Lawyers Providing Pro Bono Services Improve Both Their Community and Their Bottom Line

• Publication year: 2005
• Pages: 39

34 Colo.Law. 39 Colorado Bar Journal 2005.

2005, January, Pg. 39. Lawyers Providing Pro Bono Services Improve Both Their Community And Their Bottom Line

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39

Vol. 34, No. 1, Pg. 39

The Colorado Lawyer
January 2005
Vol. 34, No. 1 [Page 39]

Departments
Access to Justice
Lawyers Providing Pro Bono Services Improve Both Their Community And Their Bottom Line
by Donald W. Hoagland

Readers interested in contributing an article on legal services, pro bono, and access to justice topics should contact Kathleen Schoen at kschoen@cobar.org or Michelle Miller at mmiller@cobar.org

Donald W. Hoagland is Senior Of Counsel to the Denver law firm of Davis Graham & Stubbs. At various times, he has been chairman or president of the Colorado Legal Aid Society the Legal Aid Foundation of Colorado, the Urban League of Denver, and the Caring for Colorado Foundation. He wrote the chapter "Community Service Makes Better Lawyers" in the book The Law Firm and the Public Good, published in 1995 by the Brookings Institution and the Governance Institute

The legal profession is at a critical stage in its development in the United States. A much stronger participation in pro bono work and other community service is essential to the repair of its reputation, and is an example of an even broader problem facing our country as a whole.

Recently, the Colorado community celebrated the life - just ended - of Cathlin Donnell.1 People spoke earnestly and factually about her fine career as a lawyer and her evolution into someone primarily and actively trying to make the world a better place for people to live in. As a lawyer, she was so well regarded that at the age of 31, she was appointed to be the acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado. This made her the senior lawyer in the federal establishment in Colorado.

Donnell was a prominent example of the fine public and charitable motivations that can be found in a lawyer and ripened by that experience. She created a foundation to help homeless women starting over. She served on the board of The Women's Foundation of Colorado. Celebrating her life was a sad, but sincere expression by a group of friends, many of whom were lawyers who were trying to follow her example.

At the same time as Cathlin Donnell's memorial service, there were political candidates on national television trying to build support for their campaign by pointing out that their two opponents were lawyers - and that they were not. These heavily financed speakers assumed that by pointing out that their opponents were lawyers, they would generate support for their reelection to the highest office in this land. They made some reference to contingent-fee lawyering, but at times simply labeled their opponents as lawyers, assuming public dislike for lawyers' money-grubbing characters.

Where are we going then, as a profession? Are these politicians right about lawyers? Maybe they are - but maybe we are improving anyway - and should be trying. Maybe it's even in our own best interest. This article illustrates the fact that lawyers actually build their client base while serving their community.

Motivations for Pro Bono Service

The Legal Times, a Washington, D.C. newspaper, reported that large firms in Washington are engaged in extensive pro bono work.2 One reason law firms gave for serving is that it's good for business. A firm representative stated "It's hard to quantify in terms of dollars, but clients are looking at it more and more. They want written reports on our program;...