Law: The Sad Fate of Legal Aid

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Like most places that provide assistance for the poor, the Legal Aid Society's Park Place office in Manhattan is overwhelmed. Flooded with requests for help, the 26 lawyers who work there resort to a kind of triage system, sometimes choosing to block an eviction before untangling a Social Security foul-up, or rushing to counter an immigration problem while other clients wait for assistance in getting welfare benefits. "We just don't have the money or the staffing to do it all," says Attorney Morton Dicker.

Such problems are partly because of a shortage of attorneys willing to spend some time representing the poor free of charge. Pro bono work is the trade term for it, from the Latin pro bono publico, meaning "for the public good." It has long been a tenet of the profession that all lawyers should devote part of their time to such work. The U.S. Supreme Court has guaranteed a lawyer, at government expense if necessary, to every criminal defendant who faces prison. Though in civil matters, everything from custody proceedings to deportation hearings, the poor must rely on the generosity of others.

But these are not good days for pro bono. The American Bar Association reports that only 17.7% of the nation's 659,000 private attorneys perform this task. At Public Counsel, a Los Angeles group that receives about 1,000 calls a day for legal assistance, participation by outside law firms has dropped more than 30% since 1986. "It's the biggest pro bono crunch we've ever seen," says Executive Director Steven Nissen. The trend toward giant law firms that operate like corporations gets much of the blame. Goaded by a bottom-line mentality, devoting nearly every moment to revenue-earning work, firms that once routinely set pro bono goals for their members now often just issue watery memos of encouragement. In the money-mad 1980s, the thinking goes, plenty of lawyers do well. Fewer do good.

Last week, in a move that could help resuscitate the pro bono cause, the legal world's No. 1 revenue earner announced an extraordinary program to encourage lawyers to give legal aid to the needy. As a supplement to the time that its lawyers volunteer, the New York City megafirm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom will establish a $10 million legal fellowship program to place 125 new law school graduates with legal-aid groups around the country over the next five years. "This fellowship is a further way for us to demonstrate that large law firms are concerned about the public interest," says Executive Partner Peter Mullen.

The young lawyers will be guaranteed a salary of at least $32,500 a year for up to two years. Some will also get help in repaying their student loans. That pay is a bit under half of what an entry-level attorney at Skadden, Arps gets for tending to the needs of major corporations. But it is higher than the $25,000 or less earned by many full-time public-service lawyers. Still, even legal observers who applaud the move say it is just a first step in a nation where some surveys estimate that more than 80% of the legal needs of the poor goes unattended.