2020 put the viability of virtual pro bono clinics to the test. The American Bar Association (ABA) hosted its 12th Annual Celebration of Pro Bono October 21 – 31, 2020, also known as Pro Bono Week. Due to the pandemic, the event’s annual theme was “Rising to Meet the Challenge: Pro Bono Response to COVID-19.” Regardless of the remote circumstances, bar associations, legal departments and law firms across the country successfully collaborated to host virtual pro bono clinics during or around the time of Pro Bono Week.

We checked in with several in-house pro bono leaders to hear their insights on the challenges and successes of navigating pro bono services in a virtual setting.

Anyone following pro bono is well aware that COVID-19 has created a perfect storm for access to justice. Just as during the Great Recession (December 2007 through 2009), millions of Americans, who would otherwise have jobs, find themselves unemployed. In fact, according to the Pew Research Center, nearly twice as many Americans found themselves out of work after the first three months of the pandemic as were unemployed after three years of the Great Recession. (20.5 million Americans were out of work at the end of May 2020 compared to 6.2 million in February of 2020 — an increase of 14.3 million, whereas the Great Recession increased joblessness by 8.8 million.[1])  This alone creates a one-two punch to the gut of access to justice by increasing the need for legal services and reducing the public’s ability to pay for such services.