HAS THE TIME COME TO REVISE OUR PRO BONO RULES?

Rule 6.1 of the Colorado Rules of Professional Conduct, and the same-numbered rule of the American Bar Association's Model Rules of Professional Conduct, focus on a lawyer's professional responsibility to those unable to pay. The rules have a dual focus: to encourage lawyers to provide voluntary, or pro bono, service to poor people or organizations that assist poor people (as well as encouraging other types of volunteer service) and to urge lawyers to financially contribute to organizations that provide legal services to persons of limited means. However, these aspirational rules, not mandatory, have fallen short in meeting these goals. This Article reviews the history of these rules, their ambiguities, and how the limited current information about both pro bono service and financial contributions to organizations that provide legal services to the poor suggest that the amount of pro bono service by lawyers in Colorado and elsewhere may actually be decreasing. The Article then recommends that the rules be revised to require lawyers to (1) focus their pro bono service on organizations providing pro bono service to indigent clients and (2) contribute annually pro bono service, financial support, or a combination of the two. Specifically, the proposed revisions to the rules would require that pro bono service be provided either to recognized pro bono programs or to persons of modest means. In addition, the revised rules would provide for an increase in attorney registration fees, in the amount of $500 per year,(1) with the proviso that the amount can be reduced at the rate of $10 per hour for each hour of pro bono service provided to a recognized pro bono program as defined in C.R.C.P. 250.9(2), or at the rate of $5 per hour for each hour of service provided at a substantially reduced fee to persons whose household income is less than 400% of the federal poverty guidelines. Finally, the $500 increase in registration fees would be paid to the Colorado Supreme Court or a pro bono organization listed in C.R.C.P. 250.9(2). Although these proposed changes will not eliminate the access to justice gap, they would better serve the goals of the pro bono rules by significantly increasing available resources to meet the legal needs of the poor and those of modest means.