The point I’m making is that even as an observer of the legal world with a somewhat jaded view of the pro bono bandwagon, it strikes me that it’s high time the
The logic for this is obvious: by disclosing and ranking pro bono efforts, law firms get a chance to benchmark their efforts and prospective recruits get something more substantive to judge their potential employer on than a glossy brochure. More importantly, injecting some transparency into the process would, for the first time, give law firms a powerful incentive to commit to the cause out of enlightened self-interest.
It’s already worked with financial results, it’s beginning to work with diversity and it will work with pro bono if anyone would put together a model and table. Transparency, however imperfectly, delivers — as it has in the
So at the rate we are moving, someone will probably come up with a carbon footprint league for law firms before pro bono gets a look in. Given that pro bono should surely speak to the heart of the profession, this is an odd state of affairs. There’s no need to take a melodramatic view of these issues — the future of the profession is not at stake here — but if lawyers collectively want to take the next step, this is it. If not, perhaps law firms should keep their pro bono efforts to themselves.
Talkback: Will US-style league tables encourage more firms to take pro bono seriously? Click here to have your say.