Across 126 large firms, including marquee names in BigLaw, attorneys did 4.6 million hours of pro bono work, down from 5.4 million hours the year before, according to the institute's Law Firm Pro Bono Project. That's despite an increase in firms reporting their numbers for 2021 than 2020 and in the average firm head count.
"This year shows that growth in law firm pro bono is not something that we can take for granted, especially after a banner year like 2020," the institute's CEO, Eve Runyon, said in a statement. "Considering the need for pro bono, exacerbated over the past couple of years, firms should consider if they are providing the support and space for lawyers to fully engage in pro bono."
Over the last decade, law firms have generally reported increases in the number of hours worked on pro bono matters, with a significant uptick at the onset of the pandemic. Attorneys, however, collectively worked 14% fewer hours last year.
Across the U.S., 92% of the serious civil legal needs of low-income people went unmet in 2021, a study from the Legal Services Corporation found.
Firms refocused from pro bono work to charitable giving in 2021, raising their average charitable contribution by 25% to $576,090. That increase may reflect BigLaw's booming revenues that year, as well as historically high volumes of work that likely left less time for anything outside client matters.
Before 2020, the previous high-water mark for pro bono hours was in 2009, when the financial crisis was hitting hard. Another contributing factor to prolific pro bono work in 2020 may have been less demand for legal services and more free time to spend on pro bono due to economic uncertainty, as in 2009.
Attorneys at the firms that reported their pro bono statistics spent an average of 55.1 hours on pro bono work in 2021, down from 69.2 hours per attorney the year before. That's an average of 3.32% of firms' total billable hours being devoted to pro bono.
Virtually all respondent firms — 99% — said they had maintained or increased their commitments to racial justice work since 2020. But this statement wasn't associated with any particular definition of racial justice work, so it is "impossible to quantify the level of resources being devoted to racial justice," the report said.
2020 was a year of exceptionally high pro bono participation during a pandemic and an economic crisis, a mass popular uprising for racial justice, and an election year. But problems don't go away when a highly publicized crisis fades into the rearview mirror, the report said.
"While the legal needs related to the pandemic may have subsided or shifted in some areas, it continues to impact many underserved communities," the report read.
For pro bono to be effective, the report said, firms and attorneys need to look beyond the precise moments when an issue makes headlines and consider the long term. Racial justice is just one example.
"Racial justice can hardly be considered a new issue. Indeed, it is a chronic issue that has historically attracted attention in waves," the report read. "In recent years, this issue has once again risen to the forefront and is getting increasing national and global attention that needs to be sustained on many fronts."
--Editing by Karin Roberts. Graphics by Ben Jay.