The American Bar Association (“ABA”) encourages every attorney to perform at least 50 hours of pro bono legal services each year.
The ABA codified this aspiration in model rule 6.1. Despite the model rule, only nine states require their attorneys to report pro bono hours. And in these nine states, there are no serious penalties for failing to do pro bono work. Naturally, there are more attorneys performing pro bono work in these states than in states that do not have a pro bono reporting requirement.
Above the Law, recently provided the following example: Assuming an attorney bills 1,600 hours a year, he or she could meet the 50-hour pro bono goal by committing one hour to pro bono work for every 32 hours the attorney bills a client. Despite the minimal effort, very few attorneys do so.
The legal profession prides itself on being a noble profession that pursues justice for its clients. Nonetheless, a vast majority of attorneys are not meeting the suggested minimum pro bono hours. Above the Law suggests that the “profession has a lot of improvements to make.”
Query: should pro bono hours become a requirement rather than an aspiration?
