Out-of-State Lawyers can do Pro Bono Work in New York

Jonathan Lippman, the chief judge of New York State, announced of a rule change that would allow out-of-state lawyers, who work for large corporations, to do pro-bono work in the state. The change in rules comes into immediate effect from Wednesday. With this step, New York becomes the fourth US state to allow out-of-state lawyers to offer pro-bono services.

Lippman was enthusiastic that the rule change would make a significant difference in closing the justice gap for the poor. Emphasizing that charities like the Legal Aid Society are able to provide lawyers to only one in five people seeking legal help, Lippman commented, "There is such a tremendous talent pool that we will be unleashing with this rule." The announcement of this rule change was made during a speech by Lippman at the New York University Law School.

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Pointing out that about 80 percent of impoverished people lack suitable legal help and those previous rules prevented thousands of corporate and in-house lawyers from volunteering their services, Lippman asked, "This is a group that wants to contribute. Why should we be putting obstacles in their way?"

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According to his estimates, the rule change would allow the nonprofit legal services sector to tap into a pool of about 5,000 highly competent volunteers. The rule change promoted by Lippman not only drew wide support from the state and city bar associations, but also of big businesses. The committee helping to draft the rule had senior counsel for PepsiCo, Verizon, Xerox and Pfizer on board.

This new rule applies to lawyers in good standing in another state or U.S Territory or the District of Columbia. The volunteers admitted under the new rule changes would be able to counsel and act both in civil and criminal cases. Many other steps to increase free legal work have been taken by court officials, which require lawyers to put in 50 hours of pro bono service before getting a New York law license. This is an annual goal set for all lawyers. According to the Legal Aid Society of New York, while the society helped about 48,000 people last year in civil matters, it turned at least eight times as many away, because of the shortage of volunteer lawyers.