Pro Bono Institute Webinar on 6/7: Pro Bono and the Evolving Law Firm Business Model
By: Steve Grumm
Our neighbors at the Pro Bono Institute are putting on a webinar that focuses on a timely question: as law firm business models evolve in the recession’s wake, how will pro bono programs be affected? This issue greatly interests me because I used to work at a pro bono clearinghouse in the World’s Most Glorious City. And here at NALP, many of our law-firm members focus on attorney professional development. The intersection
The Intersection of Pro Bono and Professional Development
between professional development and pro bono will likely be a very busy place in the coming years. Increasingly, firms wish to provide hands-on, practical training opportunities for junior associates. One obvious way to do this is through pro bono; by handling pro bono cases, even junior associates can develop case management/strategy skills, gain courtroom experience, and learn how to build trusting relationships with clients – all opportunities that may not be available to them immediately via fee-paying practice. So I look forward to focusing more on this issue in the coming months. And I’m looking forward to the PBI webinar next week. Here’s some detail about the webinar:
Coming up on June 7 at 12:30 p.m. EDT is the webinar, “The Evolving Law Firm Business Model and Its Impact on Pro Bono,” which will examine the changes faced by large law firms and the effect they will have on pro bono.
Large law firms are changing the way they do business, including major shifts in attorney headcount, recruitment, and compensation; new approaches to professional and skill development and advancement; and shifts in billing arrangements and relationships with corporate clients. More profound changes are likely to come. This timely webinar will review these and other developments and reflect on what the changing economic landscape may mean for pro bono supporters at law firms, legal departments, and public interest organizations. This webinar is the first in the Pro Bono Institute’s Best of the 2011 Seminar/Forum Series.
Speakers include our friends Jim Jones, senior vice president and chief legal officer, Hildebrandt Baker Robbins, chairman, The Hildebrandt Institute (whom we’ve spoken with before, here); and Ron Flagg, chair, Pro Bono and Public Interest Law Committee, Sidley Austin LLP*.
