Foundation launches pilot pro bono grant program.

A study funded by The Florida Bar Foundation found that Florida lawyers don't lack the desire to provide pro bono legal services--they just lack the time.

Of the lawyers surveyed for the report, "Pro Bono: Looking Back, Moving Forward," released in September 2008, more than 60 percent listed "lack of time" as a reason they didn't participate in pro bono work, and nearly half listed "family obligations."

With more households having two working parents, there is not as much time left for pro bono work, said attorney Kelly Carmody of Arizona-based Carmody and Associates, who conducted the pro bono study.

"So, with the reduced amount of time, there needs to be volunteer opportunities that don't take as much time," Carmody said. "It's not like it was when an attorney may have stayed late to work on a pro bono case."

This, along with other factors, has led to a 30 percent decrease in pro bono services performed through pro bono programs statewide, the study shows.

The Foundation has launched a new Pilot Pro Bono Grant Program, which is funding projects designed to address many of the issues that were identified in the study.

Eight legal aid programs throughout the state received $478,440 in grants from the Foundation to implement new or enhanced models for their pro bono programs. Additional programs will be funded in December.

"The goal is to test the proposals that we selected to see how they can improve or expand pro bono legal services, and to see if they could be useful in other legal aid programs," said the Foundation's Paul Doyle.

In past years, lawyers wanting to provide pro bono work were often offered limited options, such as extended representation cases that could take many hours over several weeks or months to resolve.

That's not to say there isn't a need for pro bono attorneys to help in longer-running cases. But a number of pro bono programs are also developing "defined, limited assistance" pro bono opportunities, like staffing legal advice clinics or hotlines where lawyers can volunteer for a set amount of time, said Carmody, who helped design the pilot program.

"In Hillsborough County, Bay Area Legal Services has a pro bono program at the courthouse where lawyers can come in during their lunch hour to provide legal advice to the clients that are there," Carmody said.

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