It is National Pro Bono Celebration Week so I thought I would write about law school pro bono pledges and student volunteering. The AALS has published: “Handbook on Law School Pro Bono Programs” (June 2001), but I am not aware of studies that compare pro bono hours pre vs. post pro bono pledge programs.
Getting students to do volunteer work as part of a law school class can add a lot to the classroom discussions as students have experiences they can share with their peers (though when you are getting course credit, the label “pro bono” may be questionable). Nevertheless, it seems that professors can play an important role getting students to volunteer. One problem I ran into — or rather my wife ran into — was that some schools (hers was a non-law school) require students volunteer as part of their degree programs for course credit but then, and this is the issue, charge the students as if they were actually taking a class. Since at most such volunteer activity involves a slight administrative procedure for the school’s registrar, it seems unfair and even wrong to add to student debt or charges the full cost of a regular class. (My wife was covered by a spousal tuition remission program, but other students are not so lucky.)
If we think getting students to volunteer and developing in them a “pro bono” habit is a good thing, it would be great if schools removed as many financial and structural barriers as they can.
-Thanks to Kate Bladow at technola blog (http://www.techno.la) for the heads up about this week. Check out technola blog for more pro bono posts.
Poverty Law 
Ezra – Some law schools charge students to do required volunteering? Wow! It would be great if someone from the ABA or another national entity drew some attention to this issue and got law schools to change it. – K