New Study Indicates Lawyers Give More than a Week's Worth of Free Legal Help Each Year to Low-Income Clients

12/27/2002

From: Jack Wax of the Missouri Bar, 573-638-2251

JEFFERSON CITY, MO., Dec. 27 -- A recent study of Missouri lawyers and reports from other states indicate that lawyers are making a hefty contribution to people who can't afford to pay for legal help, as well as to local charity and church boards.

Nearly 73 percent of Missouri's lawyers give some free legal help, according to a study, conducted by a University of Missouri researcher. The research is consistent with other less rigorous attempts to determine the extent of lawyers' free service to the poor. In Florida, where lawyers are required to report how much pro bono service they provide each year, lawyers average 44 hours of free legal help to clients. American Lawyer Media surveyed the nation's top 100 law firms and found that among the biggest firms lawyers averaged close to 42 hours of pro bono per year.

Although The Missouri Bar consists of 25,000 members, it estimates that only about 18,000 practice in-state and are in a position where they can provide free legal help. These lawyers provide an average of 42 hours per year of pro bono (free) legal help to clients in their community. They also averaged about 71 hours of free service on charitable boards, and about 27 hours on church boards. Using a very conservative price of $100 per hour for legal services, these hours translate into $50 million worth of free legal services to the poor; $78 million in free lawyer time for community boards and $27.5 million worth of free services for church boards. And that's just for Missouri.

The study, conducted this fall, consisted of personal interviews with 100 lawyers, selected as a representative sample of Missouri lawyers.

"The responsibility to help those in need is an integral part of the privilege to practice law," said Dale C. Doerhoff, president of The Missouri Bar.

The Missouri Bar commissioned the study to determine the role lawyers play in providing free legal help to the poor. Although pro bono service has always been encouraged by the bar, no one knew how many lawyers provide free legal help or how many hours of service they gave. In addition to promoting pro bono service, the state bar has been working for several years to find ways to increase state funding of Legal Services programs. Legal Services programs help low-income individuals and families get free legal help for urgent civil legal problems, such as domestic violence, custody problems, and access to health or disability benefits that may have been wrongly denied to them.