Legal Assistance

The need for legal assistance can arise for a wide variety of reasons in the modern-day United States, a litigious and heavily regulated culture in which the array of rules and laws enforced by federal and local government can place even individuals who would normally regard themselves as highly law- and rule-abiding in situations where they require legal help. Since people who are in heavy need of legal assistance may also be those who are least well equipped financially to deal with the heavy monetary burden that can be placed by services providing legal help, anyone who suspects or fears that they will find themselves faced with such a conundrum should be aware of a central facet of the culture surrounding the legal profession intended to help lift some of the burdens involved with acquiring legal assistance. This aspect of the legal world consists of the concept of work rendered “pro bono.” The words “pro bono,” derived from the lengthier Latin phrase “pro bono publico,” meaning “for the public good,” refer to the obligation that should be felt on the part of legal professionals to provide legal help, in the form of freely rendered advice and other services, to those individuals who are the least well prepared to secure it through their own financial means. The degree to which pro bono legal assistance is provided at the rates of hourly service recommended by bar associations is used as a lever in the employment market composed of law students and law firms to ensure that both sectors of the legal world keep up their commitment to freely given legal help as an aspect of their working cultures.

The American Legal Association (ABA) is one of the strongest forces for the promotion of pro bono legal assistance in the legal culture of the United States. It recommends that lawyers give out at least fifty hours’ worth of such free-of-charge legal help per year. Other organizations differ from the American Bar Association in their degree of support for the concept of legal assistance rendered without charge, with the New York State Bar Association only recommending that lawyers feel obligated to provide legal help on a pro bono basis at a rate of twenty hours of free service annually. Suggesting the conflict that exists in the legal profession over the necessity of adherence to the pro bono principle, the New York City Bar recommends rates of free legal assistance being provided at the same level referred to by the American Bar Association.

To ensure that law firms keep up their commitment to giving out free legal help regardless of the levels that are recommended by bar associations, various organizations exist to monitor the practices of large law firms in regard to this concept. One such organization is the ABA Standing Committee, which maintains a project known as the Center for Pro Bono, given over to collecting information on the degree to which prominent and wealthy law firms provide free legal assistance.