The responsibility set forth in this Rule is not intended to be enforced through disciplinary process. There was no counterpart of this Rule in the Disciplinary Rules of the Model Code. Every lawyer, regardless of professional prominence or professional work load, should find time to participate in serving the disadvantaged. A lawyer ordinarily is not obliged to accept a client whose character or cause the lawyer regards as repugnant. The lawyer's freedom to select clients is, however, sometimes qualified.
All lawyers have a responsibility to assist in providing pro bono public service.
See Rule 6.1. An individual lawyer fulfills this responsibility by accepting a fair share of unpopular matters or indigent or unpopular clients. A lawyer may also be subject to appointment by a court to serve unpopular or repugnant clients or causes or persons unable to afford legal services. For good cause a lawyer may seek to decline an appointment to represent a person who cannot afford to retain counsel or whose cause is unpopular. Good cause exists if the lawyer could not handle the matter competently, see Rule 1.1, or if undertaking the representation would result in an improper conflict of interest, for example, when the client or the cause is so repugnant to the lawyer as to be likely to impair the lawyer-client relationship or the lawyer's ability to represent the client.