The American Lawyer - July/August 2010

Still Growing

After years of rapid expansion, pro bono increases moderated
in 2009—but a threatened nosedive didn’t happen. By Irene Plagianos

MORE ONLINE

FOR A LIST OF FIRMS’
one-year change in
pro bono score, go to
americanlawyer.com/
probono.

AFTER A DECADE OF HEFTY, often double-digit, increases, the growth of The Am Law 200’s pro bono commitment slowed in 2009. Am Law 200 firms logged 5. 7 million hours of pro bono work last year, a 2 percent increase from 2008. Average hours per lawyer was flat, and the percentage of lawyers with 20 hours or more of pro bono work dipped 1 percent, to 47. 5.

Given the associate layoffs and aggressive cost-cutting
that marked 2009, the mostly steady results were a wel-
come development. “That’s pretty good news,” says Esther
Lardent, president of The Pro Bono Institute. “There’s
been more turmoil and upheaval in the legal industry than
at any time we can remember. Some firms struggled with
pro bono, others did even better.”
A total of 99 firms showed increases in the scores on

Illustration By Mark Allen Miller

this year’s pro bono chart; 25 had double-digit increases. Eighty firms posted declines, 14 in double digits.

Some of the biggest decreases were at traditional pro bono powerhouses: Hughes Hubbard & Reed (down 10. 2 points); Cravath, Swaine & Moore ( 11. 6 points); Morrison & Foerster ( 15. 3 points); and Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy ( 16. 7 points).