Should Lawyers Be Required to Do Pro Bono Services?

Pro Bono is something that should be done willingly and from the heart.

You can't just force lawyers to do so, if they don't like to otherwise, the quality of legal service that they would provide might be less than what they're supposed to give.

That is why most local state bars post pro bono opportunities through campaign literatures and/or via their websites ; to encourage its members to volunteer and give back to the community.

For the lawyers to be effective they ought to be motivated. And, for them to be motivated either they expect compensation, or they have the moral conviction. But, they can't do it without any of the two.

I am a paralegal for 2 years now and I've volunteered to quite a number of pro bono opportunities here in Honolulu. With that, I've been blessed with the rare privilege of working with well-known attorneys here in our locale, who despite the big figures behind their names, still managed to work for a cause. This all because, the Hawaii State Bar Association through its member, is ever active in extending pro bono services to the community. They encourage and promote pro bono.

HSBA always sights benefits and personal rewards that attorneys can get in volunteering. They emphasize on the-feel-good about-yourself-feeling that lies in every pro bono opportunity and the CLE credits they can get.

Even the American Bar Association has so much faith in doing pro bono yet, they don't force their members to participate. Rather, they find ways to educate their members of the need, as they bring out the awareness and its importance, by conducting studies of how low-income families are not finding their ways through the justice system and let the members know the results, in that way they establish the need for doing public service, and then they highlight on the benefits and accolades await those who would get involve.

The ABA also has State Emeritus Pro Bono Practice Rules; their way of encouraging retired and inactive attorneys to volunteer and provide pro bono assistance to clients unable to pay for essential legal representation. To date, 32 jurisdictions have adopted emeritus pro bono rules waiving some of the normal licensing requirement for attorneys agreeing to limit their practice to volunteer service.

So, far what's mandatory in only 7 states of Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, Mississippi, Nevada and Mexico, is the pro bono reporting; wherein the state bar association for that jurisdiction has to report the strategies for emphasizing pro bono responsibility and gathering data.

While, 8 states rejected mandatory pro bono reporting and that includes:Colorado, Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Utah.

And, 11 states have voluntary pro bono reporting, which includesArizona, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Washington

The states of Michigan and Vermont have considered voluntary pro bono reporting too.

We can promote by all means we can encourage but, we can never require!

This article was featured in a debate at Helium.com
http://www.helium.com/items/1670626-pro-bono-legal-service-public-service-working-for-cause