Lawyers told to increase pro bono work - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Lawyers told to increase pro bono work - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

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As a founding member of an agency dedicated to providing free legal services to low-income residents, Dick Thornburgh says greater emphasis needs to be placed on attorneys doing volunteer work.

Thornburgh, a former U.S. attorney general and Pennsylvania governor, believes pro bono work should be included among the continuing education requirements Pennsylvania lawyers complete every year.

It's a suggestion he made in Boston last month at the first meeting of the 50-member pro bono task force created by the Legal Services Corp., the national nonprofit created by Congress that provides grants for legal assistance to low-income Americans.

"That's one of the major underserved portions of our population," said Thornburgh, who helped to start Neighborhood Legal Services Association in 1966 to provide civil legal counsel for low-income residents in Allegheny, Butler, Beaver and Lawrence counties.

"It really is a professional responsibility to devote certain amounts of time to pro bono work," he said.

With rapidly dwindling federal and state funds for civil legal services, the demand for free counsel in civil cases remains high in a down economy.

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