Community Service Subcommittee
| Publication year | 1993 |
| Pages | 246 |
| Citation | Vol. 22 No. 2 Pg. 246 |
1993, February, Pg. 246. Community Service Subcommittee
The Colorado Bar Association again became actively concerned about where legal "professionalism" was headed in the spring of 1991. The June 1991 issue of The Colorado Lawyer described the CBA Professionalism Committee's structure and the work that had been done or planned at that time by its subcommittees.(fn1) In the fall of 1991, the Committee added another subcommittee, this one on "community service."
The problem to be addressed by this new Subcommittee is well known. Economic motivations have pushed community service work into a more subordinate role in the work plans of an increasing number of lawyers. More and more Americans are having trouble getting the civil legal help they need at a price they can afford. The practice of law is becoming more of a business and pro bono work is suffering. Some people are dropping out entirely in protest to its perceived indifference to the community and to family needs.
For many reasons, the public attitude toward lawyers has become increasingly negative. At the same time, our society is in the midst of drastic changes of its political and social structures, and there is a continuing and pressing need for constructive responses. The legal profession is needed in all of those arenas, both to help design public and private frameworks that can generate and manage the political and social institutions needed for today's conditions and to see that the availability, cost and quality of legal services for all levels of society are what they should be. To deal with this challenge, the profession needs to reconsider its values and its performance. The CBA is making positive moves in that direction. The new Subcommittee's intention is to add a new dimension to the search for solutions.
Colorado lawyers do have economic problems and severe pressure to put more hours into compensated work. In Colorado, there are more lawyers than gainful work to be done. Lawyers asked to do community service and pro bono legal work are properly concerned about their competence to do new kinds of work, about pressure from their employers to bring in more income, and about their unfamiliarity with the underserved geographic areas in which their services may be most needed.
Colorado lawyers are already deeply involved with a system of pro bono coordinators, local bar association programs, the fundraising efforts of the Legal Aid Foundation, COLTAF, the Hundred-Hours Club, the Lend-a-Lawyer program and the Colorado Lawyer's Committee. Lawyers and law firms have made valuable and self-sacrificing efforts simply to meet the need where they see it, without any structured framework. Nevertheless, there is reason to believe that the unmet need is growing. Legal services programs have to turn people away. Pro bono coordinators are having to make endless phone calls to place cases.
The community services to be investigated by the Subcommittee will be refined as time goes on, but it is expected to include: pro bono legal services to low-income individuals; legal services affecting portions of the community unable to afford them; and, to some extent, legal advice to community-based educational or social services organizations that cannot afford to pay legal fees.
The Community...
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