Paying off

• Author: Marc Davis
• Pages: 35-35

Business of Law

JUNE 2018 ABA JOURNAL || 35

PHOTOGRAPH BY STEPHEN LINEBERRY

PAYING OFF

Pro bono representations often lead to paid work for lawyers

who donate their time and expertise to nonpaying clients

By Marc Davis

Li ke many lawyers,

attorney Charle s Krugel

chooses to perfor m a

certain a mount of pro

bono work every year.

It’s a task he loves—and one that has

brought him recognit ion and acclaim.

The Chicago labor and employment law

specialist wa s awarded the Outstanding

Volunteer Attorney of 2013 award by

the Community Law Pr oject of the

Chicago Law yers’ Committee for Civil

Rights.

There’s also been another benefi t.

Some of his pro bono cases have a ctu-

ally led to paid represent ations.

In one of his pro bono cases, K rugel

worked 3∏ years for a nonprofi t w ith-

out compensation and another 18

months as a paid attorne y representing

the same client.

“At fi rst, th is nonprofi t needed legal

assistance for it s dissolution and sep-

aration and fi nal payouts of its sta ,”

Krugel says. “Lat er, there was a civil

action—mismanagement of fu nds. I

was paid by the [Chubb] insurance

company to handle thi s.”

This wasn’t a one-o . Krugel says

several pro bono matter s have spawned

paid work for him.

“I sit on several boards of nonprofi t

organizations for whic h I do pro bono

work, and this has a lso generated sub-

stantial paid leg al work,” Krugel says.

He adds that his pro bono e orts

with the Communit y Law Project have

led to additional paid work .

“They set up speak ing engagements

for me at Chicago’s city hall,” Kr ugel

says. “As a solo practitioner with zero

political connec tions ... being able to do

presentations at city ha ll was great for

my marketing.”

According to Rule 6.1 of the A BA

Model Rules of Professional Conduct ,

attorneys have “a professional r esponsi-

bility to provide lega l services to those

unable to pay” and are encou raged to

perform at least 50 hour s of pro bono

legal servic es each year.

In April, the ABA relea sed Supporting

Justice: A Repor t on the Pro Bono Work

of America’s Lawyers, wh ich notes that

81 percent of the nearly 47,000 attor-

neys surveyed t hought providing pro

bono services w as either somewhat or

very importa nt.

Despite this overw helming majority,

the study found respondents had pro -

vided an average of 36.9 hours of pro

bono service in 2016—well below the

aspirational goa l of 50 hours per year

set forth in ABA Model Ru le 6.1

Additionally, the study noted th at 20

percent of the responding law yers had

never provided pro bono serv ices of any

kind. Among the fac tors lawyers cited

for not doing pro bono was that it con-

fl ic ted with cases where time wa s being

billed and it was too c ost-prohibitive.

AIR AND ART ALTRUISM

By using pro bono representations to

help generate paid matters, K rugel and

others have managed to a lleviate such

concerns.

Pamella Seay has a busy profe ssional

life running a solo pra ctice in Port

Charlotte, Florida . Seay Law Interna-

tional special izes in immigration, air-

port and aviation law. She also te aches

constitutional law a nd ethics courses at

Florida Gulf Coas t University and still

devotes time to pro bono work.

“I do about 80 to 100 hours of various

Pro Bono

Pamella Seay

pro bono work annually,” she says. “And

it often leads to pa id work.”

Seay adds that her pro bono imm i-

gration work for clients in the Defer red

Action for Childhood A rrivals program

has resulted in s everal paying clients. “A

construction fi rm kne w of my immigra-

tion work and hired me to check on the

legal status of thei r employees,” she says.

She also does volunteer work on

a local government air port board.

Because of her exper tise in airport law,

she was hired by the Transpor tation

Research Board , a presidential advi-

sory agency of the govern ment. Seay was

invited to submit a proposa l to research

and write a monograph on a irport sov-

ereign immunity a nd won the job.

Meanwhile, Richa rd Roth, an enter-

tainment and business a ttorney, does

pro bono work as part of a progra m run

by the nonprofi t Volunteer Lawyer s for

the Arts.

“I do a lot of copyright and tradem ark

infringement litigat ion for struggling

artists ,” says Roth, founding partner of

the Roth Law Firm in New York City.

“My clients are usuall y actors, writers

and lyricist s.”

According to Roth, he ha s represented

many authors, lyr icists and songwriters

who have accused other, more famous

artists of s tealing their work.

Roth’s work can really pay o if a pro

bono client ends up making it big. “Some

of them become successf ul and famous

later, and they remember the work I did

when they were struggl ing,” he says. Q