A new model of how law firms do good is emerging, one that delights clients and talent, is profitable, and captures the work that many firms are already doing. This new model—serving social impact clients and achieving social impact through direct firm undertakings—embraces the role of lawyers as the architects of social innovation. At scale, it creates new practices within firms and throughout the profession to serve a growing market of social impact clients and expands the model of how firms “do good.”

Pro Bono Important but Limiting

When describing how firms do good, most attorneys understandably cite pro bono practices. Pro bono (providing legal services without charge) has always been the primary way law firms and attorneys serve those with the most urgent unmet legal needs.

But pro bono alone is no longer a sufficient framework, nor metric, to capture the increasingly diverse ways in which firms are evolving to achieve greater social impact. The rest of the private sector has grown beyond traditional corporate social responsibility (using profits to do good) into more integrated social impact approaches that merge the business model with social purpose.

Similarly, law firms are evolving beyond pro bono alone in how they serve social impact clients. The new social impact model for law firms has two primary components: 1) social impact client services; and 2) direct firm undertakings for social good.

Social Impact Client Services

A large market of social impact clients has emerged and, with it, an increasing demand for sophisticated legal support. While inclusive of nonprofits and other traditional pro bono clients, the social impact market consists of increasingly larger, more diverse and better-funded paying clients.