When a partner at one of Salt Lake City’s premier law firms tells U of U law students that he can’t afford his own services, the message that there’s a need for pro bono legal services becomes clear.

It’s a message that the College of Law has long espoused and is now reinforcing through its Pro Bono Initiative, a year-old program to encourage law students to volunteer their budding legal expertise throughout the community. “It’s a matter of helping to fulfill the obligation to provide legal service by teaming students with lawyers to do pro bono work,” says Scott Matheson Jr., dean of the college. “Our clinical program, which blazed the trail for service learning, is credit granting, requires coursework, and has a service-learning component. But a not-for-credit program like this is now becoming part of the legal-education environment. And I wanted it to be part of our program.”

That’s right: a not-for-credit program. Unlike some law schools that have established a compulsory public-service component in their curricula and award credit for service, the U’s law school has made work through the Pro Bono Initiative voluntary. And cynics, envisioning overworked law students concerned about GPAs fleeing from such a prospect, might be surprised at the result.

“We did a lot of consulting with law schools around the country and were told that a 25 percent participation rate would be considered a success for the first year,” says Kristin Clayton, assistant dean for legal career services. “Our first semester we had a 30 percent participation rate, and 60 first-year students signed up for the second semester.” Clayton points out that the impetus for the Pro Bono Initiative came both from the dean and from faculty and students. “We have always had students who were doing pro bono work, including the Street Law program, and those students were looking for others to help.”

The program, which received support from the Michael Foundation, the VISTA program, and law alumnus Bill Reagan JD’71 to start, works with about 25 firms or organizations throughout Salt Lake City. Students can match up with private firms, legal agencies, or individuals, including faculty members. Utah Legal Services, for example, asks students to help lawyers with research and writing, conduct client interviews, prepare discovery for trials, and assist in client representation for hearings. “There’s a substantial need in our community for free or low-cost legal services,” says Patrick Tan BS’96 JD’00, the director of pro bono services for the nonprofit law firm. “People often don’t realize the prevalence of the need, especially among senior citizens and low-income families.”

The law school would like to see pro bono work become a habit that students retain into their professional careers. “Pro bono work complements our educational mission,” says Matheson. “We want students to have a meaningful role in meeting the legal needs of those who can’t afford legal help,” a laudable goal given a recent survey by The American Lawyer that found that lawyers at the country’s 100 highest-grossing law firms spent about 36 hours on pro-bono cases in 1999, down from 56 hours in 1992.

“As a law school, we felt we had an obligation to teach students about this important professional responsibility,” adds Clayton. And as evidenced by the program’s promising start, the lessons seem to be sinking in.

—Theresa Desmond is editor of Continuum
 
I’m working with Professor Paul Cassell on a victim’s rights case. The prosecutor in Utah pled down a felony child sexual abuse case without consulting with the victim. The victim has a constitutional right to have input. So the case is appealing that denial. I’m interested in criminal law, and I haven’t had a lot of exposure in this area, so I’m glad to be working on this.

I help out in all kinds of ways. I’ve gone to Tooele and picked up the videotapes, done basic research, proofed motions, attended meetings with the victims and their family, met with the attorney general’s office, coordinated other meetings—things like that. The victim is 13, and the defendant molested all the kids in the family. Now I can see the victims’ frustration, the other side of the coin that you don’t always see.

My tasks are usually in one-to-two-hour increments. It’s the first pro bono work I’ve done, but it’s exciting. The case is going before the Utah Supreme Court in the next few months. And I was able to be involved before the appeal was even filed, so I got to see the process before it got going. There was a hearing where the family didn’t get to speak, so they called Cassell. So I’veseen all the steps since that initial phone call. That’s something you don’t get in coursework. I’ve found that it doesn’t interfere with my school-work; it sort of puts the theory into context.

I volunteer once a week at St. Vincent’s Center. I give legal assistance to anyone, usually the poor and homeless. Mostly it’s about the denial of benefits, worker compensation claims, small claims. I work with a supervising attorney who is also a volunteer. I’m limited to five hours of pro bono work per week.

I selected St. Vincent’s because it matched my interests and because I plan on working in a private firm. I wanted to learn early on how to make time for pro bono work. If you can’t find time as a student, I can’t see how you’ll find time as an associate.

We were given a list of the students who participate in the pro bono program, and I could see that many who do it are at the top of their class. I figured, if they can do it, then I can do it. To prepare, I was trained by a third-year student, and then I came to the center as an observer of consultations the first few times.

Classes don’t address all that you need to know. People often just want someone to talk to. Occasionally you see a homeless person in the law library. Now I know that they come in not to get warm, but to learn. You don’t need to be a law student to know how to figure out some basic legal information.

I started last semester and I’d like to
stay throughout my law career, even though only one semester was required. This work reminds me that whatever type of law I do, it’s important for society and for me to do work that I’m not paid for. This is so much better than anything else I’m doing.

Photos by Andrew Gilman