Instilling a Commitment to Service: A Law Firm Pro Bono Seminar
How can the legal academy ensure that law students graduate with an awareness of the justice gap and a commitment to public service? Why should it bother to do so? While the majority of law school graduates continue to practice with private law firms,1 most of these students graduate without understanding the importance of law firm pro bono, one of the most direct ways for them to have an impact on clients and communities in need. Even students planning a career in the public sector should know about law firm pro bono in order to help their organizations effectively market or co-counsel a case with a large firm. It is critical for law school graduates to recognize the interdependence of the private and public sectors that developed to supplement the inadequate system of government-funded legal services and how law firm pro bono has become an essential part of filling this "justice gap." While most law schools now provide their students with diverse clinical and externship opportunities,2 only a few offer a doctrinal course designed to explore the relationship between law firms and public interest legal services providers. At the University of Virginia School of Law, we developed a semester-long seminar to facilitate understanding of the critical role played by large law firm pro bono programs in addressing the justice gap. We taught this course for the first time in the spring of 2009, just as the economic downturn was increasing the demand for legal services yet at a moment when service providers were particularly stressed.