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Pro Bono in the Private Sector 8 Emerging Pro Bono Practices 8

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Pro Bono in the Private Sector 8 Emerging Pro Bono Practices 8 GIVING HOPE AND DIGNITY TO THE POOR: The story of ProBono.Org Case Study Case study conducted for The Atlantic Philanthropies September 2009 Written by Tom Lebert, Umhlaba Associates Hospice Palliative Care Association of South Africa (HPCASA)/ProBono.Org meeting, November 2008 Photograph: Helen McDonald Key HPCASA Hospice Palliative Care Association of South Africa LAB Legal Aid Board LHR Lawyers for Human Rights LRC Legal Resources Centre NGO Non-governmental organisation PILCH Public Interest Law Clearing House PLWHA People living with HIV and Aids SAHRC South African Human Rights Commission 2 GIVING HOPE AND DIGNITY TO THE POOR: THE STORY OF PROBONO.ORG Table of Contents I. Introduction 5 II. Background and Context to the Establishment of ProBono.Org 7 The decline of the public interest legal sector 7 Pro bono in the private sector 8 Emerging pro bono practices 8 III. The Establishment and Operations of ProBono.Org 11 Piloting the clearing house model 11 Setting-up ProBono.Org 11 The ProBono.Org Board 14 ProBono.Org and the clearing house model 15 ProBono.Org staff capacity 15 Current approaches and strategies 16 Networking and relationships with fraternal organisations 19 Funding 21 Impact and outcomes 21 IV. Benefits of the Clearing House Model 23 V. Challenges and Lessons Learned 25 VI. Conclusion 27 GIVING HOPE AND DIGNITY TO THE POOR: THE STORY OF PROBONO.ORG 3 Odette Geldenhuys, founder and director of ProBono.Org Photograph: Helen McDonald 4 GIVING HOPE AND DIGNITY TO THE POOR: THE STORY OF PROBONO.ORG I. Introduction “ Law firms and bar n South Africa, immigrants, farm workers, the rural poor, and the gay community are among the population groups regularly denied access to councils may seem to Irights, services and justice. be these monolithic The Atlantic Philanthropies supports organisations that use the law to ensure access for the rural poor to the rights and services promised to them institutions, but under the democratic Constitution. In practice, this means support for they are made up organisations providing free legal advice and support to indigent people in of real people with rural communities. In some cases the organisations engage in high-impact litigation to effect change, as well as in lobbying and advocacy to influence different personalities, policy. strengths and sets The Atlantic Philanthropies programme seeks to: • support a small cluster of best practice public interest and human rights of expertise. In non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and law firms, selected on the the last two years, basis of geographical reach and niche activities. This will guarantee the target group a sustainable, national infrastructure of legal support the attorneys and • support this cluster with an institution-building programme inter alia to advocates who have secure the longer-term sustainability of participating grantees taken on pro bono • promote networking and coalition-building among the supported grantees to identify key issues impacting most adversely upon the matters, have done so livelihoods of the target group that can realistically be remedied legally with professionalism - • engage private law firms to provide pro bono legal support to NGOs engaging in public interest law, and and care” • partner with the Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies to develop an Odette Geldenhuys, director ProBono.Org advocacy strategy with regard to these issues. One of the organisations supported in The Atlantic Philanthropies programme is the non-profit clearing house ProBono.Org, the first public interest law clearing house in South Africa. ProBono.Org aims to increase access to justice via the pro bono services of law firms and advocates, with an emphasis on public interest matters. ProBono.Org has to look to the United States and Australia for role models. GIVING HOPE AND DIGNITY TO THE POOR: THE STORY OF PROBONO.ORG 5 Sharon Pillay (left), public interest law attorney at ProBono.Org, with a client Photograph: Helen McDonald ProBono.Org seeks to harness the vast, specialised resources of the private legal profession to extend and enhance public access to justice. At present “ProBono.Org offers government’s Legal Aid Board (LAB) and public interest legal NGOs offer limited access to justice. Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke endorsed a unique opportunity the work and objectives of ProBono.Org at its formal launch at Constitution for legal practitioners Hill in May 2007: to make meaningful There is a need for ProBono.Org like yesterday. The claims of the ordinary impact on the lives people are not reaching the Constitutional Court […] ProBono.Org is most of the poor. I am welcome. These lawyers are doing great services […] The poor are not getting the fruits of the growing economy. Yes, the safety net may have increased honoured to be but ProBono.Org needs to identify strategically that, which will advance the associated with an disadvantaged. If not, poor people know how to look after themselves. They will find other means. We have a duty to get them to use the measured means organisation that offered by the court. The legal means. strives to improve the This case study, written as an easily accessible ‘how-to’ manual or primer quality of life of the for human rights activists and organisations, tells the story of ProBono.Org’s poor and marginalised” establishment and strategies. The case study shares the organisation’s insights Sharon Pillay , ProBono.Org through interviews with ProBono.Org staff, staff in participating law firms and other stakeholders. 6 GIVING HOPE AND DIGNITY TO THE POOR: THE STORY OF PROBONO.ORG II. Background and Context to the Establishment of ProBono.Org he initial piloting and subsequent establishment of ProBono.Org as “After 1994, when a public interest law clearing house took place within a particular funding dried up T context. After 1994 there was a growing focus on increasing access to legal services against the backdrop of a declining public interest legal sector further, it became very and negligible participation by the private sector. The following section gives hard for the public a broad sketch of the context, noting key developments that provided a interest legal sector favourable environment for the emergence of ProBono.Org. to fulfill its function The decline of the public interest legal and promote expanded sector access to justice” Advice offices, community organisations, trade unions, NGOs - such as the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) and Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) - as well as law firms play an important role in improving access to legal services and justice in South Africa. In many cases, advice offices are linked to the formal outreach structures of government’s LAB offices, set up throughout the country. The transition to democracy and the establishment of a rights-based dispensation proved very difficult for this sector, despite the fact that it offers an invaluable service. Ever-diminishing funding flows resulted in reduced scale and coverage and, for instance, in the closure of the National Community- Based Paralegal Association. Now, university-based legal support institutions are playing an increasingly important service role. Under the former dispensation, public interest or pro bono legal services were provided mainly through funded organisations and there was no real pressure on the private legal profession to contribute. As a result, pro bono was not used to broaden access to justice. After 1994, when funding dried up further, it became very hard for the public interest legal sector to fulfill its function and promote expanded access to justice. GIVING HOPE AND DIGNITY TO THE POOR: THE STORY OF PROBONO.ORG 7 Nevertheless, after 1994, justice was firmly on the public agenda and the “Following the following positive developments took place: • the legal sector discussed compulsory community service adoption of the • law societies put pro bono on their agendas, and pro bono rule by the • government revamped the LAB to improve access to justice. Cape Law Society in Now the key question was: How could private law firms get involved? 2003, Webber Wentzel Pro bono in the private sector recruited a long- In 2002 LHR hosted a pro bono conference, inviting both NGOs and private standing, former LRC law firms to interrogate how to take the access to justice agenda forward. The staff member with conference gave private law firms a better understanding of how they could contribute. extensive experience Following this, LHR and the Law Society of South Africa set up a website. Law in public interest firms could register or volunteer their pro bono services. Unfortunately, at the litigation to set up a time, private law firms still responded poorly. However, at two subsequent meetings convened by corporate law firms, the pro bono department” idea of pro bono work started to take root. The New York Bar and large private law firms were invited by Webber Wentzel to discuss pro bono and the clearing house approach in 2004. Soon this was followed by a meeting of large law firms, hosted by Cliffe Dekker Inc, to which NGOs and public interest lawyers were also invited. Since then a number of private law firms took the institutionalisation of pro bono in the profession to heart. In 2003 the Cape Law Society adopted a compulsory pro bono ruling, requiring its members to work pro bono 24 hours per year. The Eastern Cape and KwaZulu Natal Law Societies followed suit. By 2008, the last regional law society, the Northern Provinces Law Society, had also adopted the rule. In 2005 the Johannesburg Bar Council was the first among this fraternity to promote a 20 hours per year pro bono rule to its members. Emerging pro bono practices Although pro bono practice is not yet widespread in South Africa there are firms and practitioners who are leading by example. Formalising and institutionalising pro bono created a greater impetus in this regard, setting up the beginnings of a culture of pro bono work in the private legal sector.
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