Established in 1996, the Pro Bono Institute is a small non-profit organization housed at the Georgetown University Law Center that provides research, consultative services, analysis and assessment, publications, and training to a broad range of legal audiences. PBI's President, Esther F. Lardent, is an internationally recognized expert in the field of access to justice, legal services and legal aid, and pro bono publico, with an emphasis on program assessment and the development of new strategies and delivery systems.

The Pro Bono Institute is mandated to explore and identify new approaches to - and resources for - the provision of legal services to the poor, disadvantaged, and other individuals or groups unable to secure legal assistance to address critical problems. In doing so, the Institute identifies and develops innovative programs and undertakes rigorous evaluations to ensure that the proposals and methods identified are workable in the real world of law practice and legal services delivery.

The Institute also strives to look objectively and critically at the strengths and limitations of current models, and, working with key decision makers and opinion leaders, to assess, improve, and re-think those systems to avoid stagnancy and to ensure responsiveness to new issues, environments, and opportunities.

In its work the Pro Bono Institute is guided by a commitment to equal justice, innovation and creativity, excellence, collaboration, and results.

The Pro Bono Institute does not provide direct legal services. Rather, the Institute is a catalyst, administering projects that support, guide, and inspire legal institutions to enhance access to justice. While each of PBI's projects stands alone, the Institute selects and operates projects that, working in concert, promote synergies and inform and strengthen each other.

Among the projects operating under the aegis of the Institute is the highly-regarded Law Firm Pro Bono Project. The Project provides a wide range of services to its target audience of larger law firms, including its annual training program, the Pro Bono Seminar, local training sessions and convocations, newsletters that provide cutting-edge information on law firm pro bono activities and trends, empirical research, surveys, and publications, such as monographs and best practices compilations, a comprehensive global clearinghouse of materials and information on all aspects of law firm pro bono practice, and technical assistance to individual law firms and to consortia of firms on a city-wide, state, regional and national basis. The Project, a valued and respected resource among larger law firms, enables these firms, despite dramatic shifts in firm structures and economics, to strengthen, institutionalize, and expand their pro bono culture and service.

Corporate Pro Bono, a joint initiative of PBI and the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC), is designed to substantially increase the amount of pro bono work performed by in-house counsel and to enhance the pro bono culture of in-house legal departments through targeted research and publications, online information and services, technical assistance to the in-house community, and outreach and educational programming. The Project assists legal services, pro bono, and public interest programs in publicizing and placing pro bono matters with in-house lawyers and promotes and brokers pro bono joint ventures among legal departments, major law firms, and public interest groups. Corporate Pro Bono also works closely with ACC chapters to focus their resources and agendas on pro bono service and sponsors, in conjunction with the Pro Bono Institute Annual Seminar, a Forum on In-House Corporate Pro Bono.

The Pro Bono Institute's Reinventing Pro Bono Project provides strategic advice, training, and tailored technical assistance for public interest organizations that address the legal problems of the poor and disadvantaged through major impact litigation, administrative and legislative advocacy, community economic development, community lawyering, and similar strategies.

In addition to its ongoing projects, the Pro Bono Institute periodically sponsors initiatives designed to address and capitalize upon new developments related to access to justice. Currently, two new projects - Global Pro Bono and "Second Acts"^© are in the developmental stages.