November 26, 2007
Free advice | Maine's legal community has a reputation for tackling lots of pro bono work. But does donating time make good business sense?
By Andrew Vietze
It isn't every day that you find employees busily trying to make more work for themselves ˆ especially the kind of work they don't get paid for.
But that's just what Jack Manheimer is currently doing. A partner at Pierce Atwood, the state's largest law firm, Manheimer has been writing a motion to the U.S. District Court for Maine to practice bankruptcy law on a pro bono basis. Manheimer has been recognized at the state level for his volunteerism in the past ˆ he was honored by the Maine State Bar Association in 2003 for his commitment to the Volunteer Lawyers Project, a statewide non-profit based in Portland that places lawyers with cases. For three years running he accepted more pro bono cases from the VLP than any other Maine attorney. "I used to do as many as a dozen cases a year," Manheimer says.
But changes to the bankruptcy law code that went into place in 2005 have made it far more difficult for him to continue helping individuals with their financial troubles. "In the year before the act went into effect, 134 bankruptcy cases were handled by the Volunteer Lawyers Project," he says. "In the year after, there were 16. The [changes] imposed a lot of new conditions on lawyers, and it created risk for them where risk didn't exist before."
So he's trying to change that.
Manheimer is far from alone in his good deeds. Toby Hollander, a Portland lawyer in private practice, estimates he has spent at least 20% of his time over the past couple of decades doing work on a pro bono basis. At Bernstein Shur, a law firm with offices in Portland, Augusta and Manchester, N.H., managing partner Charlie Miller says his lawyers have put in 2,400 volunteer hours in the first three quarters of 2007. "I can only speak for our firm, but I'm sure that's true at the other big firms and at most of the smaller ones as well," he says.
Indeed, Maine is a hotbed of these good works. An oft-quoted statistic has the state second in the nation only to Maryland for legal work done on a pro bono basis. Calien Lewis of the Maine Bar Foundation, the charitable arm of Maine's professional bar, which provides funds for pro bono legal services, says although proving Maine's status with statistics is difficult, she knows Maine is a leader. "Certainly we're at the top of the heap," she says. "There's no doubt about that."
Nan Heald, the executive director of Pine Tree Legal Assistance, the statewide nonprofit legal services organization that helps coordinate much of this legal volunteerism, agrees that Maine's legal community is among the best when it comes to pro bono work. "It's really amazing about Maine law firms," she says. "When I go to conferences, the other attendees marvel that this small rural state has so many lawyers willing to donate their time."
Last year, the state's attorneys gave $1.7 million dollars worth of hours, according to figures compiled by the Maine Volunteer Lawyers Project, a joint effort between Pine Tree Legal and the Maine State Bar Association.
All of this raises the question, though, of how law firms handle Maine's supposed heavy load of pro bono work. At a place like Bernstein Shur, how does 93 lawyers giving 2,400 hours of time ˆ that's a street value of about $500,000 ˆ in the span of nine months, affect the bottom line? And if this amount of time is typical of most firms ˆ Verrill Dana's website claims 4,000 hours donated annually ˆ does this volunteer work begin to get in the way of billable hours?
Setting rules
The idea that pro bono work needs to be carefully managed seems to be conventional wisdom among some law firms in Boston. In some of the larger Beantown law offices attorneys have been doing so much pro bono legal service that their managing partners have begun to rein them in. In March, The Boston Globe reported that at Bingham McCutchen a new policy has been put in place that requires attorneys who approach 150 hours of pro bono work to meet with a supervisor to discuss the "scope" of their work. Those meetings are to ensure that the volunteer work they're doing is in the best interest of their professional development.
By all accounts, though, there haven't been any problems with too much pro bono work in Maine ˆ at least not yet. But that doesn't mean there aren't checks and balances in place at some firms. At Bernstein Shur, Miller notes a pro bono committee oversees the volunteer work done by the firm's associates. "We have a budget of what we expect pro bono will amount to," Miller says. "Every lawyer in this law office has the absolute right to do 50 billable hours of pro bono work, as long as it is for one of the approved agencies ˆ the Maine Civil Liberties Union, for example, or the Volunteer Lawyers Project, the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, Pine Tree Legal, etcetera."
If an attorney's time goes beyond that, they're required to check in with the firm's pro bono committee for approval, says Miller. And if their project is over the allocated pro bono budget, the committee has to go to Bernstein Shur management for its okay. That request is usually granted. "I don't remember one time when the management committee has turned down a request," says Miller.
But not every firm has instituted checks about pro bono work. "We do not have any kind of policy," says Manheimer, who adds that he hasn't seen any worrisome effects to the bottom line. "We've not had that problem yet ˆ I can't think of one instance. We've never had to say to someone, 'You have to pay more attention to billable hours.'"
Just because lawyers from these firms are taking cases on for free doesn't mean they aren't seeing some benefit from it. After all, not all of this work can be attributed to pure selflessness. There are advantages to be gained by participating in terms of experience for their less-seasoned associates, networking opportunities, residual business and community standing. The Volunteer Laywers Project honors individuals and firms for their pro bono work every year, "and it's considered a mark of distinction for a firm," says Calien Lewis. Press releases are sent out and the stature of particular lawyers and their firms will rise in the broader community.
Making connections while doing pro bono work can also benefit lawyers in the long run. "Pro bono work is altruistic and it can be quite difficult, but it can lead to remuneration down the road," says Hollander. "Someone you represent in a domestic-relations case might be in a serious car accident, and they'll come to you because you already have a relationship."
And the legal system simply works much better when both sides are represented. "The system doesn't work without attorneys," says Deirdre Smith. "Everything slows way down. The system is designed with the assumption that everyone is represented by an attorney." Which means that by volunteering, lawyers actually make each other's lives better ˆ from fewer lengthy delays to fewer scheduling hassles.
Giving back, getting back
The pro bono habit is one that runs deep among Maine's legal community. At firms like Pierce Atwood and Bernstein Shur, donating time and services to the community is on the mission statement ˆ and the sentiment doesn't appear to be hollow.
"There's always been a tradition within the Maine Bar to support pro bono work," says Pine Tree Legal's Nan Heald. "What's amazing is that often these traditions die out with the older lawyers, but here it just keeps going. There's a culture in the Portland law firms, an expectation that new associates are going to work a lot of hours and an expectation that a lot of them will be pro bono hours."
One of the reasons is that there is simply a deep need in Maine. "Only one in five people with low income who need an attorney gets one," says Deirdre Smith, director of the Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic in Portland and a professor at the University of Maine School of Law. "In the majority of family law cases, for example, people go unrepresented."
Another is that the legal industry in Maine isn't as cutthroat as it is elsewhere. Toby Hollander worked in St. Louis, Mo., for 14 years before moving to Lewiston and then Portland, where he's practiced law for 20 years. "I'm really impressed with the bar and the bench in this state," he says. "There's a much more collegial relationship and for the most part there isn't the bitterness you see elsewhere. There's more of a sense of lawyering as a profession in Maine, and not as much advertising or the screw-your-buddy atmosphere you see elsewhere."
Nor is there as much stress and pressure here. "I practiced at a Wall Street firm and there was much more pressure there to bill lots of hours," says Jack Manheimer. "People choose to live here, and they come here because they don't want to bill 3,000 hours to a Wall Street firm."
What's more, groups like Pine Tree Legal and VLP actively recruit in the state. For example, after new attorneys are sworn in by the Maine State Bar, they're literally met at the door by staff from the Volunteer Lawyers Project and handed a packet of information about pro bono work. Portland lawyer Toby Hollander was recognized in 2004 by the American Bar Association for his work on behalf of the kids of Maine. A former staff attorney for Pine Tree Legal, he now has a private practice where he works as a Guardian Ad Litem, a lawyer who represents the best interests of children, investigating cases for the court and making recommendations.
"I've always felt an obligation to represent those who wouldn't get representation otherwise," he says. But one of the reasons pro bono work has become a major part of his practice ˆ he estimates about four of the 20 cases he's handling at any given time are pro bono ˆ is because he "had trouble saying no. And the Volunteer Lawyers Project asked for a lot of time."
There are plenty of good reasons that the Pierce Atwoods, Bernstein Shurs and Verrill Danas encourage pro bono work. But at the end of the fiscal quarter, Maine's attorneys don't have to donate as much as they do.
Jack Manheimer thinks as good as Maine's track record is, there's always room to improve. On a personal level, he's hoping to get his motion filed with the bankruptcy court within the next month. That will allow him to roll up his sleeves again and get back at it ˆ gratis, of course. And he'd like to think his company will continue its tradition.
"We think we do a fair amount at Pierce Atwood," says Manheimer. "But we'd always like to do a bit more."
But that's just what Jack Manheimer is currently doing. A partner at Pierce Atwood, the state's largest law firm, Manheimer has been writing a motion to the U.S. District Court for Maine to practice bankruptcy law on a pro bono basis. Manheimer has been recognized at the state level for his volunteerism in the past ˆ he was honored by the Maine State Bar Association in 2003 for his commitment to the Volunteer Lawyers Project, a statewide non-profit based in Portland that places lawyers with cases. For three years running he accepted more pro bono cases from the VLP than any other Maine attorney. "I used to do as many as a dozen cases a year," Manheimer says.
But changes to the bankruptcy law code that went into place in 2005 have made it far more difficult for him to continue helping individuals with their financial troubles. "In the year before the act went into effect, 134 bankruptcy cases were handled by the Volunteer Lawyers Project," he says. "In the year after, there were 16. The [changes] imposed a lot of new conditions on lawyers, and it created risk for them where risk didn't exist before."
So he's trying to change that.
Manheimer is far from alone in his good deeds. Toby Hollander, a Portland lawyer in private practice, estimates he has spent at least 20% of his time over the past couple of decades doing work on a pro bono basis. At Bernstein Shur, a law firm with offices in Portland, Augusta and Manchester, N.H., managing partner Charlie Miller says his lawyers have put in 2,400 volunteer hours in the first three quarters of 2007. "I can only speak for our firm, but I'm sure that's true at the other big firms and at most of the smaller ones as well," he says.
Indeed, Maine is a hotbed of these good works. An oft-quoted statistic has the state second in the nation only to Maryland for legal work done on a pro bono basis. Calien Lewis of the Maine Bar Foundation, the charitable arm of Maine's professional bar, which provides funds for pro bono legal services, says although proving Maine's status with statistics is difficult, she knows Maine is a leader. "Certainly we're at the top of the heap," she says. "There's no doubt about that."
Nan Heald, the executive director of Pine Tree Legal Assistance, the statewide nonprofit legal services organization that helps coordinate much of this legal volunteerism, agrees that Maine's legal community is among the best when it comes to pro bono work. "It's really amazing about Maine law firms," she says. "When I go to conferences, the other attendees marvel that this small rural state has so many lawyers willing to donate their time."
Last year, the state's attorneys gave $1.7 million dollars worth of hours, according to figures compiled by the Maine Volunteer Lawyers Project, a joint effort between Pine Tree Legal and the Maine State Bar Association.
All of this raises the question, though, of how law firms handle Maine's supposed heavy load of pro bono work. At a place like Bernstein Shur, how does 93 lawyers giving 2,400 hours of time ˆ that's a street value of about $500,000 ˆ in the span of nine months, affect the bottom line? And if this amount of time is typical of most firms ˆ Verrill Dana's website claims 4,000 hours donated annually ˆ does this volunteer work begin to get in the way of billable hours?
Setting rules
The idea that pro bono work needs to be carefully managed seems to be conventional wisdom among some law firms in Boston. In some of the larger Beantown law offices attorneys have been doing so much pro bono legal service that their managing partners have begun to rein them in. In March, The Boston Globe reported that at Bingham McCutchen a new policy has been put in place that requires attorneys who approach 150 hours of pro bono work to meet with a supervisor to discuss the "scope" of their work. Those meetings are to ensure that the volunteer work they're doing is in the best interest of their professional development.
By all accounts, though, there haven't been any problems with too much pro bono work in Maine ˆ at least not yet. But that doesn't mean there aren't checks and balances in place at some firms. At Bernstein Shur, Miller notes a pro bono committee oversees the volunteer work done by the firm's associates. "We have a budget of what we expect pro bono will amount to," Miller says. "Every lawyer in this law office has the absolute right to do 50 billable hours of pro bono work, as long as it is for one of the approved agencies ˆ the Maine Civil Liberties Union, for example, or the Volunteer Lawyers Project, the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, Pine Tree Legal, etcetera."
If an attorney's time goes beyond that, they're required to check in with the firm's pro bono committee for approval, says Miller. And if their project is over the allocated pro bono budget, the committee has to go to Bernstein Shur management for its okay. That request is usually granted. "I don't remember one time when the management committee has turned down a request," says Miller.
But not every firm has instituted checks about pro bono work. "We do not have any kind of policy," says Manheimer, who adds that he hasn't seen any worrisome effects to the bottom line. "We've not had that problem yet ˆ I can't think of one instance. We've never had to say to someone, 'You have to pay more attention to billable hours.'"
Just because lawyers from these firms are taking cases on for free doesn't mean they aren't seeing some benefit from it. After all, not all of this work can be attributed to pure selflessness. There are advantages to be gained by participating in terms of experience for their less-seasoned associates, networking opportunities, residual business and community standing. The Volunteer Laywers Project honors individuals and firms for their pro bono work every year, "and it's considered a mark of distinction for a firm," says Calien Lewis. Press releases are sent out and the stature of particular lawyers and their firms will rise in the broader community.
Making connections while doing pro bono work can also benefit lawyers in the long run. "Pro bono work is altruistic and it can be quite difficult, but it can lead to remuneration down the road," says Hollander. "Someone you represent in a domestic-relations case might be in a serious car accident, and they'll come to you because you already have a relationship."
And the legal system simply works much better when both sides are represented. "The system doesn't work without attorneys," says Deirdre Smith. "Everything slows way down. The system is designed with the assumption that everyone is represented by an attorney." Which means that by volunteering, lawyers actually make each other's lives better ˆ from fewer lengthy delays to fewer scheduling hassles.
Giving back, getting back
The pro bono habit is one that runs deep among Maine's legal community. At firms like Pierce Atwood and Bernstein Shur, donating time and services to the community is on the mission statement ˆ and the sentiment doesn't appear to be hollow.
"There's always been a tradition within the Maine Bar to support pro bono work," says Pine Tree Legal's Nan Heald. "What's amazing is that often these traditions die out with the older lawyers, but here it just keeps going. There's a culture in the Portland law firms, an expectation that new associates are going to work a lot of hours and an expectation that a lot of them will be pro bono hours."
One of the reasons is that there is simply a deep need in Maine. "Only one in five people with low income who need an attorney gets one," says Deirdre Smith, director of the Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic in Portland and a professor at the University of Maine School of Law. "In the majority of family law cases, for example, people go unrepresented."
Another is that the legal industry in Maine isn't as cutthroat as it is elsewhere. Toby Hollander worked in St. Louis, Mo., for 14 years before moving to Lewiston and then Portland, where he's practiced law for 20 years. "I'm really impressed with the bar and the bench in this state," he says. "There's a much more collegial relationship and for the most part there isn't the bitterness you see elsewhere. There's more of a sense of lawyering as a profession in Maine, and not as much advertising or the screw-your-buddy atmosphere you see elsewhere."
Nor is there as much stress and pressure here. "I practiced at a Wall Street firm and there was much more pressure there to bill lots of hours," says Jack Manheimer. "People choose to live here, and they come here because they don't want to bill 3,000 hours to a Wall Street firm."
What's more, groups like Pine Tree Legal and VLP actively recruit in the state. For example, after new attorneys are sworn in by the Maine State Bar, they're literally met at the door by staff from the Volunteer Lawyers Project and handed a packet of information about pro bono work. Portland lawyer Toby Hollander was recognized in 2004 by the American Bar Association for his work on behalf of the kids of Maine. A former staff attorney for Pine Tree Legal, he now has a private practice where he works as a Guardian Ad Litem, a lawyer who represents the best interests of children, investigating cases for the court and making recommendations.
"I've always felt an obligation to represent those who wouldn't get representation otherwise," he says. But one of the reasons pro bono work has become a major part of his practice ˆ he estimates about four of the 20 cases he's handling at any given time are pro bono ˆ is because he "had trouble saying no. And the Volunteer Lawyers Project asked for a lot of time."
There are plenty of good reasons that the Pierce Atwoods, Bernstein Shurs and Verrill Danas encourage pro bono work. But at the end of the fiscal quarter, Maine's attorneys don't have to donate as much as they do.
Jack Manheimer thinks as good as Maine's track record is, there's always room to improve. On a personal level, he's hoping to get his motion filed with the bankruptcy court within the next month. That will allow him to roll up his sleeves again and get back at it ˆ gratis, of course. And he'd like to think his company will continue its tradition.
"We think we do a fair amount at Pierce Atwood," says Manheimer. "But we'd always like to do a bit more."
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