Pro bono partnerships and models

A Practical Guide to WHAT WORKS

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Chapter 10: Large law firms

This chapter focuses on what drives large law firms to become involved in pro bono partnerships and how to effectively partner with them. More information for lawyers from large law firms who are interested in developing their pro bono practice can be found at 2.1. I am in the early stages of developing a pro bono practice (or growing an existing practice).

10.1 Large Law Firms: At a Glance
10.2 What Will Help Community Organisations Attract Law Firm Partners?

10.1 LARGE LAW FIRMS: AT A GLANCE

Law firm pro bono programs need community partners to assist them with:

identification of unmet legal needs;
access to clients;
merits assessment; and
risk minimisation.

What will help community organisations to attract law firm partners?

Invest time in visiting firms and getting to know pro bono coordinators.
Present a clear strategy and plan for the pro bono work.
Appeal to the interests and culture of the firm and its staff.
Clearly articulate the long-term goals related to assisting a client with their immediate matter.
Confine the scope and quantify the amount of legal work that is being requested.
Demonstrate the necessary organisational ability and skills that the organisation can bring to the partnership with a track record of delivering services to a target client group.
Provide any necessary training to pro bono providers.
Provide a consistent contact point who will oversee administration and logistics, as well as supervise the provision of advice.
Ensure that firms have a good experience with the partner organisation so they feel good about helping.
What will help a pro bono coordinator to ‘sell’ a project within a firm?
Highlight the internal benefits to the firm, especially the link with a corporate client’s goals or visions.
Structure projects to reduce risk to the firm, avoid conflicts and set clear expectations.
Explain how the work can be differentiated from an area of need that the government or legal aid should be addressing.
Where possible, organise projects rather than individual referrals so that the pro bono coordinator does not need to obtain sign off for every individual matter once an entire project is approved.

What attracts law firm staff to participate in pro bono work?

Personal interest in social justice issues.
Partner and management support, encouragement and leading by example.
Client contact and feeling like they are making a real difference.
Opportunities to improve their skills.
Opportunities to do interesting work.
Being able to work more autonomously and take responsibility for a matter from beginning to end.

Various factors drive law firms to undertake pro bono work. Some of these are linked to the ethical and moral principles underpinning the view that lawyers in general should undertake pro bono work, namely the responsibility of lawyers to ensure equal access to justice given their privileged position as members of the profession that has the exclusive right to practice law, and to maintain the professionalism of the legal profession. Many individual lawyers within firms who have a strong personal belief in the importance of social justice and access to justice are those driving pro bono work within their firms.

Lawyers looking to gain support for a pro bono program within the firm need also to communicate the business rationale for undertaking such a program. The commercial benefits to a firm can include:

making the firm more attractive to high quality legal recruits who are increasingly seeking opportunities to participate in pro bono programs;
greater retention of valued employees, which also reduces recruitment costs;
developing lawyers’ professional skills and experience in a supervised environment;
enhancing staff morale and loyalty; and
providing unique opportunities to market the firm, enhance its corporate image and thereby generate new business.¹

The inclusion of pro bono conditions by the Commonwealth and Victorian governments in their tender schemes for the purchase of legal services from the private profession has encouraged the growth of pro bono legal services in those jurisdictions.²

In recent years, despite the significant structural changes that have taken place in the law firm sector over the past few years, large Australian law firms have continued to increase the amount of pro bono legal assistance they provide.³ In the 2013-2014 financial year, 11,813 FTE lawyers employed by firms with more than 50 lawyers undertook more than 374,942 hours of pro bono legal work, or an average of 31.7 hours per lawyer per annum.⁴

Large firms have found that the transition from an ad hoc to a structured pro bono practice has provided benefits, not only to the firm but also to the recipients of pro bono assistance. While firms with a structured pro bono program may be better able to target those in need of pro bono assistance, many of them also rely heavily on their community partners who have direct daily contact with disadvantaged, marginalised and vulnerable people to help them to identify and assess the level of unmet legal need.

Large firms also rely on community partners to provide access to clients from those target groups through referrals and partnership programs such as clinics, and to perform a triage function and filter the matters so that only appropriate cases are referred after a full merits assessment has been done. Firms can minimise their risk, for example, by partnering with an organisation that can supervise the pro bono work of the law firm’s lawyers working as secondees or staffing clinics.

We really need CLCs because they know much more about the clients and the needs that we want to assist with. We can’t do our pro bono work without them. (Mid-sized law firm pro bono coordinator)

Our firm is always open to new relationships and encourages requests from community organisations for assistance. There is no harm in asking a firm if they are interested in assisting or being involved in a project. (Large law firm pro bono coordinator)

Law firm pro bono programs need community partners to assist them with:

identification of unmet legal needs;
access to clients;
merits assessment; and
risk minimisation.

In addition to partnering with community organisations to deliver pro bono legal services to the clients of those organisations, many firms also provide legal assistance to the community organisations themselves as a way of indirectly helping by boosting the capacity of those organisations. In many cases the legal needs of organisations are a good match with the expertise of large law firms (see Chapter 28 Assistance to non-legal not-for-profit organisations and charities). The National Law Firm Pro Bono Survey: Australian firms with fifty or more lawyers⁵ found that most large law firms did more work for organisations than for individuals.

10.2 WHAT WILL HELP COMMUNITY ORGANISATIONS ATTRACT LAW FIRM PARTNERS?

This section primarily concerns community organisations that are seeking partnerships with firms to deliver pro bono legal services to their clients.

Having a strategy and plan for a proposed project demonstrates that the project is likely to be well organised, and also makes it clear to the firm how its resources will be used and the impact the firm will have. A strategy and plan should include the mission or vision for the project, tasks and who is responsible for them, details of all the human, administrative, technology and other resources required, and evaluation methods and measures.

Immediate casework is more likely to be accepted if it has long term law reform goals beyond addressing the client’s immediate problem. (Mid-sized law firm pro bono coordinator)

It is often easier to sell a secondment within a firm if the secondment is linked to a specific project rather than general legal referral work, especially a law reform goal, for example a secondment aimed at producing a report on women and homelessness. (PBRO manager)

It is also important to promote the work in a way that will attract assistance, taking into account the interests and culture of the firm and its staff. One CLC coordinator suggested highlighting aspects of a project that link in with the firm’s areas of sows (such as women and children).

Others in the sector have shared similar insights:

CLCs/[PBROs] need to learn to market themselves to be more attractive to firms, to understand how firms see themselves and market themselves and fit their referrals into that model/understanding, for example, PALS had a paw print logo and the acronym made it seem more to do with companion animals but the focus is on systemic cruelty. Now they only refer to it as Pro Bono Animal Law Service and the discussion is on the consumer law issues (eg free range eggs) rather than animal rights or welfare issues. (Pro Bono Referral Manager)

CLCs need to identify areas of their work that are sexy so they can promote legal clinics/projects that are attractive to firms. (CLC manager)

Social security law, for example, may not immediately seem like sexy work, but there are ways to make it more appealing to firms. It involves administrative law skills. Learning to run an appeal in the AAT provides lawyers with the skills to run a matter in the Federal Court. (CLC principal solicitor)

There is a lot of good will out there. We just need to learn how to harness it by marketing our work in a way that appeals to the interests of firms and barristers and expands the pool of people we have to draw on for help. (CLC principal solicitor)

Pro bono legal work that is confined in scope, and quantified, with discrete tasks, is easier for a firm to integrate into its commercial operation where fee-paying clients are normally billed in units of time. Presenting pro bono legal work in this way might involve estimating the number of hours of work required per matter, the number of matters that might arise, and what the limits of the expected assistance might be.

Firms are looking to partner with organisations that they feel confident will be able to bring the necessary organisational abilities and skills to a project — organisations that can demonstrate that they have successfully delivered training for lawyers, managed risks and managed clients.

Law firms are looking for CLCs that are staffed and supervised with talented lawyers, well run, and organised. This is because they want to ensure that, as much as possible, any firm resources that are invested in a partnership with a CLC are used to provide pro bono legal services to clients rather than on the administration of a pro bono project that is poorly managed. Also, the benefits to firms of increasing staff retention and skill development through their involvement in pro bono work can only be realised where the CLC is in a position to provide quality training and supervision to pro bono lawyers. (Mid-sized law firm pro bono coordinator)

Well established CLCs/community organisations are easier to sell within the firm because they have a track record of delivering services to target client groups. (Mid-sized law firm pro bono coordinator)

When we offer training and support to the firms, they are generally interested in being involved and see the benefits to their junior lawyers of developing skills in litigation. (CLC manager)

It is frustrating when CLCs are not in a position to take advantage of opportunities to work with firms when they arise, due to lack of capacity, turnover or turmoil within the CLC. (CLC manager)

CLCs need to update their business practices so that lawyers from firms feel like they are working with equals rather than dinosaurs. Very simple tasks such as publications, websites, information distribution and record keeping can have a big impact on the image of a centre. (CLC manager)

Providing a consistent contact point who will oversee the administration and logistics of collaborative pro bono projects is as important as providing someone to supervise the provision of advice. This is an important part of generally ensuring that firms have a good experience with their partner organisation so they feel good about helping and continue providing assistance.

CLCs need to appoint a contact point within the CLC to manage all referrals rather than having individual CLC lawyers contacting firms. (CLC manager)

What will help community organisations to attract law firm partners?

Invest time in visiting firms and getting to know pro bono coordinators.
Present a clear strategy and plan for the pro bono work.
Appeal to the interests and culture of the firm and its staff.
Clearly articulate the long-term goals related to assisting a client with their immediate matter.
Confine the scope and quantify the amount of legal work that is being requested.
Demonstrate the necessary organisational ability and skills that the organisation can bring to the partnership with a track record of delivering services to a target client group.
Provide any necessary training to pro bono providers.
Provide a consistent contact point who will oversee administration and logistics, as well as supervise the provision of advice.
Ensure that firms have a good experience with the partner organisation so they feel good about helping.

Helping the firm’s pro bono coordinator to ‘sell’ a project within the firm

Pro bono coordinators within law firms function as a contact point for external agencies referring work. Their role typically involves some casework, as well as administrative tasks such as screening pro bono cases and allocating, coordinating and supervising pro bono work throughout the firm. They also publicise opportunities for the firm’s lawyers and other staff to be formally involved in a range of pro bono activities which may include any of the models discussed in this book.

Some larger firms have full-time or part-time pro bono coordinators.⁶ They may additionally employ, or have on rotated placements, lawyers who undertake pro bono work on a full-time basis on behalf of the firm. There are now at least 38 firms with specifically nominated pro bono contacts or coordinators.⁷ At least 12 of these are full-time positions and most national firms have a contact person in each State or Territory office.⁸ Smaller firms that lack the resources to have a dedicated coordination point for their pro bono work will designate the responsibility for oversight of the firm’s pro bono work to a staff-member.

The presence and support of a pro bono coordinator or ‘specialist’ pro bono lawyer may make it easier for other lawyers to do pro bono work, as the pro bono specialist can seek out matters that fit with the existing interests of the firm. They can also train others and develop resources relevant to pro bono practice. Ideally, the firm’s pro bono policy will make it clear that, despite the appointment of a specialist pro bono lawyer, the responsibility for pro bono is equally shared and fostered broadly within the firm.

However in some cases the reality may be that the pro bono coordinator is the strongest advocate, or even one of the only advocates, for pro bono within a firm that lacks a strong pro bono culture. The coordinator may be in the difficult position of trying to advocate for more resources to be allocated to the firm’s pro bono work, some of which involves unsympathetic client groups or politically contentious subjects. They do this within the constraints of the law firm environment which, even with support for the existence of a pro bono program, may include a conservative culture or perceived commercial conflicts. Therefore it is important to assist pro bono coordinators by making it as easy as possible for them to sell an idea within their firm.

CLCs are often frustrated with the time it takes a firm to make a decision about a matter (and it’s often a wait and then a no) and the inability to speak directly to the decision maker (ie the partner). They don’t understand the battle that pro bono coordinators often have in their firms to get the firm to take on the matter. They are sometimes the lone voice advocating for pro bono. They need to be provided with support and a researched referral so that they have all the information to argue the matter to the relevant partner. (PBRO manager)

It is helpful to carefully structure the project to reduce risk, avoid conflicts and set clear expectations. In addition to developing a clearly defined and confined project or partnership that meets some established unmet legal need, it is helpful to highlight the benefits that the project will bring to the firm, and to present these benefits in business terms. These internal benefits could include skilling up the firm’s lawyers or linking in with a corporate client’s goals or visions.

Involving clients in the pro bono work of the firm further embeds the pro bono culture as it demonstrates how pro bono can be a touch point for other relationships. K&WM asked two of its clients, Telstra and ASIC, to join the project as it was a good fit for in-house lawyers. (Jane Farnsworth, King & Wood Mallesons)

To convince my firm’s board members that our pro bono should be done at a higher level, I needed to make the case for pro bono on their terms, which are business terms. This included pointing out that our corporate clients had growing in-house pro bono programs and that we needed to keep ahead of them. A culture of competition drives a lot of pro bono work within firms. (Mid-sized firm pro bono coordinator)

Given the view widely held among pro bono providers and community legal organisations that pro bono should not be a substitute for properly funded legal aid services,⁹ it is helpful to explain how the proposed pro bono project or partnership can be differentiated from legal aid work.

If we were involved in a project that involved work that should ideally sit with government/legal aid we would need to set very clear boundaries and time frames. For instance, you could undertake the pro bono work for a discrete time period with the aim of developing a body of work/submissions to be given to government capturing the statistics and data around the area of unmet need. (Mid-sized law firm pro bono coordinator)

Some pro bono coordinators, especially non-partners, said that they prefer projects rather than individual referrals because, once a project is approved, they do not have to obtain a partner’s signoff on each matter within the project.

Some pro bono coordinators struggle to obtain approval from partners in the firm to take on matters/projects that they would like to do. Where pro bono is coordinated by a partner rather than a coordinator, the partner often has more power to decide they will take on cases. (PBRO manager)

What will help a pro bono coordinator to ‘sell’ a project within a firm?

Highlight the internal benefits to the firm, especially the link with a corporate client’s goals or visions.
Structure projects to reduce risk to the firm, avoid conflicts and set clear expectations.
Explain how the work can be differentiated from an area of need that the government or legal aid should be addressing.
Where possible, organise projects rather than individual referrals so that the pro bono coordinator does not need to obtain signoff for every individual matter once an entire project is approved.

What attracts law firm staff to participate in pro bono work?

Like the firms in which they work, the staff of law firms choose to become involved in pro bono work for a variety of reasons. Many see it as a professional development opportunity, providing a chance to develop their skills by doing interesting work, as well as finding it satisfying to be able to work autonomously and take responsibility for a matter from beginning to end. Some pro bono work provides lawyers with more direct client contact than their usual work and a feeling that they are making a real difference to a person’s life.

Overall my experience assisting at the CLC’s advice service was hugely rewarding, being an opportunity to represent my firm in a broader community context, a way of applying my professional skills to make a difference to an individual’s life (financially, practically and socially), a way of helping those with few alternative options, an opportunity as a lawyer to expand my legal and general knowledge, an opportunity as a lawyer to experience a less corporate culture, and an insight into the lives of people who need this kind of assistance. (Mid-sized law firm solicitor)

The majority of large firms follow best practice in crediting and recognising pro bono legal work, which is to recognise pro bono work that is undertaken within the firm’s structured program with full billable hour credits.¹⁰In some firms, however, lawyers have little, if any, fee relief or recognition for the pro bono work they do. In either case, lawyers are motivated primarily by a personal commitment to social justice and access to justice.

Pro bono hours do not count towards billable targets and are discounted by 25% in the timesheet system. It can be seen as one of the many non-billable demands on lawyers. We wouldn’t do it unless we personally believed in it. (Mid-sized law firm pro bono coordinator)

Law firm staff are more likely to participate in pro bono when there is partner and management support for the pro bono program¹¹ and it is well publicised within the firm.¹²

Lawyers are more likely to put their hand up to do pro bono work if their supervising partner has been involved in pro bono work themselves. (Large law firm pro bono coordinator)

We need management comms about the benefits of pro bono work and encouraging lawyers to do it — what we are doing and why — as well as testimonials from lawyers who have done it. (Mid-sized law firm pro bono coordinator)

Firms which say that there is no interest in pro bono work from their staff are not promoting it effectively. If lawyers really understood what the work involves, it is highly unlikely they would not be interested in it. (CLC coordinator)

I could feel myself getting restless and I wanted to dedicate some time to giving something back, but I didn’t want to have to leave the firm to do it. By doing a pro-bono secondment that I know is supported by my firm, I have been able to get the change of scenery I wanted, do worthwhile legal work, and know that at the end of it my old job will still be there. (Large law firm solicitor)

What attracts law firm staff to participate in pro bono work?

Personal interest in social justice issues.
Partner and management support, encouragement and leading by example.
Client contact and feeling like they are making a real difference.
Opportunities to improve their skills.
Opportunities to do interesting work.
Being able to work more autonomously and take responsibility for a matter from beginning to end.

¹ E Lardent, Making the Business Case for Pro Bono (2000) p 1, http://www2.nycbar.org/mp3/DoingWellByDoingGood/pbi_businesscase.pdf.

² For more information about government tender schemes, see Australian Pro Bono Centre, Pro Bono Requirements in Government Tender Arrangements for Legal Services, http://probonocentre.org.au/provide-pro-bono/government-tender-arrangements/.

³ National Pro Bono Resource Centre, Fourth National Law Firm Survey (Australian law firms with fifty or more lawyers) – Final Report (December 2014), p 25, http://probonocentre.org.au/information-on-pro-bono/our-publications/survey/.

⁴ National Pro Bono Resource Centre, Fourth National Law Firm Survey (Australian law firms with fifty or more lawyers) – Final Report (December 2014) above n 3, pp 6, 13. http://probonocentre.org.au/information-on-pro-bono/our-publications/survey/.

⁵ National Pro Bono Resource Centre, Fourth National Law Firm Survey (Australian law firms with fifty or more lawyers) – Final Report (December 2014) above n 3, p 38. http://probonocentre.org.au/information-on-pro-bono/our-publications/survey/.

⁶ Among the firms that responded to the National Law Firm Pro Bono Survey of Australian firms with fifty or more lawyers, 93% reported having a pro bono coordinator, 32% performed the roll on a full-time basis. See National Pro Bono Resource Centre, Fourth National Law Firm Survey (Australian law firms with fifty or more lawyers) – Final Report (December 2014) above n 3, p 49. http://probonocentre.org.au/information-on-pro-bono/our-publications/survey/.

⁷ Contact details for law firm pro bono coordinators are available to subscribers of the Centre’s National Law Firm Directory, http://probonocentre.org.au/legal-help/directory/.

⁸ National Pro Bono Resource Centre, Fourth National Law Firm Survey (Australian law firms with fifty or more lawyers) – Final Report (December 2014), above n 3, p 49. http://probonocentre.org.au/information-on-pro-bono/our-publications/survey/.

⁹ See Australian Pro Bono Centre, Submission to the Victorian Department of Justice and Regulation: Access to Justice Review (February 2016), p 7, http://probonocentre.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/APBC-Submission-to-Victorian-Access-to-Justice-Review-22022016.pdf.

¹⁰ Of the firms that responded to the Fourth National Law Firm Pro Bono Survey: Australian firms with fifty or more lawyers, 40% recognised pro bono work with full billable hour credit. See National Pro Bono Resource Centre, Fourth National Law Firm Survey (Australian law firms with fifty or more lawyers) – Final Report (December 2014) above n 3 p 58. http://probonocentre.org.au/information-on-pro-bono/our-publications/survey/.

¹¹ Among the firms that responded to the Australian Pro Bono Centre’s Fourth National Law Firm Pro Bono Survey: Australian firms with fifty or more lawyers, the highest number of respondents named ‘management and partner support’ as the most crucial factor in the success of their pro bono program. See National Pro Bono Resource Centre, Fourth National Law Firm Survey (Australian law firms with fifty or more lawyers) – Final Report (December 2014) above n 3 p 64. http://probonocentre.org.au/information-on-pro-bono/our-publications/survey/.

¹² For more information on the motivations for law firms to do pro bono work, see the Australian Pro Bono Manual, Chapter 1.5, at http://probonocentre.org.au/manual/.

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Chapter 10: Large law firms

10.1 LARGE LAW FIRMS: AT A GLANCE

10.2 WHAT WILL HELP COMMUNITY ORGANISATIONS ATTRACT LAW FIRM PARTNERS?

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