By rethinking pro bono and leveraging community resources, you can not only help to address the lack of legal services available but also create substantive, practical learning opportunities for your students.
It’s easy for public service law students to forget to develop their business management and other skills. Remind them of the importance of a balanced skillset.
Pro bono allows 1Ls to engage in the material they are studying and develop critical lawyering skills as well as empathy, listening skills, and the ability to build relationships with clients.
This article focuses on a basic idea: pro bono is about the private bar performing public service. Many law firms approach pro bono with intentionality, considering it a firm-wide endeavor and not just the individual obligation of each professional at the firm.
In recent months there has been a surge of rapid response, grassroots pro bono efforts developing in a variety of areas.
For public interest job seekers, finding “the right clerkship” is not always easy, and there are numerous ways career advisors can help.
Research on judicial clerkships, legal fellowships, honors programs, and the Recent Graduate Program for entry-level attorneys seeking employment with federal agencies.
Even if you have a small staff, there are simple steps you can take that will promote pro bono engagement among your law students and allow your law school to begin benefiting from pro bono work.
Howard University School of Law’s Lauren R. Jackson explains how counting pro bono hours as part of law firm practice could help even the playing field in the effort to increase DEI within the legal profession.
Aoife Delargy of Equal Justice Works and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law’s Rochelle R. McCain recap the lessons learned from the EJW Conference and Career Fair held virtually in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
DePaul University College of Law’s Lauren Worsek explains how law schools have used pro bono programs a means for students to contribute work safely and have also created other unexpected positive outcomes, creating a compelling case for continuing remote programs post-pandemic.
Pro bono work offers the legal profession a unique platform for lawyers to fulfill their desire to contribute positively to society while simultaneously advancing their own professional development.
NALP's Sam Halpert explains the recent modifications to upgrade the PSJD.org website.
University of British Columbia Peter A. Allard School of Law’s Tracy Wachmann explains how small U.S. law schools could learn from the successes of Pro Bono Students Canada.
NALP is proud to announce it will confer this year’s Pro Bono Publico Award on Teresa Smith, a 3L at Lewis & Clark Law School. Teresa’s work lies at the intersection of farmworker rights, environmental law, and immigration law. Her efforts to date have included direct work with asylum clients in detention that, in the words of one supervisor, “has contributed to the reputation that Lewis & Clark law students have...for in-depth knowledge, experience, teamwork, and competence[,]” as well as policy research that helped convince the Portland City Council to create funding for a “Universal Representation Project,” providing access to counsel in r...
Projects supported by the Pro Bono Innovation Fund offer opportunities for recent law graduates to work side by side with seasoned attorneys to improve access to justice.
The prospect of returning to the workforce after a parenting sabbatical or other career break can be daunting. A pro bono fellowship can help bring lawyers back into public interest law after a time away. The New England-based environmental nonprofit Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) is pioneering the concept of a part-time pro bono fellowship as an “onramp” into the nonprofit sector. The idea is to tap into a group of experienced high performers who want to return to their careers after a period of caring for children or managing other family obligations.
Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law’s Kiva Zytnick shares ideas about how to promote pro bono work in law schools.
Here are some suggestions for enhancing a law school pro bono program and expanding participation.
Equal Justice Works’ Brooke Meckler lays out a series of tips for fellowship programs impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, including a look at the EJW Fellowship Program.
Your law school’s or law firm’s next short-term pro bono projects could be the reason that lawyers make time for pro bono or that future lawyers provide the pro bono services our communities desperately need.
