General

Pro Bono service, work, and projects refer to law-related service to the disadvantaged without pay or academic credit.

The ABA sets out the accepted parameters of pro bono service in Rule 6.1 of the Model Rules of Professional Responsibility. These parameters are divided into two tiers: legal services to the poor (Tier one) and other public interest services (Tier two).

Specifically, Tier one activities are law-related services to persons of limited means and to charitable, religious, civic, community, governmental and educational organizations in matters that are designed primarily to address the needs of persons of limited means. Tier two activities are law-related service to individuals, groups or organizations seeking to secure or protect civil rights, civil liberties or public rights, as well as law-related service to charitable, religious, civic, community, governmental and educational organizations of limited means in matters in furtherance of their organizational purposes.

Both tiers may be considered pro bono service for purposes of this survey, though some schools may choose to have a more narrow definition. Community service, defined below, is not included. Unless otherwise stated, qualifying settings include governmental agencies and judicial placements.

The receipt of grant funds given to help cover expenses incurred in doing pro bono work does not preclude an activity from being pro bono.

Public Interest programs, curricula, and placements refer to the same subjects and settings captured in both tiers of the definition of pro bono, as set forth above. Public interest activities are broader than pro bono ones and may or may not involve: 1) pay or credit and 2) hands-on service.

   Law School Pro Bono Programs can be grouped into three categories:

1. Graduation Requirement Programs with a Pro Bono Option
2. Formal Voluntary Pro Bono Programs
3. Independent Student Group Pro Bono Projects (with no school-wide program)

1. Graduation Requirement Programs
Graduation requirement programs necessitate that students engage in public service as a condition of graduation. There are three types of these mandatory programs: pro bono, public service and community service. While the first requires pro bono service, the other two may or may not incorporate a pro bono option.

Pro Bono Graduation Requirement Programs
These programs require students to perform a set number of hours of law-related public service. The number of hours required by these programs ranges from 20 to 70. The students’ service is considered pro bono as they receive neither academic credit nor pay for their service.

Public Service Requirement Programs
The way in which this type of graduation requirement can be met varies from school to school. Most programs require students to perform law-related public service but are flexible in the type of activities, allowing pro bono placements, externships, clinics and/or internships to count towards the requirement. Some of these programs allow the requirement to be met only through participation in a for-credit clinic. A few of the programs do not require actual service and allow the requirement to be met by exposure to poverty law through a class or independent study.

Community Service Requirement Programs
This type of program is identical to the pro bono requirement program except that it allows non-legal service to satisfy the graduation requirement.

2. Formal Voluntary Pro Bono Programs
When a school hosts an organized and structured voluntary pro bono program, it is deemed to be formal. There are two types of these programs.

The first and most common program is characterized by a referral system with a coordinator. The referral system is designed to match students with law-related pro bono opportunities in the community. These programs have one or more designated pro bono coordinators/advisors who are responsible for developing, promoting and coordinating pro bono placements. In some schools, these coordinators/advisors provide administrative support to student group projects. Students participate in these programs voluntarily.

The second type of formal voluntary pro bono program is characterized by administrative support for student group projects. The student groups often work in partnership with outside organizations. The type of support provided by the school ranges from the full-time staffing of a pro bono legal center to administrative assistance in tracking volunteer hours. Students participate in these programs voluntarily.

3. Independent Student Group Pro Bono Projects
Some schools provide pro bono opportunities solely by relying on students to form and run group projects. There is no formal program for school-wide pro bono coordination and support, though the school may provide meeting space and supplies. The student groups target a particular legal need or a particular segment of the population. Most groups work with a faculty supervisor and collaborate with outside organizations. Some of the groups are long-standing and raise their own funding.

Community Service refers to volunteer work in the community that is not law-related, such as working in a soup kitchen or helping to build a house in a poor community.

Education "Pipeline" Development Programs refers to programs, projects and initiatives that encourage, educate, and inspire at-risk disadvantaged children with the aim of extending their education and expanding their career aspirations to include the possibility of law-related work. These projects often involve partnerships between a law school and a local school. Examples of pipeline programs include mentoring, tutoring and law-related education projects.

Formal Policy refers to a policy that is written and provided to those affected by the policy.

Law-Related Education refers to the federal definition of "education to equip non-lawyers with knowledge and skills pertaining to the law, the legal process and the legal system, as well as the fundamental principles and values on which these are based." Many of these programs take place in primary and secondary school settings.

Lawyer Administrative Staff or Lawyer Administrators refers to administrators of law school programs who have law degrees and are not counted as faculty.

School Year refers to the definition used by the ABA in its annual survey for the curricular year from June through May. Unless otherwise indicated in this survey, information sought by this survey is for the 2005-2006 school year.

Return to Top

Curriculum

Clinical Courses refers to the ABA definition of "faculty supervised clinic" meaning "those courses or placements with other agencies in which full-time faculty are primarily responsible for all cases that students are working on."

Field Placements refers to the ABA definition "in which someone other than full-time faculty has primary responsibility to the client; they are frequently referred to as externships and internships." They may also be referred to as co-op placements.

Access to Justice refer to courses, organizations and tools focused on improving the availability of meaningful access to the justice system for disadvantaged people, most notably the poor.

Return to Top

Career and Financial Matters

Government Honors Program refers to programs of government entities that hire a limited number of new attorneys (graduating students or recent graduates completing a judicial clerkship) for placement in a specialized training program of a limited duration that may or may not lead to permanent employment. These programs do not necessarily have "Honors" in their titles.

Hard Money refers to funding drawn from an institution’s internal budget.

Law School Sources of Funding includes finances provided by the law school and by student groups. These sources include federal work-study wages provided to students by the school, including dollars the school provides for the "employer match" as well as actual federal work-study dollars used for students working in public interest positions. They exclude funding provided directly by non-profits, government or other sources paid directly to a student, including funding provided by an employer to match federal work-study wages.

Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) or Income Protection Program refers to a program that provides financial assistance to help with repayment of the educational debt of law school graduates who meet program eligibility criteria.

Paid public interest jobs refer to public interest employment for which students are compensated, whether by the employer, the school, the government or other sources.

Public Interest Law Firm refers to the NALP definition of "a private or for-profit firm, [that] is distinguished from other private firms in that a majority of its practice involves clients that are typically under-represented, or groups that advocate for community, rather than corporate interests. Sliding fee cases, attorney fee cases and contingent fee cases are common. Typical areas of practice … include plaintiff’s employment discrimination, civil rights and environmental law."

Public Interest Scholarship refers to financial assistance for educational expenses provided during the school year to law students interested in pursuing a public interest career. For the purposes of this survey, it does not include summer stipends or grants.

Return to Top

View All E-Guide Resources