Charitable Deductions for Pro Bono Publico Professional Services: An Updated Carrot and Stick Approach
![handle is hein.journals/tlr50 and id is 463 raw text is: TEXAS LAW REVIEW
VOLUME 50 MARcH 1972 NUMBER 3
CHARITABLE DEDUCTIONS FOR PRO BONO PUBLICO
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES: AN UPDATED
CARROT AND STICK APPROACH
PETER D. BAIRD*
Although charitable contributions of money or property may
produce income tax deductions, contributions of services to
charity traditionally have not been deductible. The author
contends that the increasing need for free professional services
mandates congressional experimentation with charitable de-
ductions for professional services.
To a significant degree, lawyers and other professionals work for
lucre. Until the proper economic incentive can be found, America's
pro bono legal problems will be handled largely, if at all, by a patch-
work of traditional legal aid societies, government programs, a few
public interest law firms, foundations, a variety of special interest
organizations, and some private practitioners.' This m6lange has been
unable to do the entire job, especially for the poor.2
One answer is obvious. The private law firms, with their numbers,
0 Member of the State Bar of Arizona. B.A., 1963, Carleton College; LL.B., 1966,
Stanford. The author is grateful for the assistance of many at his law firm, particularly
John P. Frank, Paul M. Roca, and Arthur P. Allsworth, and of his lawyer and wife, Sara
Baird.
I See 42 U.S.C. §§ 2701-2994 (1970); Samore, Legal Services for the Poor, 32 ALBANY L.
REv. 509 (1967-68); Voorhees, Legal Aid: Past, Present and Future, 56 A.B.A.J. 765 (1970);
Wilging, Financial Barriers and the Access of Indigents to the Courts, 57 GEo. L.J. 253
(1968); Comment, The New Public Interest Lawyers, 79 YALE L.J. 1069 (1970).
2The traditional pro bono publico role of the private attorney and the efforts of
government and privately supported legal aid have proved insufficient to meet the needs
of unrepresented individuals and interests who are locked in the poverty cycle and unable
to secure legal services. Ashman & Woodard, Private Law Firms Serve the Poor, 56
A.B.A.J. 565 (1970). Despite the broadening of the legal aid program, in many cities and
less populous areas the poor have few, if any, legal services from organized legal aid
available to them, and equal justice is a reality in much less than half of the major com-
munities of the country. Voorhees, supra note 1, at 767. [There aren't enough lawyers
to serve poor people .... Wexler, Practicing Law for Poor People, 79 YALE L.J. 1049,
1055 (1970). [T]his vast program appears only to have scratched the surface of the wide-
spread need for such services .... It has been estimated that between 14 and 20 million
legal problems of the poor each year merit the attention of a lawyer. Wilging, supra
note 1, at 268, 269. See Comment, Unavailability of Lawyer's Services for Low Income
Persons, 4 VALPARAiSO U.L. REv. 308 (1970).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/tlr50&div=27&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
What Is HeinOnline?
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Charitable Deductions for Pro Bono Publico Professional Services: An Updated Carrot and Stick Approach
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most