Awards, Including Forms/Information on the 2008 Pro Bono, Goffman and Ernico Awards
Pro Bono News
PBA Pro Bono-Related Committees
County Pro Bono Activities and Other Pro Bono Resources
Pro Bono Annual Conferences and Seminars
IOLTA (Interest on Lawyer Trust Accounts)

Welcome to the Pro Bono Home Page of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Web site! This home page is designed to be an informational resource for lawyers interested in helping the most needy among us access justice in civil matters. It provides news articles about events promoting pro bono across Pennsylvania. It also highlights opportunities both to celebrate lawyers actively involved in pro bono service and to involve those lawyers just beginning their pro bono efforts.

The home page was developed by the PBA Pro Bono Coordinator, who is responsible for assisting local bar associations, legal-services programs and other groups that offer pro bono civil legal aid across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Please take a few minutes to explore this area and see what the PBA has to offer. The unmet civil legal needs of the commonwealth’s poor are enormous. As such, Pennsylvania’s legal community uses many different approaches to meet those needs. To begin with, pro bono programs exist at the local level across the state, reflecting a partnership between local bar associations, local legal services providers and statewide specialty programs. Pro bono referrals, reduced-fee representation (low bono), pro se clinics, partnerships with other service providers and fund raising for legal-services programs are among the many ways Pennsylvania lawyers fulfill their obligation to give back to the community by helping to meet the civil legal needs of the poor. In addition, lawyers provide free and reduced-fee civil legal aid to the needy outside of such programs and in counties where no organized programs are established.

PBA members do far more than just provide representation and advice each year to the thousands who would otherwise have their access to justice blocked — they also screen and refer clients; recruit, train, mentor and honor volunteers; prepare educational and pro se materials; and lead fundraising efforts.

Although there is some type of pro bono activity in every county in the state, each county’s approach to pro bono is unique. Please check out the County Pro Bono Activities section of this Web site to find out what is happening in a particular county.

For general pro bono questions e-mail PBA Pro Bono Coordinator David Keller Trevaskis at david.trevaskis@pabar.org .