Why should my legal department provide pro bono legal services?
Why should my department sign the Corporate Pro Bono Challenge® statement?
What requirements must CPBO Challenge® signatory departments satisfy?
My legal department is already stretched thin. How do we find the time?
Where can a legal department go if it has questions or needs help?
Q: Why should my legal department provide pro bono legal services?
A: The need for pro bono legal service is tremendous. The U.S. legal system is facing a crisis in access to justice. More than 92 percent of the legal needs of low-income individuals in the U.S. go unmet.
Lawyers have a professional responsibility to provide pro bono assistance to those who cannot afford it and each lawyer, no matter his or her specialty, can contribute.
Pro bono brings value to employees, legal departments, and companies. Engaging in activities that allow legal staff to broaden their experience and make a difference in the community helps morale and enhances professional skills. It also helps individual members of a legal group bond together as a unit.
As corporations increase their corporate social responsibility (CSR) commitments and profile, pro bono service enables legal departments to contribute to the company’s CSR goals while demonstrating the added value and unique contributions that legal staff provide. Pro bono is an important and unique tool for the legal staff of companies to promote CSR.
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Q: Why should my department sign the Corporate Pro Bono Challenge® statement?
A: The CPBO Challenge® initiative is the only national benchmark that allows legal departments to track and measure the growth of in-house pro bono nationwide. It is an important and unique tool for departments to promote good citizenship.
By becoming a CPBO Challenge® signatory, departments demonstrate a commitment to pro bono and encourage legal staff to do more. Departments have found that having a concrete and quantifiable, but voluntary, goal has helped to increase visibility, participation, and performance in pro bono while assuring legal staff that they will not be disadvantaged because of their pro bono participation.
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Q: Should departments that are just getting started or have not reached the CPBO Challenge® participation goal of 50 percent still join?
A: Yes. The goals of the CPBO Challenge® are all aspirational and are designed to encourage and promote pro bono throughout an organization’s legal department. There are no penalties for not meeting the goals.
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Q: What requirements must CPBO Challenge® signatory departments satisfy?
A: Annually, CPBO asks all signatories to complete a survey reporting the results of their pro bono program as measured by the CPBO Challenge® Report. Except as reported in the aggregate, all responses are completely confidential: CPBO will never release a department’s yearly audit answers without that department’s consent.
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Q: How is the CPBO Challenge® initiative different from other goals and challenges that have been issued?
A: The CPBO Challenge® initiative is the only national standard for in-house pro bono and the only standard with the backing and support of CPBO. It was created at the urging of chief legal officers and is grounded in the specific culture of in-house practice.
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Q: My legal department is already stretched thin. How do we find the time?
A: Law departments that do not have a pro bono program cite lack of time (or time flexibility) as the number one reason, so the impact of this issue cannot be overstated.
Meaningful pro bono is not limited to long term projects. There are many finite, time-limited opportunities that allow attorneys to fit pro bono into their schedule without agreeing to an open-ended time commitment.
CPBO is available to assist departments identify time-limited opportunities.
Forming teams to work on a pro bono project, whether among legal staff within a legal department or with an outside law firm or legal services provider, divides the workload and can reduce the commitment. It also provides attorneys with the comfort of knowing that another attorney can provide coverage when conflicts arise.
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Q: Where can a legal department go with questions or to get help?
A: CPBO is available to confidentially assist legal departments that are interested in starting, developing, and expanding their pro bono initiatives. Whether a department has questions about multijurisdictional practice restrictions, malpractice insurance, or identifying partner organizations and opportunities, CPBO is available to provide tailored advice and guidance.
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