Pro Bono, Small Law Firms, Solo Practitioners

Back In The Race: No Bono -- 4 Reasons Why Solo And Small-Firm Lawyers Minimize Pro Bono Work

Any proposed solution to the justice gap must address these concerns.

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resume girlEvery once in a while, there is an op-ed or a speech where lawyers are called upon to do more pro bono work to reduce the access-to-justice gap. While most lawyers give lip service to helping the indigent, few actually follow through, at least meaningfully. This is mainly because every hour spent doing pro bono work is an hour that could have been spent billing existing clients or developing business.

Today, I want to share four more reasons why solo and small-firm lawyers tend to minimize pro bono work. Understanding these factors can help us figure out the best way to approach pro bono as a profession.

Incompatible practice areas. Most indigent people seeking pro bono assistance tend to have certain common legal problems. For example, they are defendants in a collections lawsuit and want to settle a debt. Or they are being evicted, need a restraining order, or want to expunge a criminal record in order to get a job.

The problem is that many attorneys do not practice the type of law that can help low-income clients with their problems. In other words, indigent people do not need antitrust, M&A, or estate-planning attorneys. So how can these attorneys help low-income people? Are we going to force them to learn landlord-tenant law?

Some clients will take advantage of the free help at the lawyer’s expense. Many people are very appreciative when a lawyer provides his or her services for free. But what tends to happen is that the client’s goals and expectations will change, usually to the detriment of the attorney representing him.

To give a simple example, if a client knows that he has to pay additional legal fees as his case moves forward, he will have a strong incentive to settle or resolve the case quickly. To accomplish this, the client is likely to agree to make some concessions and compromises.

But if the client does not have to worry about legal fees, then the financial incentive to settle is gone, which may change his outlook on the case. He will want everything resolved in his favor. Also, he is willing to spend as much time as it takes to get it done.

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This can mean additional and usually unnecessary work for lawyers who have to spend time writing and filing continuance motions and attending mediations that go nowhere. Lawyers will also have to spend money on gas and parking, expenses that add up eventually.

Our paying clients will resent it. Imagine that you paid a large sum of money to a lawyer for her services. A few months later, a local newspaper writes a story featuring your lawyer describing how she helped another client with the same legal problem as you — on a pro bono basis.

How would that make you feel? Like a sucker, right?

Most people understand that lawyers charge clients differently depending on their circumstances. But when your paying clients know that you provide pro bono services, most will want that treatment too. And some will make up any sob story in order to get it. Alternatively, they may wonder if they are overpaying you. As a response, they will bargain more aggressively if you ask them to replenish your trust account. Some will exaggerate facts and may even lie in order to get their fees reduced.

Lawyers already do simple pro bono work for the indigent. At least once per week, I get a call from a potential client who either simply cannot afford a lawyer or would not find hiring a lawyer to be cost-effective. After listening to the client’s story, I advise him to go to small-claims court and give him some advice on how to file and prepare his case effectively. Or I provide some other general self-help tips he won’t find on the internet. And I do not charge for the phone call.

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I have done this so many times that I don’t keep track of them nor post about them on social media. While the primary motive is to screen out potential clients who can’t afford to pay, I try to end the call after providing some help to the potential client. And in most cases, answering their questions will solve their problems. This is nothing special. It’s just part of the game known as self-employment. Most solo and small-firm attorneys do something similar.

Does this count as pro bono work? I think so. If the potential client went to a Legal Aid clinic, he might have received the same treatment. And if my consultation solves their problems, then I have done my very small part to reduce the access-to-justice gap.

But most people do not consider answering a few questions for free to be real pro bono work, regardless of the quality of the answers or whether the answers solved the client’s problem. Real pro bono work involves some form of representation and meaningful amount of time spent on the matter. In transactional work, this may involve completing an application for a client, submitting it to the appropriate entity, and prosecuting the matter until the application is approved. In litigation, a lawyer has to represent a client in court until the case is settled or a verdict is reached.

So there you have it. Most lawyers are not hostile to pro bono work. Many solos and small firms already provide simple legal advice for free to the truly indigent as part of their screening process. But there are all kinds of pragmatic reasons that make it difficult for lawyers to provide steady pro bono work. While I don’t have a comprehensive solution for the justice gap, any proposed solution will have to address the four issues I listed above.

Shannon Achimalbe was a former solo practitioner for five years before deciding to sell out and get back on the corporate ladder. Shannon can be reached by email at sachimalbe@excite.com and via Twitter: @ShanonAchimalbe.

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