By Erin Palmer, Associate Director, Corporate Pro Bono
At the Pro Bono Institute 2026 Pre-Conference, Maximizing Access, Maximizing Justice: Expanding Pro Bono Beyond Traditional Limits, one session focused on a critical and often underutilized resource for legal services organizations: expert support. The session, Pro Bono for Institutional Resilience: Leveraging Expert Support to Build Stronger Legal Services Organizations, explored not just why expert support matters, but what it looks like in practice, how organizations can use it, and how to access it.
At its core, the conversation was grounded in a simple reality: legal services and public interest organizations are being asked to do more with limited resources. As panelists noted, many organizations have been “pressure tested” in recent years, working to maintain service continuity, adapt to growing demand, and improve systems while continuing to deliver high-quality representation.
Expert services providers can help meet those challenges, both in individual client matters and in strengthening the organizations themselves.
What “Expert Support” Actually Means
Expert support is often understood in its most traditional form — expert witnesses, damages calculations, forensic analysis, and litigation support in individual cases — and that work remains essential to achieving outcomes for clients. The session emphasized that expert support can go further, encompassing contributions such as data analysis, operational assessments, technology and digitization, strategic planning, and data-driven litigation support for organizations themselves. These capabilities complement traditional casework by strengthening not only individual matters, but also the systems and capacity that enable organizations to serve more clients more effectively.
“Competing for Good”
Jonathan Hill of Relativity captured the spirit of this work with a phrase that resonated throughout the session: “competing for good.” Rather than operating in silos, expert services providers, pro bono legal teams, and legal services organizations are part of a shared ecosystem. They bring different tools and approaches, but they are working toward the same goal: expanding access to justice.
That mindset shows up in practice, whether through sharing tools, making connections, or referring organizations to expert services better positioned to help.
How Legal Services Organizations Can Identify Their Needs
A key barrier discussed during the session is not just access, it’s knowing what to ask for. Many successful partnerships begin without a fully defined project. Instead, they start by identifying pressure points, whether in individual cases or in organizational systems and strategy.
Legal services and public interest organizations can begin by asking:
- Where are we spending significant staff time on manual and repetitive processes?
- What data are we collecting, but not fully using or analyzing?
- What questions, whether case-specific or system-wide, do we not currently have the capacity to answer?
- Where are bottlenecks limiting our ability to serve more clients?
- What projects or ideas have we postponed because we lack technical or specialized expertise?
- Are there recurring challenges (e.g., annual reporting, budgeting, intake, grant applications) that could be improved with the right support?
- Are there cases where expert analysis, financial investigation, or technical tools could strengthen outcomes?
As panelists emphasized, starting the conversation is often the most important step.
What Expert Support Looks Like in Practice
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ExpertConnect Hub Partnership Examples
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The session highlighted how these partnerships with expert services providers translate into real impact, both for individual client matters and for organizations themselves. A few examples include:
- Supporting individual matters through forensic analysis, expert testimony, and complex data review
- Partnering with organizations to analyze large datasets and uncover patterns that strengthen litigation and policy advocacy
- Helping organizations interpret complex systems and funding structures, enabling more effective advocacy
- Enabling organizations to process and review large volumes of documents, removing cost barriers in litigation
- Supporting training and skill-building, such as mock depositions, to strengthen litigation capacity
How to Access Expert Support Through the PBI ExpertConnect Pro Bono Hub
During the session, one audience question captured a common challenge: How can legal services organizations connect with experts and where do they start? The PBI ExpertConnect Pro Bono Hub is designed to answer exactly that question.
The ExpertConnect Hub connects legal services and public interest organizations with expert services providers offering pro bono support across a wide range of areas, from litigation-focused expertise to organizational and operational support, all at no cost. The ExpertConnect Hub reflects the types of collaborations discussed during the session.
Across these examples, the throughline is clear: expert support strengthens cases, builds capacity, and enables legal services organizations to extend their reach.
Looking to access expert support at no cost? Getting started is simple with three easy steps! Learn more in the video below or read more and request expert services here.
Expanding What Pro Bono Can Be
The session made clear that expanding access to justice requires both strong individual representation and strong institutions. Expert support advances both, strengthening cases through analysis and expertise while building organizational capacity through improved systems and processes, which means that organizations can serve more clients, more effectively. This is not an either/or, but a both/and: not just a shared responsibility, but a shared opportunity. When legal services organizations, lawyers, and experts come together — and “compete for good” — they expand what pro bono can achieve.