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86 A.B.A. J. 120 (2000)
Squeezing the Public Good

handle is hein.journals/abaj86 and id is 1274 raw text is: PERSPECTIVE Squeezing the Public Good During the ABA Annual Meeting this summer, The Times of London ran an un- settling account of profits and the profes- sion. It described in depressing detail how the recent escalation in law firm salaries was forcing a corresponding hike in billable hours. The story quoted the managing part- ner of one Wall Street firm, who ac- knowledged the importance of balance in lawyers' personal and professional lives but concluded that his firm's quota of 2,400 billable hours, if properly man- aged, was not unreasonable. Well, perhaps for him, particularly if proper management meant a stay-at- home spouse. But when that story was shared at a London meeting of the ABA's Commission on Women in the Profession, the lawyers present had a different expe- rience and a different view. These women could do the math. Under honest billing procedures, a 2,400- hour working life is not a life. For em- ployed women, who still spend about twice as much time on domestic matters as em- ployed men, sweatshop schedules result in double binds and double standards. Working mothers are held to higher standards than working fathers and are often criticized for being insufficiently committed either as parents or as profes- sionals. What falls by the wayside is not just family, promotions or normal sleep- ing hours. It is also the opportunity for pro bono involvement with social justice causes that sent many practitioners to law school in the first instance. The Bigger Picture The tradeoffs posed by rising hours are not just women's issues. They are concerns in which all lawyers have a sub- stantial stake. Although recent' salary wars have pushed compensation levels to new heights, this affluence has eroded, rather than expanded, support for pro bono. Ac- cording to American Lawyer magazine, over the past decade the average revenues of the most successful firms increased by more than 50 percent, while average pro bone hours declined by a third. In only 18 of the nation's 100 most financially successful firms do lawyers meet the AA's standard of 50 hours a year of pro bono service. Although comprehensive data are difficult to come by, the figures for the profession as a whole are not more en- couraging. Law is the nation's second high- est-paying occupation, but most practi- tioners make no pro bono contributions to the poor. The average for the profes- sion as a whole is less than half an hour a week and half a dollar a day. Recent increases in salaries and bill- able hours are pushing in precisely the wrong direction. Managing partners around the country acknowledge that it doesn't take rocket science to calculate the likely effect on pro bono work that is not fully counted in hourly quotes or val- ued in promotion decisions. Trickle-away Economics? was the apt description offered in a story in the July ABA Journal, page 20. As noted, part of the price of lawyers' affluence will be paid by those who can least afford it: the low-income communities now squeezed out of the market for pro bono assistance. But lawyers will pay as well. Re- search on workplace satisfaction suggests that even from a purely self-interested standpoint, current salary spirals are ul- timately self-defeating. Although most individuals think that 25 percent more income will improve the quality of their lives, at lawyers' salary levels it rarely does. Expectations and desires increase along with income. Moreover, the additional work that is necessary to subsidize higher salaries contributes to lawyers' disproportionate rates of attrition, stress, depression and substance abuse. A preoccupation with profit also pre- vents the kind of public service that would give meaning and purpose to pro- fessional lives. According to ABA surveys, young lawyers' greatest sense of disap- pointment in their careers is the lack of connection to the common good. Pro bone work provides attorneys with a chance for valuable training, trial experience and community contacts in the service of causes they care about. Legal employers need to credit pro bono work toward billable hour require- ments and to value it in promotion and compensation decisions. And law schools need to do more to build a culture of com- mitment among their students. Most now graduate without any pro bone experience. Law is one of the few occupations that offer its members such a significant array of options for doing well and doing good. Pro bone work is an invaluable way of allowing lawyers to reconnect the ideals and institutions of legal practice. I Deborah L. Rhode, a professor and director of the Keck Center on Legal Ethics at Stanford Law School, is chair of the ABA s Commission on Women in the Profession. 120 ABA JOURNAL / NOVEMBER 2000 BY DEBORAH L. RHODE Higher salaries mean more billable hours, which translates into less time available for pro bono. We need to reverse this trend to become again a committed and caring profession. 10 The ABA Journal welcomes contributions to Perspective. Details for submitting commentaries are on the second contents page. Opinions are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect ABA policy. ABAJ/DAVID WEINTRAUB

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