Opinion ID: 1263060
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the formation of voluntary pools to represent indigent defendants is encouraged.

Text: Attorneys are licensed by the Supreme Court of the State of Oklahoma to practice law, and an attorney owes his/her first duty to the Court. Likewise, the Court has an immediate interest in the character and the function of the bar  a good bar is necessary for a good bench. [26] We applaud individual attorneys or associations of attorneys who volunteer to provide either pro bono legal representation or representation of indigent defendants at rates which may be drastically under the market value of the lawyers skills and services. It reflects pride in the practice of law, and it exemplifies the best of many virtues found in the practicing bar. The provision of legal services to indigents is one of the responsibilities assumed by the legal profession, and personal involvement in the problems of the disadvantaged can be one of the most rewarding experiences in the life of a lawyer. Every lawyer, regardless of professional prominence or professional workload, should find time to participate in or otherwise support the provisions of legal services to the disadvantaged. [27] We strongly urge the continuation of these services. We believe that attorneys would voluntarily donate their skills and services were they not unduly burdened with compulsory appointments. [28] We also believe that Oklahoma lawyers will form local, county, district, and intra-state voluntary pools to assume this responsibility and to relieve lawyers who practice in counties with few lawyers from an unfair court-imposed case load. We also recognize that at this time voluntary services are insufficient to accomodate the right of indigent citizens to the effective assistance of counsel where that right is implicated.