Pro bono legal work (short for pro bono publico, or “for the public good”) is when lawyers take on cases free of charge. Some lawyers—and you know who you are!—would say that the primary reason to take on pro bono cases is that membership in the Bar requires it. That’s compliance, however, driven by non-ethical considerations, not ethics. There are excellent reasons to work pro bono that have nothing to do with being able to check off mandatory hours, and everything to do with the crucial roles lawyers have a duty to fulfill in a free society.
Georgia attorney Dawn Levine compiled this list of “The Top Eight Reasons to Take Pro Bono Cases;” I recommend the whole article. Her list, however, should be posted on the walls of every attorney’s office. It represents the best aspirations of an unfairly maligned profession. Here it is…
Dawn Levine’s TOP EIGHT REASONS TO DO PRO BONO
1. For every pro bono case you take, that is one attorney joke that is undermined.
2. Pro bono allows me to continue to pay my mortgage and still hold on to my dream of changing the world. While I can’t afford to work full time in public service, I can find time for a case here and there.
3. Democracy demands it. If our legal system is not made to work for even the most economically vulnerable, then it ceases to be just.
4. God does not really care if I am “this close” to a billable hours bonus. I don’t get a pass just because I am busy.
5. The economy stinks. Unemployment and foreclosures are mushrooming. Creditors are becoming increasingly aggressive. More people than ever with legal needs qualify for pro bono services.
6. The economy stinks, parte dos. Budget cuts have reduced government help to low-income people. Funding for full-time public service attorneys is drying up while donations to nonprofits are going down. Society’s safety net for our most vulnerable is fraying.
7. It makes me a better attorney. When I was in law school, we did not discuss what happens in a probate case for a bigamist. I had to figure this out for a pro bono case. Believe it or not, I have since seen it twice more with paying clients.
8. It recharges my batteries. I haven’t conducted a scientific study of the subject, but I am convinced that attorneys who participate in pro bono work have greater career satisfaction.
Ethics Alarms 
I can’t agree that “Democracy demands it.”
I can agree that American values demand it.
No, Democracy demands it, and here’s why:
Democracy requires that all citizens have equal control over and access to the laws. Our current state of the laws has created a situation where it is nearly impossible for anyone without a law degree to use the laws for their own lawful purposes (a right), protect themselves through misuse of the law by others (ditto), and know what their legal rights are. The job of lawyers is to remedy all three of these problems and let citizens control the laws rather than be slaves to them. (Think about the outrage of the Health Care Bill, which nobody in America knows what it means or how it will effect them.)
If poor people have no access, understanding, or ability to use the laws, , then the democracy is a sham. Pro bono representation allows the Democracy to meet its own ideals.