That’s what Barry Bitter Barrister told me the other day while I was filing a motion in the clerk’s office. You see I had my motion in my Maryland Pro Bono Resource folder that I got at a recent event. The attorney next to me noticed the folder and started making the standard old, bitter, jaded litigator comments to me:
“Pro Bono?! I do plenty of that with clients who don’t pay me.”
Or a little more crude: “I am already getting bono’d by my clients, no need to be pro about it.”
I do not know if this is just the culture of the county I primarily work in or if this attitude is the norm nationwide. Is it?
A couple of years ago I interviewed at a firm and one of the last things I asked was what kind of pro bono/community involvement does the firm do? Awkward silence…
Why the awkward silence? (I got the job despite the daring question.) It seems like pro bono is why most of us went to law school: to simply help people. And if you truly are struggling to the degree that you can not provide pro bono, why is it advantageous at all for you to be condescending and bitter about it? The “Legal Lions” that I know embrace Pro Bono and promote it. If you can’t do it in this economy that is understandable… but what do you get out of doing anything but promoting Pro Bono?
What do you think?
“Every lawyer… has a responsibility to provide legal services to those unable to pay and personal involvement in the problems of the disadvantaged can be one of the most rewarding experiences in the life of a lawyer.” American Bar Association, Model Rules of Professional Conduct
“To do good is noble. To teach others to do good is nobler, and no trouble [to oneself].” Mark Twain