Pro Bono Opportunities
Pro Bono Legal Services Program
The Faculty has adopted a voluntary student pro bono legal service standard under which every student is encouraged to provide a minimum of 80 hours of pro bono legal service prior to the time of graduation.
"Pro bono legal service" is defined as work involving the provision of legal service that is performed without either financial compensation or academic credit. Examples include such work for legal services providers, individual lawyers providing pro bono service, social service agencies, low income organizations, civil rights organizations, environmental organizations, consumer organizations, and governmental agencies providing service to individual members of the public who are disadvantaged. Partisan political activity is not included in the definition of "pro bono legal services."
These guidelines and a list of organizations deemed to comply with the definition of "pro bono service" will be located in the Career Services Office. Additional organizations may be proposed to the Pro Bono Committee and, if approved, will become part of the Guidelines in the Career Services Office. Proposals shall be submitted to the Career Services Office and forwarded to the Pro Bono Committee for approval by a majority vote.
Pro bono hours shall be submitted to the Career Services Office. Every student will have her/his own time sheet kept in Career Services. It will be the student's responsibility to update the sheet monthly. The Career Services Office, working under the authorization of the Pro Bono Committee, reserves the right to review all time sheets submitted.
Although pro bono work by first-year students, as well as by upper class students, will be credited in calculating the 80-hour voluntary standard, first-year students are cautioned not to attempt too much outside work of any kind, but to devote primary time and attention to their studies.
The Faculty has further authorized the Pro Bono Committee to adopt a plan to recognize those students who provide 80 hours of pro bono legal service prior to graduation. Satisfaction of the 80 hours will be determined by the Career Services Office and reviewed by the Pro Bono Committee.
Tracking Your Pro Bono Hours
Dowload the form you'll need to complete to track your Pro Bono hours here. Once completed, please visit the Career Services Office for instructions on filing your tracking sheets.
View a list of approved organizations here (coming soon). If the organization you'd like to volunteer for is not listed, please visit the CSO for further instructions.
Learning to Serve Program
Interested in doing pro bono work? Gain valuable experience and help people!
Learning To Serve is a new collaboration that will pair second- and third-year law students with Volunteer Lawyers Project pro bono attorneys to provide representation to low-income Mainers. In this win-win arrangement, the law student will receive hands-on training by working on an actual pro bono case, while the pro bono attorney will benefit from the assistance of the law student.
Law student tasks may include legal research, drafting pleadings, completing forms, and participating in and observing client interviews and court proceedings.
If you are interested in working with a VLP attorney, please contact Derek directly at 780-4889 or derekv@usm.maine.edu.
