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Read archived issues of The Wire here.
Navigating AI and Legal Ethics Guidance
Ethical guidance on the role of AI in legal services is evolving and responding more and more to civil legal needs and expanding access to justice for underserved communities. As use of AI expands, state bar associations and courts are considering how to avoid ethical pitfalls while taking advantage of emerging technology. READ OUR BLOG
The Power of Training: The Importance of Educating Lawyers on AI Tools to Successfully Scale Pro Bono Efforts
Advancements in AI technology hold the potential to revolutionize legal practice and enhance pro bono services. With legal service organizations currently forced to turn away nearly 50 percent of qualified pro bono clients due to capacity constraints, the contribution of lawyers and law firms is essential to bridging the access to justice gap.
AI can dramatically increase efficiency in completing routine legal tasks, such as document review and letter drafting, reducing processes that typically take hours to mere minutes. This heightened productivity allows lawyers to devote more time to building client relationships and focusing on complex legal issues where their expertise is most needed, thereby maximizing the impact of pro bono efforts. By integrating AI into their practices, law firms can deliver more cost-effective, efficient legal services with better outcomes, significantly expanding their reach to clients in need. This technological shift could be transformative in the pro bono sector, enabling the delivery of services to a broader population of underserved clients. Find out more about how you can scale AI to your pro bono efforts. READ OUR BLOG
Join our celebration of all that we do to advance access to justice. Your presence at the PBI 2024 Annual Dinner will honor Awardees’ dedication and achievements, celebrate all of our pro bono contributions, and inspire others to continue driving positive change.
SPONSOR BENEFIT
PBI is providing an added benefit to Annual Dinner Sponsors – complimentary attendance to the Convocation webinar hosted by the PBI 2024 John H. Pickering Awardee.
Pro Bono Strategies to Bridge the Justice Gap
Join us on October 2, 2024, from 1:00 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. ET, for a webinar presented by PBI in partnership with Pickering Award recipient, Munger, Tolles & Olson for an insightful discussion on effecting systemic change through police reform, providing generative AI tools to the legal aid community, and more.
Find out more about our 2024 Awardees:
2024 John H. Pickering Award
honoring outstanding institutional commitment to pro bono legal services and the inspiring pro bono performance of the firm’s attorneys and staff
PBI is proud to present the 2024 John H. Pickering Award to Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP* (MTO). This prestigious award, presented in conjunction with Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr*† (WilmerHale) and the Pickering family, recognizes MTO’s outstanding institutional commitment to pro bono work and the inspiring performance of its attorneys and staff. FIND OUT MORE ABOUT MTO’s LEGACY OF PRO BONO WORK
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2024 CPBO Pro Bono Partner Award
Paramount Global in partnership with Loeb & Loeb LLP
for their wide-ranging collaboration developing sustainable projects reaching underserved communities at the local, state, and national levels
Paramount Global** and Loeb & Loeb LLP*† have built a dedicated pro bono partnership over the past 5 years. Together they have worked to develop sustainable projects to address critical legal needs in the communities where they live and work, by providing pro bono legal services through both local and national legal aid organizations. The partnership’s projects range from brief advice clinics to long-term representation of pro bono clients, and cover legal issues including voting rights, humanitarian parole, SNAP benefits, veterans’ benefits, healthcare directives, small business support, and more. FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THIS INSPIRING COLLABORATION
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2024 CPBO Pro Bono Partner Award
PSE&G in partnership with Gibbons P.C.*†, McCarter & English, LLP*†, and Volunteer Lawyers for Justice
for their Veterans Legal Program assisting veterans with legal issues impacting safety, security, and stability
PSE&G, Gibbons P.C.*†, McCarter & English, LLP*†, and Volunteer Lawyers for Justice (VLJ) launched the Veterans Legal Program (VLP) in 2014, offering legal assistance to veterans on issues such as child support modifications, driver’s license restoration, criminal record expungements, estate planning, eviction defense and other civil legal issues. Over the past decade, the partners have adapted and expanded the VLP’s services to meet the civil legal needs of veterans. The VLP provides both brief advice clinics and full representation to veterans. FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THIS IMPORTANT PROJECT
For more information about PBI’s annual celebration, or to inquire about sponsorship opportunities, please contact:
Danny Reed, Director of Development
202.729.6691 | dreed@probonoinst.org.
The St. Louis Pro Bono Partnership is a remarkable collaboration involving three key organizations, Citigroup Inc. (Citi)**, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner*, and the local legal aid organization, Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, that are focused on providing legal support to underserved communities. The partnership is a testament to the impact that can be achieved through collaboration. From elderly clients to domestic violence victims and micro-entrepreneurs, this decade-long initiative has made a significant difference in the community.
PBI spoke with Emily Elam, Head of Legal Strategic Priorities at Citi, for this Signatory Showcase podcast.
PBI’s Corporate Pro Bono Project (CPBO®) recently published the 2024 Benchmarking Report: An Overview of In-House Pro Bono which summarizes the responses of 54 legal departments, providing unique insight into current trends in in-house pro bono.
Key Highlights
PBI shared a complimentary advance copy of the Report with Benchmarking Report respondents, Corporate Pro Bono Challenge® signatories, and Law Firm Pro Bono Project® members. If you would like to purchase a copy of the 2024 Benchmarking Report, please contact the CPBO project at cpbo@probonoinst.org.
Navigating the practice of law for pro bono clients is a common challenge for many in-house counsel. While nearly all states allow non-locally licensed in-house counsel to represent their in-state employers, often through a registration or certification process, the scope of this representation is generally limited to the employer-client relationship. This restriction has historically posed challenges for in-house counsel wishing to engage in pro bono work, as they were unable to extend their legal services beyond their employer’s needs.
Over the past two decades, however, numerous states have revised their practice rules to include exemptions for in-house counsel and active out-of-state attorneys, permitting them to deliver pro bono legal services, though often subject to restrictions not imposed on locally-licensed members of the bar. These conditions typically require the non-locally licensed in-house counsel to be “affiliated with approved legal services organizations” and/or to work “under the supervision of a locally licensed attorney.” Only four jurisdictions permit non-locally licensed in-house counsel to do pro bono without these limitations.
Importantly, these changes signify a progressive shift towards facilitating broader access to legal services for underserved populations, reflecting a growing recognition of the valuable contributions that in-house and out-of-state attorneys can make through pro bono work across different jurisdictions.
For over a decade, PBI’s Corporate Pro Bono (CPBO) project has advocated for rule changes to authorize more in-house counsel to do pro bono, without restriction, subject to the Rules of Professional Responsibility. CPBO also tracks the rules in each jurisdiction and compiles this information in a guide and on an interactive map, to help in-house counsel find the rules that apply to them.
New Mexico is the most recent state to adopt an in-house counsel limited license rule, that authorizes licensed in-house counsel to do pro bono. Specifically, in-house counsel practicing law under that limited license may provide pro bono legal services in New Mexico under the auspices of organized legal aid societies, Supreme Court, or bar association projects, or under the supervision of an attorney licensed to practice law in New Mexico who is also working on the pro bono representation. This New Mexico Bar Admission Rule 15-308 went into effect on December 31, 2023, pursuant to New Mexico Supreme Court Order No. S-1-RCR-2023-00036, and the pro bono authorization can be found in subsection 15-308(H)(1)(e).
This information and more is highlighted in the July 2024 edition of Corporate Pro Bono’s Multijurisdictional Practice Guide, and on the updated interactive Multijurisdictional Practice Map on CPBO’s website. If you have questions about multijurisdictional practice rules, or authorization for in-house counsel to do pro bono, or if you are interested in participating in advocacy for rule reform, please contact CPBO at cpbo@probonoinst.org.
LAW FIRMS – Now is the time to give your pro bono programs a boost! Join or renew your membership in the PBI Law Firm Pro Bono Project® initiative today!
Renew your membership on or before September 3, 2024, and you’ll receive a 10 percent discount for a one-year membership or a 20 percent discount for a two-year membership.
Don’t miss this opportunity to tap into extensive research, resources, and special Members-only programming providing an in-depth look at data from our 2024 Report on the Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge® Initiative as well as programming on emerging trends from our Staffing Report, to be published next month. We look forward to engaging with you in these focused discussions to advance law firm pro bono!
Charlotte Triage Pro Bono Partnership
On August 14, PBI attended the Charlotte Triage Pro Bono Partnership’s Fall Preview. The Charlotte Triage Pro Bono Partnership, a 2020 CPBO Pro Bono Partner Awardee, is a collaboration among pro bono leaders from organizations including Bank of America**, McGuireWoods*†, Duke Energy**, Moore & Van Allen, Wells Fargo, Husqvarna, Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy, and Legal Aid of NC, focused on raising awareness of the unmet legal needs in the community and driving intentional pro bono volunteerism. The Partnership’s practice areas, discussed in more detail during the Fall Preview, include representing tenants in housing matters, assisting survivors of domestic violence, supporting students with disabilities, helping endangered children obtain Special Immigrant Juvenile status, providing a second chance through expunctions, and navigating affordable healthcare. The Charlotte Triage Pro Bono Partnership will be hosting its Seventh Annual Event on September 18, 2024, featuring virtual and in-person CLE trainings on each of these practice areas, as well as an in-person networking reception. You can RSVP here to join the event, and you can read more about their innovative approach to pro bono here.
Fundamentals of AI in the U.S. Court System
On August 28, PBI attended the Fundamentals of AI in the U.S. Court System webinar, hosted by the National Center for State Courts and the Thomson Reuters Institute through their AI Policy Consortium. This insightful session, which will soon be available on the NCSC website, explored how AI can enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the judicial process. It also addressed significant ethical concerns, such as the potential for AI to deepen the digital divide and impact equal access to justice. Additionally, the discussion raised questions about the risks of inherent biases in AI models potentially exacerbating existing judicial inequities, as well as the financial implications for organizations that may face higher costs to implement AI technologies. These issues highlight the importance of careful regulation and ongoing dialogue as AI continues to integrate into the legal system.
To access programming from PBI’s Annual Conference on AI + Pro Bono, visit here.
Thanks to everyone who contributed to the Law Firm Pro Bono Project® Staffing Survey! We are finalizing our report, which we are eager to share in the coming weeks. The report will lay the groundwork for a further in-depth discussion for Law Firm Pro Bono Project® members on patterns and trends observed in the staffing data, including correlations between staffing data and data from our Challenge survey. Stay tuned for the report and for information about this special member programming as we dive into the numbers and identify areas of strength and those we can improve upon to increase access to justice together!
Watch your email for more details–coming soon!
* denotes a Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge® signatory
** denotes a Corporate Pro Bono Challenge® signatory
† denotes a Law Firm Pro Bono Project® member
Pro Bono Institute®, PBI®, Law Firm Pro Bono Project®, and CPBO® are registered trademarks of Pro Bono Institute
