Law firms can enhance their commitment to pro bono work by finding small ways to increase participation throughout their workforce

Let’s imagine pro bono legal work as a pie — good for law firm business, good for getting and keeping talent, and complete with a dollop of good morale on top. Unfortunately, we have more pie than pie eaters, however. At least according to the most recent Legal Service Corporation (LSC) Justice Gap Report, which showed that LSC-funded legal services organizations turn away almost half of all pro bono requests because of a lack of resources.

Professional pro bono pie eaters (i.e., pro bono counsel) like me know that this pie has a lot of delicious bits in it once you dig in. However, a lot of attorneys think they don’t know how to eat pro bono pie, or think they don’t have time, or think you can only eat pie in court. But as any pie lover (of any kind) knows, there is always time for pie, especially if it’s just a quick bite. And eating pro bono pie is a skill, just like eating your vegetables. So how do you get someone to eat pie? By offering a bite, of course. And then another. And then a whole slice of pie.

Baked goods analogies aside, it’s important to discuss using limited scope projects to drive attorney participation in pro bono. First, however, a preface: This is not a manifesto against full-representation cases, in which an attorney takes on a full matter from beginning to end. Full representation is the backbone of pro bono...

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