A lawyer should render public interest legal service. A lawyer may discharge this responsibility by providing professional services at no fee or a reduced fee to persons of limited means or to public service or charitable groups or organizations, by service in activities for improving the law, the legal system or the legal profession, and by financial support for organizations that provide legal services to persons of limited means.

-- Missouri Supreme Court Rule 4-6.1

All of you have heard quite a bit from me, and from my predecessors as President of The Missouri Bar, regarding the need and obligation of lawyers to engage in pro bono activities. In fact, the organized bar -- here in Missouri, in other jurisdictions, and nationally -- has placed increased emphasis during the past four or five years on pro bono service by lawyers since severe, ongoing reductions in federal funding for legal services began to adversely affect the ability of legal aid offices to meet the needs of low-income and indigent Missourians.

We know that our pleas havent fallen on deaf ears. Spurred by periodic letters from The Missouri Bar and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Missouri, hundreds of our members have responded with pro bono assistance, including joining panels of volunteer lawyers willing to help ease the burden placed upon the staffs of the six legal aid offices serving Missourians. In the past, we have been able to reasonably determine the number of lawyers volunteering for assistance to legal aid offices, but we have suffered from a void of information as to all the other vast volunteer and pro bono activities of our profession.

It has always been our nagging suspicion -- indeed, a presumption and expectation based upon personal knowledge and visible evidence -- that there are many more Missouri lawyers making a difference in their communities by free or reduced-cost legal services, or a donation of their time and knowledge for the public good. While the number of attorneys serving on volunteer lawyer panels for legal aid offices can be readily documented, we know that Missouri lawyers are doing much, much more -- everything from looking the other way when it comes time to bill a needy client to applying their professional knowledge and judgment in civic activities. Unfortunately, we found ourselves with no way to quantify those efforts.

This proved particularly troublesome in connection with The Missouri Bars efforts to assist in obtaining state funding for civil legal services. When legislators and other officials requested information on the extent of lawyers efforts in this area, we found ourselves at somewhat of a loss, in that we could not document what we thought to be the case. The state, relying at least in part on what The Missouri Bar was saying, has appropriated funds for civil legal services during each of the last two years, and we are working to ensure that funding continues.

Last year, your Board of Governors of The Missouri Bar adopted a policy setting an aspirational goal of 40 hours of pro bono work each year for every lawyer. In addition, the Board asked lawyers to voluntarily report the number of hours of pro bono work they completed. This reporting form was included for the first time in the enrollment statements mailed to Missouri Bar members late last year.

The form asked Missouri Bar members, on a purely voluntary basis, to indicate the approximate number of hours provided by them during the 1997 calendr year in the following categories:

Professional services at no fee or a reduced fee to persons of limited means;

Professional services at no fee or a reduced fee to public service or charitable groups or organizations; and

Service for no compensation for activities to improve the law, the legal system or the legal profession.

Well, the results are now in. We received responses from some 2,000 of our members and the information gleaned from the forms is eye-popping. The number of lawyers responding to the information requested is typical when compared to response rates that bars of other states receive. The information received shows that the lawyers of this state are meeting the challenge, as they in my opinion always have, and perhaps society owes the profession at least a small thank you.

In the first category of information -- furnishing free or low-cost legal services to individuals -- responding lawyers reported a total of 98,971 hours. In the second category, work on behalf of public service or charitable groups, the responses show a total of 61,832 hours of labor. Category 3, representing work to improve the legal system, shows a total of 35,147 hours expended during 1997.

I know that it is frequently claimed that figures can be used to show anything. Well, the figures show that the 2,000 lawyers who responded spent nearly 200,000 hours of their time on pro bono efforts during 1997. That is an average of 100 hours per lawyer -- two and one-half times the 40 hours established as an aspirational goal by the Board of Governors. Financially, what does this mean? If one assumes $100 per hour, it means $20 million! If you assume $50 an hour, it means $10 million; if you assume $10 per hour, it means $2 million. Regardless of which assumption you choose, it is a lot of care and affection from a profession whose members are many times accused of being takers and not givers.

While this gives us at least some concrete information on the extent of pro bono work by Missouri Bar members, it also poses a very important question: What are the other members of The Missouri Bar, who did not return the form, doing in this important area?

Clearly, not every lawyer is able to contribute 100 hours per year to pro bono work. But even assuming that the remaining lawyers are engaging in minimal pro bono work -- either through formal programs or on an informal basis -- the positive impact on our communities has to be tremendous. If those members of the bar who did not voluntarily report their pro bono work are averaging only five hours of pro bono work per year (a wide underestimate), the annual monetary value of that work at $100 per hour is $11 million.

This is not to say that we should rest on our laurels. To the contrary, it is evident that the unmet legal needs of low-income Missourians are increasing. We must continue to emphasize the value, impact, and professional and personal rewards of each individual lawyers pro bono work. While it is clear that our profession is making a difference in this struggle, there is always more that needs to be doneand so much more that we can do.

I urge you to look for opportunities by which you can help promote access to the legal system and justice for all Missourians. I urge you to also continue your involvement in your community and charitable organizations. Further, I urge you to look for the voluntary reporting form in next years dues statement and report your hours of pro bono service. We want to help spread the word about the good you do for all of us. The bar of this great state thanks you, not only for the organized bar, but, more importantly, on behalf of the citizens of the state of Missouri.