Now that Thanksgiving Day is over, don’t get out of the
spirit just yet because Christmas and the New Year is right around the corner,
a time of year when many people reflect on what they have to be thankful for,
as well as what they can contribute to better the lives of others. In the
run-up to the holiday, Robert Half Legal released some telling data about how
lawyers are giving back through pro bono work.
The data shows that attorneys in general have gotten more
generous with their time and energy over the last few years as far as pro bono
is concerned. The legal staffing agency broke the numbers down for
CorpCounsel.com to show that in-house lawyers are no exception to the rule.
“Pro bono is so important, and legal professionals are
responding to help meet the increased demand for legal pro bono work,” Charles
Volkert, executive director of Robert Half Legal told CorpCounsel.com.
Of the 175 corporate counsel interviewed by phone by the
agency, 25 percent said they increased either slightly or significantly the
number of hours they work on a pro bono or volunteer basis over the last five
years. This is somewhat lower than the overall percentage of lawyers doing
slightly or a lot more pro bono—33 percent—but corporate departments are still
clocking a fair amount of hours.
For in-house counsel, the average number of pro bono hours
reported annually was 41, and some 32 percent dedicate 50 or more hours of
their time each year to pro bono service. Some 5 percent are huge contributors,
devoting 200 hours or more of their time to pro bono work.
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| M. Joseph Miller II. President & Founder Trial By Peers, formerly the Clark County Youth Law Foundation. "Over 20 years of volunteering & doing for the community as best I can" |
In August, the American Bar Association House of Delegates
adopted a resolution that might help even more in-house attorneys give back
through pro bono. The resolution requests that in-house lawyers be allowed to
do pro bono in the jurisdiction where they are employed, even if they are not
licensed to practice law there. Currently, all jurisdictions allow in-house
counsel to practice where they are unlicensed in the context of employment with
a company, but not all jurisdictions allow them to do pro bono work where they
are unlicensed.
Volkert said that in his experience, candidates for legal
jobs are certainly attracted to companies or law firms with more pro bono
clout, and especially those with full-fledged pro bono programs. “They want to
know about the pro bono environment,” he said. “Many legal job applicants value
a strong pro bono culture within a corporate legal department or within a law
firm, depending on which they’re pursuing.”
The Robert Half data revealed that for in-house lawyers
specifically, and lawyers overall, the greatest motivation for doing pro bono
was “helping others.” This was followed by “developing skills or legal
expertise” and “enhancing professional reputation or career.”
Besides being a win-win for the in-house attorney and the
pro bono client, offering a pro bono program can have other benefits for the
law department, explained Volkert. “It can really put a name out there for an
in-house legal department for giving back to the community,” he said. It’s also
a way of getting in-house attorneys to collaborate and work closely together.
Pro bono can also improve bonds between in-house
attorneys and their outside counsel, Volkert added. A small legal department
can take on a bigger project than they might have otherwise if they let the law
firms of their choice get in on it.
M & A Legal Management
6655 W. Sahara Ave., Suite B200
Las Vegas, Nevada 89146
(888) 449-5841
