Pro Bono, Supplied and Demanded

. Of the fifty-six blackletter provisions in the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, the rule about pro bono is the only one that tells lawyers they “should”—rather than must, must not, or may—take a particular action. This verb, which in effect says: “You deserve praise if you do it but hey, no pressure,” embodies the partial perspective that dominates pro bono—partial in the sense of both incomplete and biased. Valorizing pro bono while imposing no consequences on people who fail to perform it indulges and flatters what this Article calls pro bono’s supply side.

Bar leaders, rule writers led by (but not limited to) the American Bar Association, pro bono coordinators in firms, and extollers of pro bono who tell other people to get busy keep themselves safe from reckoning. After describing the supply half of a binary through review of what this side says about pro bono, this Article posits a complementary demand cohort and invites suppliers to heed what these recipients need and want.