The Pro Bono Program
University of Virginia law students volunteer more than 11,500 hours each year under the Pro Bono Program. Through the program, the Public Service Center manages pro bono opportunities available to students, including work with prosecutors, public defenders, legal service organizations and nationally known public interest organizations. Students also often create their own pro bono project, such as when a coalition of Law School students and area attorneys teamed up to help disabled veterans [link]. The Pro Bono Challenge further encourages public service by asking students to volunteer at least 25 hours annually during law school.
Why Do Pro Bono?
“Pro Bono” derives from the Latin “Pro Bono Publico,” which means “for the public good.” The American Bar Association (ABA) in its Model Rule 6.1 states that lawyers should aspire to render, without fee, at least 50 hours per year of pro bono legal services, with an emphasis on services for people of limited means or nonprofits that serve the poor.
The Law School also believes that lawyers should serve their community. Introducing law students to public service through a formalized pro bono program provides them with the skills and values needed to promote a lifetime commitment to law-related community service. Instilling this ethic of service is vitally important to ensuring access to justice as the need for free and low-cost legal services continues to rise. Pro bono, in addition to providing much-needed legal services to indigent clients, also offers law students structured opportunities to gain valuable practical experience, such as legal research and writing, client interviewing techniques and other investigative and advocacy skills. Many students find that pro bono work enhances their law school experience and allows them to better relate their academic work to the real world of law practice.
THE PRO BONO CHALLENGE
The Pro Bono Challenge encourages every law student to volunteer at least 25 hours annually. Students who complete their required hours will receive a certificate of recognition at the end of their first and second years. Graduating students who have logged at least 75 pro bono hours will be recognized in the commencement brochure and at an awards ceremony during graduation weekend. The graduate(s) who best demonstrates an "extraordinary commitment to pro bono service" will be honored with the annual Pro Bono Award.
In order to log hours for the Pro Bono Challenge, the work must be:
- Law-related
- Not for academic credit or compensation (clinical work done in excess of academic requirements may count.)
- Supervised by a licensed attorney or law school faculty member
- For a nonprofit organization or government office or agency, domestic or international, which serves the legal needs of individuals, groups or causes that are under-represented in the legal system
- Undertaken during the academic year; students can get pro bono credit for volunteer legal work done over the summer for an organization that otherwise fits the above criteria so long as the work is done outside of the student’s 35-hour required work week
Student volunteers must submit an online work log at the end of the semester in which the work is completed in order for their hours to be appropriately recorded for the Pro Bono Challenge. Hours not logged by the end of the semester will not be counted. Training and travel time may be logged for pro bono credit.
Finding a Pro Bono Opportunity
There are three ways by which students may locate pro bono opportunities:
1.) Pro Bono Program-Administered Projects: Each year several institutionalized opportunities are offered by the Pro Bono Program. These projects offer hands-on experience in various areas of the law. There are a limited number of volunteers selected annually/semi-annually for each project, and the application process is competitive. Information concerning these projects, including descriptions, sign-up information and application deadlines, will be e-mailed to students at the beginning of each academic year.
The following is a brief description of the projects offered in the past:
- Hunton & Williams Pro Bono Partnership – Students volunteer under the supervision of attorneys from the firm’s Richmond office to represent indigent clients in the areas of domestic violence, family law, immigration and asylum law.
- Family Alternative Dispute Resolution Clinic - Law students enrolled in the clinic take the Virginia Supreme Court certified 20-hours Basic Mediation Skills training and receive additional training in family mediation. Trained students will co-mediate family cases referred from the Juvenile & Domestic Relations Court and the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society.
A law student talks to a volunteer at a soup kitchen
in a Charlottesville church. Law students volunteer at
a number of local homeless shelters and church-run
soup kitchens, doing client intake for the Legal Aid
Justice Center.Legal Outreach Project – Students volunteer weekly to do client intake for the Legal Aid Justice Center at area soup kitchens, homeless shelters and low-income housing projects.- Immigrant Jail Outreach Project – Students volunteer under the supervision of attorneys from the CAIR Coalition in Washington, D.C., to visit local jails with large populations of immigrant detainees and conduct “Know Your Rights” presentations.
- Pro Bono No Fault Divorce Project – Students volunteer to assist with the filing of no-fault divorces for indigent clients under the supervision of attorneys from the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society (CVLAS)
- Nonprofit Pro Bono Clinic – Students are supervised by two local attorneys and provide assistance to local area nonprofits with incorporation, by laws, leases, deeds and other transactional matters.
- Piedmont Court Appointed Special Advocates (PCASA) – Student volunteers are trained and supervised to serve as advocates for children involved in the abuse and neglect process.
- UVA Law Veterans Medical Disability Appeals Pro Bono Program - Student pro bono volunteers are teamed with supervising attorneys to represent veterans before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. The program’s emphasis is on representing veterans whose disability claims have been rejected by the Department of Veterans Affairs and who desire to appeal in federal court. Students are organized into teams and work directly with supervising attorneys researching issues, formulating arguments and drafting court documents in support of the veteran’s appeal. Time commitments are flexible; students can be either a “senior associate” taking ownership of student efforts for a particular case, or work on discrete tasks as a “junior associate.” This program provides a vital service for our veterans.
- Virginia Institutionalized Persons Project (VIPP) - Student volunteers will assist the VIPP staff attorney with investigating the conditions of Virginia’s prisons and mental institutions and, through political advocacy and legal action, increase accountability within the system to ensure that Virginia operates its institutions consistent with constitutional standards and human dignity.
2.) Pro Bono Opportunities Initiated by Outside Attorneys or Law School Faculty: Other pro bono opportunities that become available from outside attorneys or law school faculty will be publicized through e-mail alerts and are available on a first-come, first-serve basis.
3.) Pro Bono Opportunities Initiated by Students: Students may also develop their own pro bono projects, provided that they adhere to the Pro Bono Challenge requirements stated above. Projects that are not supervised by a licensed attorney or a law school faculty member will not qualify for pro bono credit. The staff of the Pro Bono Program will also provide assistance to students interested in creating pro bono opportunities for winter or spring break.