BigLaw + Law School = Collaborative, Nonprofit Law Firm

The Georgetown University Law Center, pictured, has partnered with Arent Fox and DLA Piper to form a nonprofit law firm accessible to lower income clients in an effort to make the law more accessible to those in need of legal assistance. Photo credit: M. Ciavardini

 

I am intrigued by the collaboration of my law school alma mater, Georgetown University Law Center, and two for-profit law firms that, together, have launched a “low bono” nonprofit law firm intended for clients whose incomes are between 200 and 400 percent above the poverty line. Part of an industry-wide awareness that the law needs to become more accessible to many people who cannot afford legal fees at standard rates, but who typically don’t qualify for free representation through legal aid organizations, the initiative pairs Georgetown with two BigLaw firms, Arent Fox and DLA Piper. It will be staffed by LL.M fellows at Georgetown with BigLaw lawyers training and supervising on a pro bono basis. Even more interesting is that leadership of the newly formed organization, the D.C. Affordable Law Firm, is looking to include nonlawyers as well in some way. It’s an exciting path given the realization that not only does the law need to be more accessible, but law does not operate in a silo; it overlaps with business, social needs, and so on—so why not make different types of professionals more accessible, too?

This sort of law school/law firm collaboration could become a trend. After the Georgetown/Arent Fox/DLA Piper initiative was announced, a number of New York law firms, the City University of New York School of Law, and the New York City Bar Association disclosed another “low bono” collaboration called Court Square that will also feature legal fellows working for clients of modest income under the mentorship of lawyers. These fellows will also be learning how to run a small law practice.

Exciting times in the legal industry, indeed.

—Lori Tripoli

Interested in how the legal industry is evolving? You might like these posts:

• The Takeaway from the Dewey Mistrial
•  Mistakes that Small Law Firms Make
•  How to Thrive in the Diminishing World of the Legal Business
•  How to Survive a Depression, a Recession, and a Free-Fall Plummet
•  Lawyers, Make the Most of Market Unrest

 

Were Law Firms Prepared Enough for Hurricane Sandy?

The news that New York’s Sullivan & Cromwell is just now reopening its Manhattan office and that other major law firms remain closed serve as cogent reminders that, even as the rest of the nation has moved on to other big news stories, the tri-state area surrounding the Big Apple remains hard-hit by Hurricane Sandy. Law firms in and out of the region would be served well not only to dust off their own emergency preparedness plans but to update their firm rosters. Remember to include a communications component: If the firm’s offices remain shut, who will contact employees, clients, opposing counsel, and courts? If the office is closed, where is the firm’s incoming mail going? Who will oversee the rebuilding of the firm?  Who will get paid while the firm’s doors are shut?

Always, many elements of a crisis will be impossible to predict—their breadth, duration, extent. Those firms struggling right now as a result of Sandy would do well, once the immediate crisis has passed, to reassess their preparedness. What went right? What went wrong? What do they know now that they’d wish they’d known before? Were people personally affected by the storm able to lead sufficiently in the aftermath of the storm? Should an alternative power structure have been in place? Did your information technology team function as well as you wanted it to?

Law firms looking to provide pro bono assistance to victims of Hurricane Sandy might visit here.

—Lori Tripoli