1975, February, Pg. 247. Lawyer Activities Survey.

• Author: by Gordon G. Gauss

4 Colo.Law. 247

Colorado Lawyer

1975.

1975, February, Pg. 247.

Lawyer Activities Survey

247Vol. 4, No. 2, Pg. 247Lawyer Activities Surveyby Gordon G. Gauss, Public Relations Counsel, Colorado Bar AssociationProof that Colorado lawyers give hundreds of thousands of hours of free time each year working for the betterment of the communities in which they live is furnished in a study just completed by the Colorado Bar Association. It shows they take active roles in civic clubs and chambers of commerce, participate in cultural and fraternal organizations and work in youth activities as well as in a variety of other projects. The study also demonstrates that lawyers donate freely of their time to serve without pay as attorneys for the poor and that many of them work in various capacities without compensation for governmental agencies, mostly local or regional bodies with scant funding. Further, the study shows that substantial numbers of lawyers perform volunteer work in bar associations, state and local.

Essentially, the results demonstrate that lawyers are among the state's most civic-minded citizens.

The survey, the first of its kind ever conducted by the Colorado Bar Association, was designed to give bar members and other Coloradoans an insight into services performed by lawyers beyond those provided to their regular clients. Double postcards were sent to every tenth person on the roster of Colorado Bar Association members residing in the state. Although membership is voluntary, more than three-fourths of the state's lawyers belong to the Association. Approximately 47 percent of the cards were filled out and returned---a percentage which sponsors consider unusually high.

On the assumption that the returns constitute a cross-section of Bar Association members, and projecting them to include all members living in Colorado, these results are indicated:

---Almost nine of every 10 lawyers take part in some form of community activity, spending an average time of about 71/2 hours a month.

---About 55 percent of the lawyers give an average of 6 hours a month providing free service to the poor.

---One-third of the lawyers give time to some sort of unpaid governmental work, spending an average of 11 1/2 hours a month on the work.

---More than 45 percent of them participate in Bar Association programs, either as officers or...