After a decade of hefty, often double-digit, increases, the growth of The Am Law 200′s pro bono commitment slowed in 2009. Am Law 200 firms logged 5.7 million hours of pro bono work last year, a 2 percent increase from 2008. Average hours per lawyer was flat, and the percentage of lawyers with 20 hours or more of pro bono work dipped 1 percent, to 47.5.
Given the associate layoffs and aggressive cost-cutting that marked 2009, the mostly steady results were a welcome development. “That’s pretty good news,” says Esther Lardent, president of The Pro Bono Institute. “There’s been more turmoil and upheaval in the legal industry than at any time we can remember. Some firms struggled with pro bono, others did even better.”
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