[size=24ptThe Pro Bono Docket and the Legal Blowhards Who Exploit It: Part I][/size][/b]
by Mark Pulliam
In insular legal culture—law schools, lawyers, law firms, bar associations, the judiciary, and the various industry publications that cater to them—few beliefs are as ingrained and unquestioned as the benefits of pro bono work. Yet few topics are as poorly understood and, at the same time, go so thoroughly unexamined. Pro bono is shorthand for “pro bono publico,†a Latin phrase meaning “for the public good.†In common usage, “pro bono†has come to mean any legal work performed without charge, usually for indigents. That may be how the concept began, and what many people assume is still the case, but it has morphed into a much bigger and more amorphous—and controversial—enterprise, largely without notice. It is well past time to ask Qui bono? Or, “who benefits?â€
Some of the “pro bono†work performed by large law firms and law school clinics undeniably assists non-profit organizations and low-income people with routine legal problems (such as adoptive families, domestic violence victims, and veterans seeking benefits). However, much of pro bono litigation amounts to advocacy of leftist causes, such as fighting voter ID laws, challenging immigration restrictions, promoting prisoners’ rights and the LGBT agenda, opposing capital punishment, and reforming—via judicial edict—public education, foster care, and other government-run services.
There is nothing wrong with such progressive activism, so long as it does not masquerade as benefiting the public, particularly when the goal is to raise taxes or prevent the enforcement of—or even to overturn altogether—democratically-enacted laws. The “public,†to be honest, is not the clientele for most pro bono work; currently fashionable “victim groups†are...
More at link:
https://www.lawliberty.org/2018/10/30/the-pro-bono-influence-racket/?fbclid=IwAR3f8LQlwL55OGB2-QqVRfZCxWErE1Qy-lT8VqQWUixu_HE1kRU94dnpLXg Part two is here:
https://www.lawliberty.org/2018/11/08/the-pro-bono-hoax-part-ii/
