Private Lawyers and the Public Interest
The Evolving Role of Pro Bono in the Legal Profession

This collection of original essays by leading and emerging scholars in the field examines the history, conditions, organization, and strategies of pro bono lawyering. Private Lawyers and the Public Interest: The Evolving Role of Pro Bono in the Legal Profession traces the rise and impact of the American Bar Association's campaign to hold lawyers accountable for a commitment to public service and to encourage public service within law schools. Combining empirical legal research with reflections by practitioners and theorists about the meaning and practice of pro bono legal work, this collection of essays interrogates the public service ideals that are inscribed within the legal profession and places these ideals within a broader social, economic, ideological, and normative context. Particular attention is paid to the factors that explain why lawyers engage in pro bono work and the ways in which their views of pro bono are mediated by the institutional context of their legal practice. The book also explores the concept of "public" in public service and compares pro bono as a means of delivering legal services with other mechanisms such as state funding. Collectively, these essays investigate the evolving role of pro bono in the legal profession and in law schools, the relationship between pro bono ideals and pro bono in practice, the way that pro bono is shaped by external forces beyond the individual practitioner, and the multi-faceted nature of legal professionalism as expressed through pro bono practice.

Introduction. Robert Granfield and Lynn Mather. Part I - Professional Socialization Through the Bar and Legal Education. Shaped by Educational, Professional and Social Crises: The History of Law Student Pro Bono Service by Cynthia Adcock. Good Lawyering and Lawyering for the Good: Lawyers' Reflections on Mandatory Pro Bono in Law School. By Robert Granfield and Philip Veliz. Priming for Pro Bono: The Impact of Law School on Pro Bono Participation in Practice by Deborah A. Schmedemann. Part II - Economic Perspectives on Pro Bono in Legal Practice. Lawyers' Pro Bono Service and Market-Reliant Legal Aid by Rebecca Sandefur. Pro Bono as an Elite Strategy in Early Lawyer Careers by Ronit Dinovitzer and Bryant G. Garth. The Institutionalization of Pro Bono in Large Law Firms: Trends and Variation Across the AmLaw 200 by Steven A. Boutcher. Pro Bono and Low Bono in the Solo and Small Law Firm Context by Leslie C. Levin. Part III - Pro Bono in the Interest of Public Service. Between Profit and Principle: The Private Public Interest Firm by Scott L. Cummings and Ann Southworth. Issues Entrepreneurs: Charisma, Charisma-Producing Events, and the Shaping of Pro Bono Practice in Large Law Firms by Cynthia Fuchs Epstein. The Role of Volunteer Lawyers in Challenging the Conditions of a Local Housing Crisis in Buffalo, NY by James Clarke Gocker. Part IV -The Future of Pro Bono. Rethinking the Public in Lawyers' Public Service: Philanthropy and the Bottom Line by Deborah L. Rhode. Bar Politics and Pro Bono Definitions: The New York Experience by Cynthia Feathers. Conflating the Good with the Public Good, An Essay by John Henry Schlegel. State, Market, Philanthropy and Self-Help as Legal Service Delivery Mechanisms by Richard L. Abel.