graduation. Tulane law students will not have to wait until they have entered practice to become involved in-and reap the benefits of-pro bono work.

You, as Young Lawyers Division affiliate leaders, should encourage young lawyers to dedicate some portion of their time to pro bono activities. Many young lawyers approached for pro bono work will raise the excuse of "not want-ing to get involved." They will protest that they should not have to give free legal advice to individuals they do not know. But if you believe, as I do, that the true meaning of "pro bono publico" is to benefit the public as a whole, then you should persuade your colleagues that they too will gain directly from their pro bono experience. Young lawyers who participate in pro bono work will not only have served their particular pro bono client, but through their own professional growth will serve many more members of the public in future years.

This issue of The Affiliate is dedicated to urging each of you, as a young lawyer leader, to promote and endorse the sponsorship of pro bono projects by your bar association and the participation in those projects by young lawyers. Pro bono projects such as those underway in New Jersey and North Carolina and which are featured in this issue, are easily instituted, and with some encouragement by you as bar leaders they will be enthusiastically received. And there can be no better endorsement of any pro bono program than the personal involvement of the leaders behind the project.