Students learn about Akin Gump's Pro Bono Scholar Program
Story and photo by Maria Iacobo
What is pro bono work like in a law firm? Why is it so important that lawyers engage in pro bono work?
Steve Shulman, Akin Gump’s first full-time pro bono partner, leads the firm’s pro bono practice worldwide. He recently visited USC Gould to discuss Akin Gump’s Pro Bono Scholar Program and the significant value pro bono work brings to individuals and organizations in desperate need of legal representation.
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| Steve Schulman |
“You are coming out of law school at a time when pro bono work at major U.S. law firms has never been more vibrant,” Schulman said. “One thing you should be very optimistic about is your ability to marry a successful commercial law career with the ability to do great pro bono work.”
The Akin Gump Summer Pro Bono Scholars Program is for top law students who show a strong interest in making pro bono an integral part of their careers. The program takes place over two summers for rising second- and third-year students; during the first summer, students work initially at the firm for a few weeks and at a public interest organization the remainder of the summer, while during the second summer the students are members of the firm’s regular summer associate program. The program takes place in their Washington, D.C., New York, Los Angeles, Houston and Dallas offices.
“In a lot of ways, my career has reflected this growth of pro bono practice,” Schulman said. “When I graduated from law school [in 1994], virtually nobody did pro bono work. But, as time went on, firms started to recognize that pro bono work could really be an important part of their firm culture.”
And it isn’t limited to just a handful of firms. Schulman notes that last year the largest 200 grossing firms in the country donated almost 5 million hours of pro bono work. Schulman drew some laughs when he said he recognized that the students were going to be lawyers and that might not be equated with an aptitude for math, so he said those numbers reflected about 2,500 lawyers each working 2,000 hours per year.
Schulman joined Akin Gump nearly seven years ago and has built a successful pro bono practice. Schulman said his firm averaged 89 pro bono hours per lawyer in their Washington, D.C., office last year; the Los Angeles office averaged 110 hours per lawyer working in pro bono last year.
“I can say I’m most proud of the fact that our pro bono practice is not limited to one practice area or one office,” Schulman said. “We’re strong across all practice groups.”
The firm practices a variety of public interest work including asylum and immigration cases, representing charter schools, and working with victims of human rights abuses.
“It bears repeating and is incumbent on us as members of this profession to repeat it to others in the world: you can lose your children, have your home foreclosed or be evicted from your apartment, be deported from the United States even if you’ve lived here for virtually your whole life – all without being represented by a lawyer. That is pretty remarkable that those kinds of things that are so key to our civil life here in the United States can happen to you without a lawyer,” Schulman said.
“It is a real promising side of our profession that the largest law firms in our country have really stepped up to provide these key legal services,” Schulman said.
First-year law students interested in the program should submit an application and provide the other necessary documentation to be considered for a pro bono scholarship for the coming summer. For more information about the Pro Bono Scholars Program, including how to apply, please visit http://www.akingump.com/probono/probonoscholarsprogram.
The application deadline is Feb. 18, 2013.
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