The task force recommended a boost in state aid for civil legal services in the Judiciary's budget by $15 million to $40 million for the next fiscal year, which begins April 1, 2013. Lippman and Chief Administrative judge A. Gail Prudenti accepted that higher level of funding for civil legal services in the budget they proposed to Governor Andrew Cuomo and the Legislature (NYLJ, Dec. 3).
Barnett's task force said two state rules governing lawyers would have to be changed to effect its recommendations.
Proposed Rule Changes
Rule of Professional Conduct §6.1 would need to be altered to increase the recommended number of pro bono hours.
The task force said the 50-hour proposal makes sense because additional pro bono hours are needed, and that figure represents a level of commitment closer to what attorneys who are active in pro bono contribute each year.
According to an American Bar Association survey in which the New York State Bar Association participated, attorneys who provide pro bono service estimate that they spend an average of 66 hours a year donating their time.
Overall, the survey found that almost three-quarters of New York lawyers have performed some pro bono work this year, with a majority turning in the minimum of 20 hours, as encouraged in §6.1.
The task force also recommended that lawyers be required to report on their biennial registration forms the pro bono hours they worked over the previous two years and how much in monetary contributions they made to groups providing civil legal services.
Lawyers' awareness of the need to provide pro bono seems to have been enhanced in the seven states that require attorneys to report their pro bono hours.
In Florida, for instance, officials said that pro bono contributions have increased by about 100 percent since 1993, when attorneys were first required to list pro bono service. In Illinois, which adopted a self-reporting requirement in 2007, annual pro bono hours have risen by about 10 percent, according to the task force.
The panel recommended that attorney pro bono disclosures be accessible to the public.
It also said the 50 hours of annual pro bono service should remain "precatory…at least until results of the change in Section 6.1 upon the number of pro bono hours performed can be assessed."
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Chris
Whether pro bono is required or not in all states, having the discussion raises awareness among all lawyers – and society – of both the dire need for pro bono and the fact that lawyers throughout the country are contributing without being required to do so. It is also encouraging that the legal and medical professions are combining their free services efforts because they realize unmet legal and medical needs often have an overlapping cause-effect relationship in low-income populations. Dr. Claire Pomeroy, the dean of the medical school at UC Davis, lists a few ideas about how medical and law schools can link their students together in cross-profession programs. http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital-management-administration/fixing-americas-health-and-legal-services-safety-net.html
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W. ADAM MANDELBAUM ESQ.
Let's take a moderate hourly rate for a New York lawyer--$300 per. Fifty hours at this rate equals a donation of $15,000.00. How about John L taking a fifteen thousand dollar pay cut? How about all of the attorneys that are subject to the "generosity" of these ivory tower types--who obviously aren't doing small firm or solo practice--getting together and deciding that proponents of mandatory pro bono work their jobs for nothing. It has been my experience, and I am sure others have had similar experience that pro bono work is seldom to never appreciated by the recipients. If an attorney wants to donate time, fine. But to impose quasi mandatory or mandatory pro bono requirements? Lincoln freed the slaves already people.
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LiveFreeOrDie
It's pretty easy to see where this is headed. Haven't these people heard of the 13th Amendment?
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