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In-house counsel urges pro bono rule change

By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//April 14, 2016//

In-house counsel urges pro bono rule change

By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//April 14, 2016//

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In-house lawyers who are registered but not licensed in Wisconsin  could perform pro bono legal services in state under a proposed rule the Supreme Court considered Wednesday.

The Supreme Court justices heard public comments Tuesday about a petition intended to encourage more lawyers to do pro bono legal work.

The petition’s first provision would let lawyers licensed in the state earn continuing legal-education credit for the performance of pro bono work. The second would let in-house counsel who are licensed in others states but only registered in Wisconsin do pro bono legal work in Wisconsin.

That second provision is long overdue, said Eve Runyon, director of Corporate Pro Bono, a nonprofit group created by a partnership between the Association of Corporate Counsel and the Pro Bono Institute. She said there has been a great increase in recent years in the number of in-house lawyers who are seeking to do pro bono work.

Many lawyers, Runyon said, are leaving law firms that have established pro bono programs and taking positions as in-house attorneys. After the change, many find they want to continue giving back to the community. Also, many of the companies now hiring in-house lawyers are placing a greater emphasis on corporate responsibility.

Under Wisconsin’s current rules, registered in-house attorneys can only provide pro bono legal services through a legal aid society. The proposal before the Supreme Court on Wednesday would instead let registered in-house lawyers represent a charitable organization or perform similar work without the need to have a legal-aid organization step in as an intermediary.

Runyon, as well as other representatives of in-house and corporate counsel, including counsel from Brookfield-based Fiserv and Madison-based CUNA Mutual Group, said they support the petition. Still, they asked for modifications clarifying that the rules that would apply to registered in-house attorneys for pro bone work differ from those for lawyers who are licensed in Wisconsin and want to perform pro bono work in order to obtain continuing legal-education credit. The changes considered Wednesday would let licensed lawyers get those credits only for pro bono work performed through a legal-aid service and for clients who might lack the means to pay for legal representation.

The justices were scheduled to debate the rule change later in the day during an open rules conference. The State Bar of Wisconsin filed the petition, which proposes giving attorneys one continuing-education credit for every five hours of pro bono work they perform and up to six credits from pro bono work within a two-year period.

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