Pro Bono, Small Law Firms, Solo Practitioners

Back In The Race: No Bono -- When Should A Lawyer Take On Pro Bono Work?

Columnist Shannon Achimalbe shares the stories of two cases she handled pro bono.

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resume girlLast week, I wrote about the pragmatic difficulties of doing pro bono work. But some do it anyway.

Is there a strategy to taking on pro bono work? How should a lawyer decide whether to accept a case on a pro bono basis? The politically correct answer is to take on as much pro bono work as possible because it is our moral duty to do so.

But in reality, the answer varies. Some do it to promote their practice. Others do it to dabble in a new practice area, return a favor, or just pay it forward. Or maybe because the lawyer has already invested enough time into the case and does not want to leave the client hanging. And others don’t do it at all.

Let me take this opportunity to share the stories of two of my past clients whose cases I have taken with no expectation of payment for my services.

The first client was a man who was HIV-positive and living on a fixed income. He and I met through a mutual acquaintance. He hired a firm to settle a debt with a government agency. Two years passed and the firm had not done much with his case. Since the firm in question was a debt settlement mill, I assumed he was forgotten along with many of their other clients.

Over the phone, I gave him some tips on settling the case on his own. But soon after, he called back telling me that he was having trouble communicating with the agency. By this time, I noticed that the client was speaking broken English and had trouble articulating his thoughts. And second, the agency’s customer service line required the caller to go through a labyrinth of button pushing with their touchtone phones before reaching an actual person. So I can see how the experience was frustrating for the client.

So I offered to do a conference call with the creditor and the client in the hope that I could help move things along. Once the creditor learned about his ailment and financial situation, he was sympathetic. He was willing to give a generous settlement so long as we provided some documents.

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At that point, I decided to finish what I started, so I helped the client get the necessary documents, talked to the creditor on the client’s behalf, and eventually settled his debt for pennies on the dollar.

The client, frail yet full of relief, thanked me for my help, and said that he would send their friends to me if they had legal problems. But the referrals never came, and his financial situation never improved. I reached out to him during the holidays, either through a phone call or an email, until one day he stopped answering my emails and his phone was disconnected.

He moved to Mississippi. He’s still there.

The second client was a physician who had fallen on hard times. He and I met while I was working for a law firm. Without getting into details, the client got into serious trouble with the federal government. Not long after retaining the firm, he was ordered to appear before a federal magistrate judge. Unfortunately, the client lived in a different state, and the firm I worked for did not handle court matters.

I called the client, planning to tell him that there was nothing we can do. The client’s wife answered the phone. She was worried that her husband would go to jail and how it would affect her and her three grown children. She said that she and her husband had to borrow money to pay the mortgage and utility bills and only after the creditors threatened to foreclose or disconnect services. Even though she and I lived in different time zones, I could see the tears coming down her eyes.

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I didn’t have the heart to tell her the bad news. While she was talking, I was thinking about how to deal with the magistrate judge. I had some strategies, but if I was going to represent them, I had to appear in person. This meant purchasing round-trip plane tickets and spending at least one night at a local motel. The whole trip would cost $1,000, and the firm would not reimburse me. Not only that, I would have to take a pay cut for missing a few days of work.

I recall staying up most of the night thinking about whether I should go and stand by them. If they did not pay me, then I would have to miss my rent or student loan payment. But in the end, they seemed like good people who needed someone during a difficult time. One of the children was about to graduate medical school. The middle child was about to graduate from a T14 law school. And the third child was accepted to medical school.

I know a good bet when I saw one. I bought the plane tickets and booked a room for the night. I told the client that he could pay me whatever they want whenever they want.

Long story short, I appeared before the magistrate judge, who ended up being fairly generous to our side. A few months later, the other side and I worked out a deal.

The client eventually got back on his feet financially and was able to reimburse my costs. I work with them to this day and recently attended their daughter’s wedding. A friend of theirs referred someone who ended up being one of my highest-paying clients.

I share these stories to show that pro bono cases vary widely. Some are simple, while others are very complex. Some end quickly, while others drag on for years. Finally, some clients will somehow return the favor or at least stay in touch, while others will forget about you.

But all of the pro bono cases I have taken have shared some common characteristics: They were genuinely indigent, they had no one else to turn to, and most importantly, I believed in them. This provided the intrinsic motivation I needed to work on their case just as diligently as that of a paying client.

So the answer is, it depends. But ultimately, you should do pro bono work because you want to, not because some politician, judge, or other influential figure says that it is your duty to do so.

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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