Corporate Counsel
By Brad Smith and Laura Stein
April 25, 2014
“In-house pro bono has made tremendous progress in the last decade. Anecdotally, we can talk about the great pro bono programs that have been recognized and assisted by Corporate Pro Bono (CPBO), a global partnership project of the Pro Bono Institute and the Association of Corporate Counsel. We can talk about the increasing desire of legal departments to partner with law firms and legal services organizations on their pro bono efforts. We can even talk about the growing interest among legal departments to expand their pro bono efforts to include communities around the globe. There is no shortage of examples that highlight the dramatic growth of in-house pro bono, but for the first time, we have compelling data that demonstrates it.
“This year, CPBO released “CPBO Challenge® Report: 2007-2012, The Development of In-House Pro Bono.” This publication analyzes data reported by CPBO Challenge signatories from 2007-2012 and paints a detailed picture of the evolution of in-house pro bono over that time. The report quantifies many of the developments in in-house pro bono that we have witnessed firsthand.
“In 2006, CPBO launched the CPBO Challenge initiative as an aspirational standard for legal departments, with a key benchmark of at least 50 percent legal staff participation in pro bono each year. Importantly, this goal is one that accommodates the diversity of legal departments and the evolving nature of in-house pro bono. It’s a feasible standard whether a legal department has a handful of attorneys or hundreds; operates out of a single office or several in the U.S. and even abroad; or has a formal pro bono program or involves attorneys in projects ad-hoc. In fact, in 2012, a number of departments reported involvement north of 50 percent, and several departments reported 100 percent engagement in pro bono.”