The Florida Bar Foundation

Pilot Pro Bono Grant Program

For more information contact Paul Doyle, Director of the Legal Assistance for the Poor/Law Student Assistance grant programs.

The Foundation increased its support for pro bono in the 2009-10 fiscal year through a new Pilot Pro Bono Grant Program for new or enhanced pro bono projects at Foundation-funded legal aid organizations. In addition, it provided funding for The Florida Bar's Standing Committee on Pro Bono Legal Service to develop and implement its "One" pro bono campaign and to increase its staff support through Florida Legal Services to help coordinate statewide efforts to expand pro bono.

The Foundation undertook this organized support for pro bono programs In response to a September 2008 study, "Pro Bono: Looking Back, Moving Forward,” which was commissioned by the Standing Committee and funded by the Foundation. The study made recommendations as to how to reinvigorate pro bono in Florida through partnerships among the courts, The Florida Bar, the Foundation, local bar associations, law firms and pro bono programs.

2009-10 Pilot Pro Bono Grants

Foundation Support for Pro Bono Services by Members of The Florida Bar

Members of The Florida Bar donated their time through organized pro bono programs in 2009 to handle 15,115 cases, which represented 15.1 percent of all cases closed by Foundation legal aid grantees. At an average hourly rate of $120 an hour, the 87,382 hours contributed by Florida pro bono attorneys through organized pro bono programs in 2009 represents $10.5 million of free legal assistance for low-income Florida residents.

Foundation funds support the intake and referral of cases to pro bono volunteer attorneys and provide such volunteers with backup support and training. There is a wide variety of pro bono service opportunities for Florida attorneys, including:

• Handling cases in family law, housing matters, immigration, etc.

• Transactional attorneys helping community groups develop affordable housing
  

• Providing advice and counsel through clinics

• Representing children in dependency proceedings

• Co-counseling cases with legal aid attorneys in housing and consumer law
  

• Assisting particularly vulnerable clients, such as the elderly, the disabled and the mentally ill.

Not all pro bono work has to involve direct representation of clients. For example, pro bono attorneys can also:

• Provide substantive law and skills training to legal aid attorneys

• Serve as mentors to less experienced legal aid attorneys

• Do client intake

• Participate in community legal education programs such as being a panelist at a seminar on domestic violence or speaking to the elderly about protection of their homesteads.

The benefits of involving members of The Florida Bar in serving the legal needs of the poor extend well beyond the positive outcomes for individual clients because attorneys make things happen. When talent and commitment are applied to removing the legal barriers poor people face in stabilizing their lives, entire communities benefit.