By: Maria Hibbard

Ever since New York Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman announced a new 50-hour pro bono service requirement on May 1, opinions have abounded on the subject. Although Lippman stated in his law day speech, “As far back as judges and lawyers have existed, the pursuit of equal justice for all, rich and poor alike, has been the hallmark of our profession” lawyers, reporters, and civil legal aid organizations alike have stated that the requirement will be of little help to organizations, difficult to enforce, and an unnecessary burden on too many debt-laden law students and recent graduates studying for the bar exam. The NY Times invited readers to respond to David Udell’s letter defending the requirement as not overly burdensome; you can read the responses here in The Times’ Sunday Review.

Although this requirement will most likely not affect me (right now, I’m not planning to move to New York!), it will affect thousands of law students set to graduate in 2014 and beyond—and many of my classmates at Case Western who hope to move to New York after graduation. Will this requirement be an undue burden on our class? As Udell states, “50 hours of pro bono work will not mire students into poverty.” Even as I look at my student loan balance—as compared to my checking account balance–I tend to agree. Although 50 hours a week is a little over an average workweek, Judge Lippman explained that it would amount to only a few hours over each semester of law school. Let’s divide those 50 by the 6 semesters of law school; that’s 8.33 hours of pro-bono work per semester over three years. In comparison—in my hometown, I had to complete 40 hours of volunteer work in my senior year in order to graduate from high school.  8.33 hours of work per semester could easily be divided up into two 4-hour work periods helping at, for example, the Brief Advice Clinics offered by Cleveland Legal Aid. Certainly, the 50-hour requirement cannot be construed as unreasonable.

The argument has also been made that the requirement will not significantly advance access to justice nor reduce the burden on civil legal aid because law students and recent law graduates studying for the bar must be supervised, increasing administrative costs for already stressed organizations. Although I admit that even after one year of law school, I don’t know much about the law—I don’t think the administrative costs of supervision would be prohibitive, especially if the program was introduced gradually. It’s no secret that law schools are primary revenue drivers for many universities, and the “sharing the wealth” perspective of this pro-bono requirement might mean that law schools themselves would need to devote more administrative resources to civil legal aid societies to contribute to the cost of supervising law students. The call for law schools to teach law students more “practical skills” is a constant one, and many of my own classmates stated that our “practice counseling” and our “practice negotiation” sessions were some of the most valuable experiences we did at school this year. I know my own school devoted a significant amount of resources to this program—what if these resources were dedicated towards developing pro bono opportunities for law students, allowing students to complete supervised “practice counseling” with a real client—not an actor?

Although I certainly don’t think mandatory pro bono is reasonable for all practicing attorneys, 50 hours of pro bono service cannot be out of the question for aspiring lawyers. To me, the requirement is reminiscent of the 50 hours of supervised driving I had to complete before taking the test to get my Ohio driver’s license. It was just one of the requirements I had to complete to get the license, along with the written test and the eye exam.  At this point in my legal career, I still have a number of requirements to meet to become a licensed attorney—completing the rest of my classes, the MPRE, the bar exam—50 hours of pro bono service along with these already stringent requirements should not be an undue burden, but an opportunity to “test drive” legal skills and hopefully begin a lifetime of serving those who would not otherwise have access to justice. Completing the 50 hours of service might allow a law student to discover an area that he never considered—or simply begin a pattern of service that will help ease the burden on civil legal aid throughout his legal career.