Written by Aaron Lewis
A recent article in the June 6, 2011, Daily Journal reported that “Just Four Percent of Lawyers Give to Legal Aid Groups Fund.”
Odgers chairs the committee that oversees the Fund, so he is clearly invested in rectifying this situation. But Odgers’ sense of embarrassment clearly does not seem to extend to his colleagues. The Fund brought in $809,000 this year. According to the California State Bar website, there are nearly 172,000 active lawyers in the state. If each of them were to heed the call of the California Bar, at $100 each, this would represent over 17 million dollars. This is clearly a high aspirational goal, but it shows what could be accomplished if attorneys in California took this obligation seriously.
The Article quotes Jeffery S. Davidson, a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, who believes that the giving rate “should be 100 percent, or close to it.” The Article also notes that “although the bar declined to give a firm-by-firm breakdown of contributions, the statistics showed there were eight unnamed large firms whose attorneys made no donations to the fund.”
Several years ago, Fenwick & West LLP most commendably decided to donate the $100 on behalf of all their associates and encourage partners to give as well. According to the National Association of Legal Professionals (NALP), Fenwick & West has 137 associates in their California offices. At $100 each, this comes to $137,000 dollars annually. That is 16% of what the Justice Gap fund received last year – attributable to just one firm. To be sure, not all of California’s 172,000 attorneys are practicing in law firms, but firms are a good place to start. They certainly have the resources. According to the New York Times recently, profits per partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan rose to 3.62 million dollars in 2010.[1] A change in “biglaw” policy and firm culture can quickly mobilize those resources.
So shouldn’t the commission overseeing the Fund ask Quinn Emanuel partners to follow Fenwick & West’s example and give $100 per associate? The Article quotes Commission co-chair, David E. Hopmann, as saying that “the Commission has been cautious about demanding too much from the law firms for fear of undercutting firm donations to individual legal aid organizations.”
This instinct is particularly infuriating. Though cliché, this is a classic example of not speaking truth to power. Large firms and their clients have the money, the access, and the power. To think that the poorest of Californians who need basic legal services should not ask too forcefully is galling. Large firms are, at best, the most complicit in the status quo, and at worst are the most active in maintaining the justice gap, depending on your level of cynicism.
Furthermore, there is some question as to the scale of firms’ donations to legal aid organizations, especially at a time when the recession has put so much pressure on the underserved. In a survey of legal aid programs, the California State Bar reported that there have been “drops in law firm donations ranging from 15 to 70 percent as compared to past years...”[2] Legal aid donations seem to be first on the chopping block at a time when California families are confronting foreclosures and unemployment.
Large law firms represent clients with all the money. They go where the business is. So be it – no one can blame this in itself, and no one expects a firm to have Mother Teresa as managing partner. But these firms should acknowledge and take responsibility for the inherent inequality that their business creates. It is not enough to tout their commitment to providing pro bono efforts. I encourage them to show a genuine commitment to underserved communities in California by donating $100 per associate and partner to the Justice Gap fund.
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