The Self-Interest Of Pro Bono Legal Work

The Boston Herald reports:

The legal profession never ceases to astonish us. Big law firms now are paying charities for access to cases the firms can then handle without a fee.
These cases are not landlord-tenant squabbles, divorces of poor couples or fights between neighbors, all of which go begging for lawyers who will donate their services, The Wall Street Journal reports. No, the cases in question will dress up any lawyer’s resume - things such as overhauling the legal system of Liberia - and augment the bragging rights of his or her firm, especially when it comes to recruiting at upper-echelon law schools. For that, big firms like to stress the amount of pro bono work (from the Latin pro bono publico, “for the public good”) they handle.


Lawyers Without Borders, which tries to strengthen legal systems overseas, was reported to require law firms to donate $7,500 a year if they want to get referrals. Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts Inc. “gives first crack at desirable cases” to firms that contribute.
Massachusetts’ own Scott Harshbarger, former attorney general and candidate for governor and now head of pro bono work at the firm Proskauer Rose LLP, observed, “You’ve got to pony up.”

As you can see,there's no such thing as "the public good".