Apparently, torturers, like anyone else, hate bad publicity on the Web and like to keep their e-mail boxes tidy. Compared to the paper-bound alternative, it was less expensive, less work for the volunteers and more effective toward the goal. Perhaps Amnesty International s campaign reached new people people who could rarely find the time to get out a letter but who could manage to send an e-mail. Lawyers in the trenches of pro bono work, though, know that technology can t always produce results as dramatic as Amnesty s recent victory. In general, when it comes to legal pro bono matters, the same old problems remain.
Lawyers have little time and get little recognition for much of their pro bono work.
These matters are considered, rightly or wrongly, to be less intellectually stimulating than sexy transactions or litigation matters. Moreover, many practitioners feel unqualified, or too uncomfortable, to handle the basic benefits matters, family law, bankruptcies or consumer issues that are the foundations of pro bono work. The other big problem, he acknowledges, is time. All of us are pressed for time marketers call it time poverty. Carolyn Elefant, a solo energy law practitioner in Washington, D.C., became appalled at the lack of Web resources dedicated to pro bono matters a couple of years ago.