Letter from Esther: What a Public Service President Means for Pro Bono
The Wire
November 20, 2008

Every supporter of pro bono, regardless of political party or ideology, should be heartened by the election of a President of the United States who brings to the office a deeply felt commitment to public service. For President-Elect Obama, public service is not just a campaign slogan; it has been the cause of his life. From his work as a community organizer directing the Developing Communities Project on the South Side of Chicago to the pro bono matters he undertook while in private practice at a Chicago law firm, Obama believes, like all of us who support and undertake pro bono, that public service is transformative, helping both the individuals who serve and the individuals, families, and communities that benefit from that service.

Times of change are times of opportunity, and I call upon the pro bono community – major law firms, corporate legal departments, and public interest groups – to think creatively and ambitiously, in partnership with the Pro Bono Institute, about what an administration committed to volunteer service could do to promote and strengthen pro bono, and, as well, about what the pro bono community can do to support the goals of this administration and this nation. The result could be a public/private partnership unrivaled in its scope and impact on the seemingly intractable issues affecting our people, our nation, and the world: affordable housing, breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty, addressing income inequality, promoting civil rights, and much more.

What Can the Obama Administration Do for Pro Bono?
Public service, writ large, is clearly an important aspect of the President-Elect’s agenda. The use and impact of the Presidential bully pulpit cannot be overestimated. Simply having a President and an administration that shines a spotlight on pro bono and public service, underscores its value, and promotes every aspect of our society, including corporations and professions, to enhance the commitment to public service will be invaluable. In other nations, Presidents and Premiers, and their top deputies, look for opportunities to enlist the power and prestige of the state in supporting pro bono. Why not the United States?

Possible action steps for the administration might include:

• Making it clear to major businesses and law firms that, particularly in an increasingly dismal economic climate, corporate social responsibility cannot be put on the back burner. As Howard Schultz, Chairman and CEO of Starbucks Coffee Company, has said, “now is the time [for American businesses] to be bold. [N]ow is a time to invest, truly and authentically, in our people, in our corporate responsibility and in our communities.”
• Making meaningful pro bono participation a precondition for providing legal assistance to the Federal Government and its agencies.
• Providing some tax benefits to law firms and corporations whose lawyers provide substantial pro bono service. While I understand that the tax code is not easily adapted to tax credits or deductions for volunteer service, I also believe that creative tax experts may find a way to concretely reward pro bono stars.

What Can Pro Bono Do for the Nation During an Obama Administration?
The President-Elect will come into office with an ambitious agenda, but severely limited resources. Commentators predict that the state of the economy and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will continue to absorb much of the budget and the human resources of this administration, limiting the Federal government’s ability to quickly and effectively address the problems in our public education system, an immigration adjudication process that is horribly broken, and the growing percentage of children growing up in poverty – problems that not only result in personal tragedies but also cripple our nation’s ability to recover quickly from the current economic doldrums. As Nicholas Kristof wrote in last week’s New York Times, “[W]e can’t meaningfully address poverty or grow the economy as long as urban schools are failing.”

While lawyers alone, of course, cannot solve these deficiencies, we do have the problem-solving abilities and tools to be part of the solution, particularly when government resources are so few.

Some potential projects on which law firms, legal departments and public interest groups could collaborate include:

• Immigration reform. Several years ago Dorsey & Whitney LLP committed sixty of their lawyers and paralegals to conduct an intensive review of the immigration adjudication system and the impact of the “streamlining” on that system. Despite lack of cooperation from the administration, the firm produced a stunning and troubling report on the profound weaknesses of the current system – weaknesses that have grown more severe with time. Working with a cooperative administration, open to change, a consortium of pro bono and public interest organizations could update that report and provide a roadmap for change.
• Terrorism. Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP and Human Rights First partnered to produce the first-ever empirical and accurate report on the feasibility of using the Federal Courts to try defendants in terrorism–related matters. Despite the rhetoric of some that these cases cannot be tried in the courts, ensuring defendants the rights provided in the Constitution, that study determined that, in fact, these prosecutions had worked well. Pro bono participation could provide factual and legal research, as well as proposed solutions, with respect to many of the open questions regarding terrorism-related legal matters.
• Public education. Projects like the New York education pro bono effort of Bingham McCutchen LLP and the Truancy Intervention Project pioneered by Atlanta’s Alston + Bird LLP have demonstrated that pro bono lawyers, working in conjunction with public school systems and the courts, can make a difference in the educational opportunities and involvement of economically and socially disadvantaged families and their children. Together, we can do more.

These are only a few of the myriad opportunities that all of us, working collectively and in conjunction with an administration and President that understand the power of volunteer service, can take up. I hope to hear from readers of The Wire. Please send me your suggestions and ideas, and we’ll work with you to make them a reality. As Howard Schultz has said, “be bold.”

President and CEO
Pro Bono Institute
www.probonoinst.org
www.cpbo.org