How to Choose Pro Bono Cases

and more

“Do you do pro bono work?”

The caller had asked a tricky question. On the one hand, yes, I do a lot of pro bono work and I’m really proud of that. But on the other hand, I probably don’t do the sort of work that she was looking for pro bono.

It’s tempting to use my law license to right every wrong that I see. I’ve given in to this temptation in the past, taking on fights that I might not, if there had been another lawyer that the client could have afforded, have been the best lawyer for. My reasoning was that the lawyer you have is almost always better than the lawyer you don’t.

But there are things that I’m especially good at, and I realized, first, that it makes more sense to spend my valuable free time doing things that I would be one of the best lawyers for at any price. It doesn’t make sense for me to represent a woebegone tenant in an eviction c…