Gov. lawyers keep pro bono deferral.

While applauding government, lawyers who are able to do some kinds of pro bono work, the Florida Supreme Court refused to remove the deferral from the aspirational goals and mandatory reporting required of other lawyers.

With the dual mission of eliminating confusion and encouraging pro bono participation statewide, The Florida. Bar Standing Committee on Pro Bono Legal Services bad recommended that the court amend Rule Regulating the Florida Bar 46.1, Pro Bono Public Service to remove the government lawyer deferral.

But in a February 20 per curiam opinion in case SC02-1050, the justices denied the committee's request to broaden the definition of legal services to the poor to include those that improve access to justice.

That was the position that Anthony Musto, on behalf of the Government Lawyer Section of The Florida Bar, had argued to the court. If pro bono service became too broadly defined, Musto argued, it would lose its original mission to provide free legal representation for the poor, and have the potential result of all lawyers doing less actual representation of the poor and more general volunteer work in the community.

Reiterating its 1993 opinion when the pro bono service plan was created for Florida lawyers, the Supreme Court stuck to its original crafting of a narrow definition of pro bono as directly relating to the legal needs of the poor. The court also noted there are specific rules or regulations that prohibit many government attorneys from the practice of law other than in the performance of their government jobs.

"Because we do not have the authority to expand the pro bono program to cover activities that are not directly related to the legal needs of the poor, we conclude that government attorneys who are prohibited by statute, rule, or other regulation from the practice of law must continue to remain deferred from providing pro bono legal services pursuant to Rule 4-6.1," the opinion states.

At oral argument, Natasha Permaul, chair of the Standing Committee on Pro Bono Legal Services, detailed how many government lawyers already perform an array of pro bono work, such as helping the elderly in nursing homes fill out public...