ALM Legal Intelligence

Pro Bono Survey

The American Lawyer's annual report on the state of pro bono work in the nation's largest law firms, ranks The Am Law 200 firms based on the amount of pro bono work performed by the firm. Included for each firm are the average number of pro bono hours per lawyer and the percentage of lawyers with more than 20 hours of pro bono work.

Methodology/Sources:
For the Pro Bono rankings, The American Lawyer considers only Am Law 200 firms, which are the highest-grossing firms in the U.S. Half of the score comes from the average number of pro bono hours per lawyer, while the remaining half is the percentage of lawyers who perform more than 20 hours of pro bono work. Calculations are based on U.S. offices only. Pro bono work is defined as legal services provided to those who could not otherwise afford them. Work done by paralegals or summer associates is not included, nor is time spent on bar association work, on boards of nonprofits, or on nonlegal work for charities. A score of 0 indicates that pro bono numbers were not submitted; it does not necessarily mean that a firm did no pro bono work. Percentage of lawyers with more than 20 hours of work may exceed 100 percent because of the way lawyers are counted and the time of year numbers are gathered.