Page 102 - Impact: Collected Essays on Expanding Access to Justice

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of funding must grow five-fold .4 Given political realities, such an increase is unlikely, which is why all tools must be used, including the targeted use of pro bono services .5
Despite general consensus about the need to include pro bono in the access to civil justice solution,6 from the perspective of a legal services organization, the management of pro bono help can feel like more of a burden than a benefit . Matching a bright attorney who has never set foot in a courtroom with a poor litigant who is facing eviction or the loss of custody of a child is no easy task . Just as firms have institutionalized the coordination of their pro bono efforts through the creation of pro bono counsel positions, legal services offices have been creating their own pro bono coordinator positions as well . These positions are necessary because successful management of pro bono is labor- intensive . Firms must ensure supervision, track cases, generate institutional support, and promote the commitment to pro bono at all levels of the firm . Nonprofits must adequately train and mentor volunteer attorneys, and assist them with unfamiliar court procedures, client interviewing skills and negotiation tactics . Most volunteer attorneys have never had the opportunity to manage a case on their own, and the bulk of the mentoring is focusing on these “soft” lawyering skills that distinguish a real litigator from a person with a J .D . degree . These positions – the firm pro bono counsel and the nonprofit pro bono coordinator – work together to massage the surfeit of legal talent to fit the yawning chasm of legal need . For those of us working in “pro bono first” organizations this kind of triaging, and matching service to need, is our bread and butter .
II. The Approach of one “Pro Bono first” organization
Legal services offices are like free law firms for the poor . When someone comes to a legal services office, they want one of the office’s attorneys to represent them in their legal matter(s) . A small percentage of the cases are identified by the legal services organization as appropriate to be placed with a volunteer attorney, and are handled pro bono . Pro bono placement represents approximately 10 percent of a typical legal services office’s caseload .7 In contrast, what I call a “Pro Bono First” organization is one that provides the majority of its legal assistance through the coordination of volunteer attorneys . While LSC-funded organizations are required to spend 12 .5 percent of their budget on pro bono activities, for us it’s over 75 percent . We spend the majority of our effort focused on how best to mentor and train volunteers, as well as how to match legal need to talent, all to give clients the best legal assistance we can offer . If a “match” cannot be made, we handle the case in-house .
Since September of 2014 I have been the Executive Director of Her Justice, a pro bono first organization that focuses its efforts on ensuring that poor women in New York City receive legal services in the areas of family, divorce, and immigration law . There are many other such pro bono first organizations locally, such as Volunteers of Legal Service, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, Brooklyn Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project, and Partners for Women
4 legal serVs. corP., supra note 2, at 3.
5 The Legal Services Corporation’s Pro Bono Task Force identifies consistent use of pro bono as one goal in addressing the access to justice gap as well. See legal serVs. corP., rePorT of The Pro bono Task force (2012); see also 45 C.F.R. § 1614.1(a) (“Except as provided hereafter, a recipient of Legal Services Corporation funding shall devote an amount equal to at least twelve and one-half percent (12.5%) of the recipient’s LSC annualized basic field award to the involvement of private attorneys in such delivery of legal services ....”).
6 See, e.g., Scott L. Cummings & Rebecca L. Sandefur, Beyond the Numbers: What We Know – and Should Know – About American Pro Bono, 7 harV. l. & Pol’y reV. 83 (2013).
7 See, e.g., legal serVs. corP, 2014 legal serVices corPoraTion by The numbers 1, 27 (2015), available at http://www. lsc.gov/sites/default/files/attach/2015/08/LSC2014FactBook.pdf.
Impact: Collected Essays on Expanding Access to Justice