A practitioner's reflections: the ongoing relevance of the pro bono response to 9/11.

• Author: Tabak, Ronald J.

INTRODUCTION

The pro bono response to the horrendous events of 9/11 is of ongoing importance. This is not simply because we could replicate or improve on that response in the event of another catastrophe. More importantly, what was and was not accomplished and by whom, plus the spillover effects of 9/11-related pro bono efforts, all have great significance to efforts to increase "regular" pro bono activities.

1. GREATLY INCREASED INVOLVEMENT OF NON-LITIGATORS

   My experience in over 20 years as a pro bono coordinator is that lawyers who otherwise say they are too busy will leap to undertake pro bono matters if they are of compelling interest, the lawyers trust the case vetting process to weed out frivolous matters, and they are persuaded that the training, mentoring, and exemplar materials will enable them to do effective legal work. The response to 9/11, and what has happened even after there are no longer new 9/11-related matters, strongly reinforce this conclusion.

   The 9/11 catastrophe caused a great many lawyers who never, or never since their earliest years of practice, had shown interest in pro bono to jump at opportunities to help. Noticeable among them were non-litigators, who as a group have historically done substantially less pro bono, in terms of number of matters and number of hours, than their litigation colleagues.

   What changed after 9/11? First, the 9/11 attacks led many lawyers to consider it crucial that they use their talents to help alleviate the situation. Second, the scheduling of relevant training sessions, the available of knowledgeable mentors, and the availability on www.probono.net of substantive information, legal memoranda, and exemplar documents greatly eased the usual concern about mishandling pro bono matters. Indeed, the usual fear of the unknown is the biggest single reason why more lawyers do not do pro bono work. That fear has only intensified as the legal profession has become more and more specialized. Fortunately, the post-9/11 training and mentoring efforts overcame these fears among many lawyers, particularly non-litigators.

   The increased involvement of non-litigators in pro bono has continued. At my firm, for example, the participation by non-litigators in pro bono has increased each year, and by 2003 had reached the same level that litigators had reached a few years earlier. While the litigation involvement has gone even higher in the interim, the gap between litigation and non-litigation participation rates in pro bono is the smallest in my experience. While other factors partially explain this, a major reason is the positive experience that so many non-litigators had in dealing with 9/11-related matters...