Projects

Law Firm Pro Bono Project:

Supporting the Pro Bono Performance

of Major Law Firms Around the World

The Law Firm Pro Bono Project® initiative supports and enhances the pro bono culture and performance of major law firms in the U.S. and around the world.

The Project assists firms to fully integrate pro bono into their practice and culture in order to provide the institutional support and infrastructure essential to fostering a climate supportive of pro bono service and promoting partner and associate participation.

The Project is a trusted source for innovative ideas, consultation, and insight that will help law firms make informed and enlightened decisions about pro bono to meaningfully advance access to justice in their communities.

“The Law Firm Pro Bono Project provides invaluable resources for firms seeking to build best-in-class pro bono programs, converting a commitment to pro bono into a sustained, firmwide representation of those in need.  Through the Project’s thought leadership, educational materials, practical tools and networking opportunities, law firm leaders can inspire their firms to fulfill the noblest ideals of the legal profession to ensure access to justice through pro bono service.”
— John J. Conroy, Jr., Baker McKenzie

By becoming a Member of the Law Firm Pro Bono Project® initiative, your law firm gains expert and reliable information and personalized assistance essential to creating and maintaining a quality pro bono program. Click here to see the full list of Member Benefits.

You become part of a global network of other prestigious law firms that share your commitment to pro bono and your passion for access to justice. Click here to see a full list of Members.

Law firms with more than 50 attorneys are invited to become Law Firm Pro Bono Project Members. To become a Member, complete the membership enrollment form and submit it, along with your annual membership dues payment, to PBI. Non-member law firms may receive assistance and materials from the Project on a fee-for-service basis.

Questions about becoming a Member? Contact the Law Firm Pro Bono Project initiative.

The Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge initiative is a recognized legal industry standard for pro bono. Developed by law firm leaders and corporate general counsel, the Challenge articulates an aspirational goal embraced by law firms around the globe. Law firms that become signatories to the Challenge acknowledge their institutional, firm-wide commitment to provide pro bono legal services to the disadvantaged and those most in need.

Only firms with 50 or more lawyers are eligible to become Challenge Signatory Firms. When compared to other aspirational pro bono standards, such as ethics rules and state and local bar association goals, the Challenge is unique in several aspects:

  • It is national and global in scope.
  • It consciously targets one important segment of the bar – law firms with 50+ lawyers – and is tailored to the specific concerns, resources, structure, and role of that segment.
  • It offers a progressive, but realistic, performance standard – i.e., a target of either five or three percent of each firm’s total billable hours – in addition to the hours-per-attorney standard commonly used in articulating pro bono goals. (While firms do have the option to select an alternative goal of 60 or 100 hours per attorney, most Signatory firms have elected to use the preferred percentage goals.) By promoting a percentage goal, the Challenge ties pro bono to firm productivity and profitability.
  • It calls for an institutional commitment, rather than an individual lawyer commitment, in recognition of the fact that the policies and practices of large law firms are key to the ability and willingness of firm lawyers to undertake pro bono work.
  • It creates goals, not only with respect to the amount of pro bono work to be undertaken, but also with regard to the structural and policy elements that are essential for the creation and maintenance of a pro bono-friendly law firm culture.
  • It links Challenge firms to technical assistance resources at the Law Firm Pro Bono Project initiative.
  • It includes an accountability mechanism and an outcome measurement tool through its annual reporting requirement.

 

To join the Challenge, sign the Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge  statement. For more information about the Challenge, read  the Commentary to the Statement Principles, and What Counts?.

To find current as well as historic data on law firm pro bono performance, read the Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge Reports, and to learn more about the amazing work signatories have done to serve those in need, visit the PBI Signatory Showcase.

Law Firm Pro Bono Project Advisory Committee members volunteer their time to help guide and shape the work and direction of the Law Firm Pro Bono Project initiative.

Chair
Regina M. Pisa

Goodwin Procter

Members
Reid C. Adams, Jr.

Womble Bond Dickinson

W. Toliver Besson
Paul Hastings (retired)

John J. Conroy, Jr.
Baker McKenzie

Kathryn J. Fritz
Fenwick & West

L. Joseph Genereux
Dorsey & Whitney (retired)

David M. Hashmall
Goodwin Procter

Richard R. Hays
Alston & Bird

James L. Volling
Faegre Drinker

Mark D. Wasserman
Eversheds Sutherland

Jami Wintz McKeon
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius

Thomas D. Yannucci
Kirkland & Ellis

PROJECT GOAL

To fully integrate pro bono into the practice, philosophy, and culture of firms so that large law firms provide the institutional support, infrastructure, and encouragement essential to fostering a climate supportive of pro bono service and promoting partner and associate participation.