Insights from the 2025 Equal Justice Conference: Expanding Pro Bono Impact with Expert Support

At the 2025 Equal Justice Conference, hosted by the American Bar Association and National Legal Aid & Defender Association, Pro Bono Institute (PBI) organized and led “Building Bridges: Enhancing Impact Through Strategic Partnerships with Experts.” The standing-room-only panel offered a compelling vision for how collaboration with expert services providers can expand the reach and effectiveness of pro bono legal services. The discussion reflected growing interest in the role of expert consultants in strengthening both legal advocacy and organizational capacity.

The message was clear: when pro bono and public interest teams engage expert services providers, the impact can be transformative. This approach is at the heart of the PBI ExpertConnect Pro Bono Hub, a new pilot program designed to help providers of free legal services tap into high-quality expert support at no cost.

Understanding the Role of Expert Services in Pro Bono Work

Expert services bring a wide range of professional skills that go beyond legal expertise, including forensic accounting, data analysis, investigations, communications strategy, medical consulting, strategic planning, and more. When integrated into legal efforts, expert services strengthen advocacy, sharpen legal arguments, and build organizational resilience.

The panel encouraged legal teams to think broadly about how experts can support their work, including:

• Individual Client Support: Experts help resolve complex factual, financial, or technical issues in individual matters, conducting investigations, analyzing records, and providing assessments that inform strategy and outcomes.
• Policy and Impact Litigation: Experts support broader advocacy efforts by quantifying harm, modeling economic impact, and producing data to back legislative, class action, or structural change efforts.
• Organizational Capacity Building: Experts work with legal services organizations and nonprofits to improve operations, plan strategically, and evaluate programs for greater long-term impact.

Polling during the session revealed that 61% of attendees had never worked with expert services providers on a pro bono matter, highlighting a meaningful opportunity to expand this underused resource.

How Experts Show Up in Practice

The panel highlighted real-world examples that demonstrated the practical value of expert collaboration, from uncovering critical evidence in client matters to strengthening class actions and refining organizational strategy. These examples are a powerful reminder that expert support can help pro bono and public interest legal teams meet complex challenges with greater confidence and creativity.

In individual client matters, experts help legal teams uncover key facts, locate witnesses, and calculate financial harm, driving positive outcomes in complex, high-stakes cases.

• Charles River Associates (CRA) partnered with Sanctuary for Families to locate a child abducted by their father to another country. CRA’s on-the-ground investigation helped discredit the father’s claims, leading to a court order for the child’s return.
• In a Hague Convention case, CRA uncovered hidden assets and suspicious income tied to a domestic violence survivor’s abusive partner, strengthening the legal team’s argument to keep the family safely in their home country.
• Davis Polk worked with investigators to locate a phone company employee whose missing records undermined key trial testimony in an innocence case.
• In a resentencing case under New York’s Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act, experts helped Davis Polk identify former classmates whose affidavits supported early release for a survivor serving a decades-long sentence.
• In a human trafficking matter, Davis Polk used expert support to identify and contact other victims of the same trafficker, corroborating their client’s account.
• Stout provided damages calculations in a trafficking case involving construction workers, contributing to a $5.91 million judgment.
• Stout quantified wage loss for a trafficked domestic worker, helping the jury understand the full economic impact of the abuse.

In systemic advocacy and impact litigation, experts contribute by surfacing patterns, analyzing data, and producing models that support broader reform efforts.

• Stout collaborated with legal advocates in New York to analyze delays in the special education hearing process. Their findings supported a class action settlement to improve accountability and access for students with disabilities.
• Stout analyzed student-led observations of more than 600 consumer debt cases in New York City. Their report identified systemic disparities and informed advocacy to make debt collection proceedings more equitable and accessible.
• Stout conducted a cost-benefit analysis of New York City’s Right to Counsel law, demonstrating the economic and community impact of providing legal representation in eviction cases. Their findings helped secure funding and inform similar policy efforts elsewhere.

In organizational capacity building, experts help legal services and other organizations assess operations, engage stakeholders, and plan strategically for the future.

• The Legal Aid Society partnered with Stout on a year-long strategic planning project. Through stakeholder engagement, operational review, and community input, the process produced a mission-aligned framework that strengthened internal decisionmaking and service delivery.

The ExpertConnect Hub: Your Gateway to Pro Bono Expert Support

The PBI ExpertConnect Pro Bono Hub is a pilot program that helps pro bono and public interest legal teams access expert support at no cost. The ExpertConnect Hub makes it easy to connect with providers offering services like forensic accounting, data analysis, investigations, strategic planning, e-discovery, and more. Current partners include Charles River Associates (CRA), Relativity, Insight Economics, and StoneTurn, all offering services at no cost to eligible legal teams engaged in structured pro bono efforts.

As the panel discussion underscored, many pro bono and public interest legal teams have yet to tap into the power of expert collaboration despite broad applicability across areas like immigration, housing, family law, reentry, and more. Expert services providers are a valuable but underused resource that can help fill critical gaps and strengthen impact. PBI launched the ExpertConnect Hub to make it easier for legal professionals to access this support and enhance their work.

If you are ready to bring no cost expert support into your pro bono work, getting started with the ExpertConnect Pro Bono Hub is simple:

1. Review the Guidelines for Requesting Expert Services to confirm your eligibility and understand how the program works. The Hub is open to pro bono and public interest legal professionals at law firms, legal departments, and nonprofit legal organizations; it is not intended for pro se litigants.
2. Assess Your Needs by identifying the specific type of expert support required, whether for an individual matter or an organizational initiative.
3. Submit a Request using the brief Pro Bono Expert Services Request Form.

Once a request is submitted, the ExpertConnect team will review it and, if it meets program requirements, will work to match the legal team with a qualified provider based on availability and expertise. While expert partners are not obligated to accept every matter, they commit to reviewing eligible requests promptly and delivering the same high-quality service they offer to paying clients.

Interested in working with expert services providers who are helping pro bono teams sharpen strategy, strengthen advocacy, and expand their impact? To learn more or request support, visit the ExpertConnect Pro Bono Hub.