IN THE NEWS

Law Firms Fall Short In Pro Bono Work

Thursdays can get pretty crazy at the Boston offices of the state Housing Court.

The department processes between 250 and 450 cases on Thursdays summary process day at the cramped, 10th floor offices in the Suffolk County Court House building. Nearly all of them are eviction disputes between tenants and landlords.

As a rule, upwards of 80 percent of the tenants will not have legal representation when they appear before Housing Court. Many of the defendants can't afford lawyers, and there are too few attorneys who volunteer time, known as pro bono work, to chip away at the ponderous caseload.

As a result, Housing Court usually dispenses a disproportionate amount of evictions, most of which could have been avoided, according to several legal advocates.

"They make agreements they wouldn't have made if they had representation," said Meg Connolly, executive director of the Boston-based Volunteer Lawyers Project.

Connolly and others say far too many of the state's poorest residents are falling through the cracks in the legal system because too few attorneys are available to assist them through pro bono legal help.

She serves on a Supreme Judicial Court committee monitoring the problem and gauging the efforts of local law firms to address it. The committee hopes to deliver a report and recommendations to the court by the end of the month.

The donation of legal services has long been a sensitive issue for members of the legal community whether such pro bono work should be mandatory for bar members, for example. Barring any mandate, the American Bar Association urges lawyers to perform 50 hours of pro bono work a year. The Boston Bar Association urges 25 hours.

Many local advocates praise the pro bono track records at Boston law firms, but they say more needs to be done.

"We have a crying need for lawyers to provide representation in a variety of areas," Connolly said. "Where we have the most problems in this city is getting assistance in just the sheer number of individual cases."

Across the nation, pro bono cases run the gamut from death row inmate representation a particularly high-profile issue that has no problem attracting willing lawyers to evictions, divorce settlements and other commonplace issues that represent the bulk of the cases needing pro bono assistance, but do not get it.

According to the preliminary findings of the Supreme Judicial Court's pro bono study committee, nearly 200,000 individuals cannot get professional help for their legal issues.

Moreover, a study conducted by Harvard Law School last year found that in the 6,800 cases filed with Housing Court in Boston in 1996, only 10 percent of the tenants had legal representation. In contrast, 75 percent of the landlords had lawyers.

"It's just mind-boggling, the number of people down there without lawyers," said Ned Notis-McConarty, a partner with Hemenway & Barnes and president of Boston's Legal Advocacy and Resource Center, which provides help for people who cannot afford legal representation.

"Eighty-five percent of the legal needs of the poor go unmet each year," McConarty said.

Nearly every Boston law firm has a pro bono committee that encourages lawyers to donate their time and expertise to worthy causes and legal work.

However, few firms have a minimum pro bono requirement their attorneys must meet.

Holland & Knight LLP, which plans to set up shop in Boston within the next two weeks, has a singularly strict pro bono requirement. Holland's attorneys must devote 50 hours a year to pro bono work, either in aid to the poor or organizations that assist the poor.

The Florida-based Holland & Knight, one of the 10 largest firms in the country, is finalizing its merger with Sherburne, Powers & Needham PC. As part of the agreement, Sherburne will change its name to Holland & Knight within two years.

C. Thomas Swaim, Sherburne's managing partner, said he is undaunted by the new pro bono requirements.

"We liked the fact that they were committed, and they had those mechanisms in place," said Swaim.

© Boston Business Journal. November 6, 1998.
Reprinted with permission. All Rights reserved.