Pro Bono Market Overview

The pro bono marketplace harnesses millions of skilled professionals (“suppliers”) through different distribution channels to deliver them effectively to a diverse set of clients. Use the diagram below to learn about the state of pro bono happening by each group within the market.

Supply

Suppliers:
Business Professionals

Distribution Channels

Marketplace

  • Assess professional's expertise
  • Assess client needs and readiness
  • Match/Access
  • Oversight/Management
  • Quality Assurance
  • Knowledge management evaluation
  • Celebration

Demand

Clients

State of Pro Bono: Legal Profession

Opportunity

According to the American Bar Association, there are over 1,000,000 lawyers in the United States.

Community Need

Related pro bono projects include organizational risk assessment, 501(c)3 filing, intellectual property protection, personnel policies, merger, litigation, lease review, and building accessibility and code compliance projects.

search relevant pro bono projects

Distribution Channels

  • Professional Services Firms – The majority of law firms engage in pro bono service with top firms donating either 3 or 5% of their billable hours to pro bono service pursuant to the Pro Bono Institute's Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge©, and lawyers participating in pro bono service are seen as high performers at their workplace.
  • Professional Schools – Today nearly all law schools provide pro bono service opportunities. According to a 2001 survey conducted by the Association of American Law Schools, 95 percent of law school deans agreed that, “It is an important goal of law schools to instill in students a sense of obligation to perform pro bono work during their later careers.”
  • Corporations – Over the last 5 years many formal pro bono law programs have been emerging in companies. Since 2000 Corporate Pro Bono (CPBO), a joint initiative between Pro Bono Institute and the Association of Corporate Counsel, has been the premier resource for legal departments and in-house attorneys interested in doing legal pro bono work.
  • Trade Associations – The American Bar Association (ABA) is the leading trade association for pro bono service. Their code of ethics specifies that each attorney should engage in a minimum of 50 hours of pro bono support annually, and their Center for Pro Bono connects lawyers with pro bono service opportunities.
  • Intermediaries – Over 1,000 intermediary nonprofits facilitate pro bono legal services, although the majority do so for direct service rather than for nonprofit capacity building.
  • Direct Service Providers – Studies indicate that a great deal of pro bono service by lawyers is undertaken on their own without the involvement of pro bono programs. Compared to most other professions, however, a larger percentage do participate in pro bono service through organizations or intermediaries to limit their liability.

Common Legal Project Models

Learn more about this categorization of pro bono service models by reading the whitepaper: Making Pro Bono Work: 8 Proven Models for Community and Business Impact.

Standardized Team Projects – Individuals are placed on teams, each with specific roles and responsibilities. Each project is scoped and structured around a standard deliverable based on the needs of the nonprofit partners.

Open-Ended Outsourcing – A company makes its services available to a specific number of nonprofit organizations on an ongoing, as needed basis.

Trends

  • There is an increasing demand for pro bono service opportunities within corporations.
  • The legal profession is increasingly moving toward being focused on addressing specific issue areas with a greater emphasis on lobbying instead of utilizing pro bono work to focus on particular organization’s health.

Leaders

  • American Bar Association & Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service – The American Bar Association (ABA) is the leading trade association promoting pro bono service. Their code of ethics specifies that each attorney should engage in a minimum of 50 hours of pro bono service per year, and their Center for Pro Bono encourages lawyers to do pro bono work while supporting them by making connections to opportunities that meet their needs.
  • Lawyers Alliance for New York – The Lawyers Alliance for New York is the leading provider of business and transactional legal services for nonprofit organizations that are improving the quality of life in New York City neighborhoods.
  • Pro Bono Institute – The Pro Bono Institute is a catalyst administering projects that support, guide and inspire legal institutions to enhance access to justice through pro bono services. This small nonprofit organization provides research, consultative services, analysis and assessment, publications and training to a broad range of legal audiences.
  • Pro Bono Partnership – Pro Bono Partnership provides nonprofit organizations in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York with free, expert business legal advice they cannot otherwise afford, enhancing their capacity to improve local communities and provide essential programs for the poor and disadvantage
  • Tulane University – Tulane University set itself apart by becoming the first American Law School to adopt pro bono formally in 1987.

Resources

  • Standards for Pro Bono Service – These standards established in 1996 by the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service are recommended across the legal profession.
  • Making the Business Case for Pro Bono – This 2000 white paper by the Pro Bono Institute presents the business case for participating in pro bono service.

 

Have something to add?  Email us.

back to the market Map