By Mark Curriden – The Texas Lawbook Nov 22, 2019, 1:48pm CST
At a time when
lawyers and law firms in Texas are making record amounts of money, the number
of Texans who need legal assistance but cannot afford an attorney is at an
all-time high. The unmet need is increasing so significantly that it is having
a negative impact on the state’s economy, according to leaders of the legal
profession in Texas.
New data
gathered by The Texas Lawbook shows that most large corporate
law firms in Texas that have reaped huge financial benefits from the state’s
economic gusher have not increased the amount of pro bono legal work they are
doing on behalf of the poor and disadvantaged. Many law firms, in fact, are
doing less pro bono work than they were just a few years ago.
The shortage of
legal aid for low-income Texans has become so acute, according to officials,
that the 103,000 lawyers licensed to practice in Texas may not be equipped to
handle the growing demand for basic legal services for military veterans,
abused spouses and children, families needing help with adoptions and victims
of housing discrimination and disaster relief fraud.
Texas Supreme
Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht and
more than two dozen corporate general counsel from some of the most prominent
companies operating in Texas agree that the situation is nearing a crisis point
and must be addressed systemically.
Many senior
legal industry leaders say that the business community could be the single most
critical component in finding a solution to these unmet civil justice needs.
Led by their
corporate legal departments, businesses such as AT&T, CenterPoint Energy,
Exxon Mobil, Shell Oil and Total USA are aggressively ramping up their pro bono
efforts by becoming more strategic in the projects they tackle, by pressuring
the law firms they hire to do more and by helping legal aid organizations raise
funds to hire more lawyers.
“It is really
dire,” Chief Justice Hecht, widely regarded as one of the most conservative and
pro-business judges in the U.S., told The Texas Lawbook in an
interview. “We have lots and lots of people in our society who are unproductive
because they have unmet legal needs.”
“Yes, the
situation is dire and it is now physically impossible for the legal profession
to meet the need,” he said.
Recent studies
show that 5.6 million low-income Texans qualify for free legal assistance,
which is second highest in the U.S., but that only 10 percent of them are
getting the legal help they need.
Despite
significant recent funding increases by the Texas Legislature, the state ranks
47th in the U.S. for providing access to legal services for the poor and middle
class.
The chief
justice said that between 20 percent and 30 percent of all Texans who seek help
from legal aid offices in Texas are turned away due to staff shortages.
While the
federal and Texas constitutions require the state to provide lawyers for most
criminal defendants, there is no such guarantee for low-income individuals
facing civil legal issues or disputes. For decades, those legal needs were
satisfied by members of state and local bar associations and by legal aid
organizations that were funded by interest earned on trust accounts in which
lawyers held clients’ money (known in the legal and banking professions as
IOLTA or interest on lawyer trust accounts).
But the legal
world changed dramatically over the past decade. The number of low-income
people needing legal assistance skyrocketed just as the price lawyers charged
ballooned. Bank interest rates plummeted, which resulted in a significant
reduction in legal aid funding. And law firms – especially larger corporate law
firms – became more concerned with profits per partner and running like a
business, which resulted in pressure on lawyers to do more billable work and
less pro bono.
While some
corporate law firms with offices in Dallas and Houston have robust pro bono
programs, Texas Lawbook data show that the amount of free
legal work being done by the large business law firms in Texas has remained
flat or has even declined during the past few years.
The Texas
Lawbook reported earlier this year that the 50 largest corporate
law firms operating in the state generated nearly $6 billion in revenues in
2018, and nearly two-thirds of those 50 firms reported that their lawyers made
more money last year than ever before.
Only six of the
50 law firms, however, reported that their lawyers did more pro bono legal work
in 2018 than they did the year before. And only eight of the 50, according
to The Texas Lawbook survey, stated that their Texas lawyers
averaged 40 or more pro bono hours for the whole year.
The first step,
according to legal industry leaders in Texas, starts with a renewed commitment
by lawyers – especially those working at larger corporate law firms – to do
more to address the problem.
For a longer
version of this story, visit
TexasLawbook.net.
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