Why Do Pro Bono?

A Message from American Bar Endowment.

Why do pro bono?
Obviously, the primary reason to do pro bono work is to help those less fortunate who may have a serious need for your legal skills and knowledge. When you decided to become a lawyer you likely had a desire to promote justice and to make it equally accessible to all people.
Pro bono work clearly helps accomplish that goal. However, there are actually a number of additional benefits to performing pro bono work.

Fulfill professional responsibility
Remember why you wanted to study the law in the first place.

Gain personal satisfaction derived from providing these services
It makes you feel good, helping with the stress and sometimes depression that can come with practicing law.

Acquire new experience and training
Whether it’s a different type of law, case, or segment of society, you can gain new and important knowledge.

Demonstrating faith-based commitment
Depending on your religious beliefs, it could provide additional evidence of your commitment.

Learn cross-cultural skills
Gives you the opportunity to connect with and serve different clients.

Gain insights of the legal needs of the poor
If you don’t normally work with the poor and disadvantaged, it could change your perspective.

Crowdfunding Litigation

Crowdfunding Can Be A Great Way to Finance Your Case - Or Destroy It, by Jason Krouse 
 
"A litigation crowdfunding website or application lets anyone in need of backing for a legal matter raise money from anywhere in the world. There are two emerging crowdfunding models at opposite ends of the funding spectrum. On one end there are nonprofit efforts ... which raises money from donors, not investors ... for small-scale criminal defense cases or nonprofit organizations trying to launch legal or political campaigns. At the other end of the spectrum, ... accredited investors bet on the outcome of corporate lawsuits, which is an estimated $1 billion market."

'Hackathon' Movement

The hackathon is a workshop, meet-up or conference bringing experts from different disciplines together with technologists looking for innovative ways to tackle long-standing problems.

The idea is to create an app, service, policy proposal or other work product that can address a real-world problem.

"To most lawyers, 'hackathon' probably sounds like an invitation to commit felonies and sets them fleeing," says Dazza Greenwood, a lawyer and research scientist at the MIT Media Lab. "But to people who get it, a legal hackathon is about lawyers, engineers and policymakers interested in solving problems at the intersection of the law and technology."

By Jason Krause, ABA Journal.

Google Scholar

The next wave in legal research may already be here: Google Scholar went beta in 2004, making hundreds of millions of cases, research articles and filings easily searchable and free.

Panel Proposes Pilot Project to Test Legal Technician Program

A State Bar task force last month proposed the development of a pilot program for limited licensing of legal technicians as part of a series of recommendations aimed at closing the so-called “justice gap.”

"Millions of low- and middle-income Californians fall into the gap of needing civil legal assistance but not being able to afford to hire a lawyer. In some cases, they may even qualify for legal aid, but are turned away by cash-strapped nonprofit providers, according to the newly released Civil Justice Strategies Task Force report."

How to Disappear Online

National Domestic Violence Hotline

Important information from the National Domestic Violence Hotline.  

Safety Alert: Computer use can be monitored and is impossible to completely clear. If you are afraid your internet usage might be monitored, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233 or TTY 1−800−787−3224.

Domestic violence can happen to anyone of any race, age, sexual orientation, religion or gender. 

It can happen to couples who are married, living together or who are dating.  Domestic violence affects people of all socioeconomic backgrounds and education levels.

Abuse is a repetitive pattern of behaviors to maintain power and control over an intimate partner. These are behaviors that physically harm, arouse fear, prevent a partner from doing what they wish or force them to behave in ways they do not want. Abuse includes the use of physical and sexual violence, threats and intimidation, emotional abuse and economic deprivation. Many of these different forms of abuse can be going on at any one time.

We can use the Power & Control Wheel to describe most accurately what is occurs in an abusive relationship.

Think of the wheel as a diagram of the tactics your abusive partner uses to keep you in the relationship. While the inside of the wheel is comprised of subtle, continual behaviors, the outer ring represents physical, visible violence. These are the abusive acts that are more overt and forceful, and often the intense acts that reinforce the regular use of other subtler methods of abuse.