Solving the Pro Bono Mismatch

The pro bono interests of law firm lawyers tend to differ from the actual legal needs of the poor. This difference results in the mismatch problem or the incongruence between the interests of firm lawyers and the needs of the poor. Today, the mismatch problem has resulted in law firm lawyers\u27 increased demand of immigration matters while legal needs are greatest in housing and family law. This leaves nonprofit legal services organizations scrambling to find pro bono representation for poor clients or otherwise relying on very limited resources to represent poor clients. The literature on the mismatch problem is lacking in important ways. First, there is a lack of understanding about how the interests of individual lawyers factor into the selection of pro bono matters. Second, there is no understanding about how law firm culture impacts the choice of pro bono work for firms and individual lawyers. Third, the literature does not include how the political climate impacts the choice of pro bono work within firms. Finally, the literature is devoid of normative suggestions to remedy the problem. Through an interview-based empirical exploration, this research explains how individual lawyers impact the choice of pro bono work, how law firm culture impacts pro bono choices, and how the political climate directly shapes what lawyers choose to do for pro bono legal representation. To solve the pro bono mismatch, I make three proposals: (1) modification of the language of the American Bar Association\u27s Model Rule of Professional Conduct 6.1, which provides that lawyers have a professional responsibility to provide pro bono legal services; (2) creation and implementation of macro-level pay for preference; and (3) creation and implementation of micro-level \u27ay for preference regimes in law firms to nudge lawyers to consider the greatest legal needs in their choices of pro bono legal representatio

Racial Allies

Racial allies are white individuals and institutions that actively work to dismantle systems of racial inequality and the consequences of poverty that disproportionately impact communities of color and that are willing to both confer and share power with members of subjugated groups. There is no other sector of the legal profession that professes to be racial allies more than individuals and institutions within the public interest law sector. Yet, these institutions that address structural racism and disproportionately serve communities of color appear not to share power with racial and ethnic minorities. The public interest law sector has been at the forefront of economic and racial justice both historically and in modern times, including as abolitionist lawyers, civil rights lawyers, and lawyers challenging economic inequality, the eviction crisis, and immigration. Probably because of their perceived roles as racial allies, there has been scholarly and practitioner neglect to examine their allyship. In this Article, I make a number of groundbreaking contributions to the literature. First, I conduct the first systemic investigation of race and ethnicity using the largest dataset of the individuals and groups with relative power in the public interest law sector—CEOs, boards of directors, and large-firm pro bono partners and counsel. The novel dataset contains 650 institutions and over 10,000 individuals. I also interviewed a subset of CEOs and board members. With these data, I show—for the first time—the lack of racial and ethnic diversity among the CEOs of public interest legal organizations (PILOs), PILO boards of directors, and pro bono partners and counsel who lead the public interest sector. Second, although there may be other reasons, I highlight five possible explanations for the problem. Third, I suggest potential policy responses for each of the identified theories. I also advance reasons why racial diversity in public interest law is important and highlight areas for further research on diversity in the sector

When Donor Meets Purpose

This Essay addresses a gap in law and the Restatement of the Law Charitable Nonproít Organizations regarding the relationship between a charitable nonproít’s donors and its purpose. I argue that charitable nonproíts can align their purposes with the personal or professional identities of their donors, and it may be in the best interest of some charities to do so. Charities whose purposes are to address racial or economic inequality should seriously consider aligning their donor identity with their purpose as a way of improving their legitimacy in the communities they serve, and to reach previously untapped sources of funding

Disclosing Corporate Diversity

This Article’s central claim is that disclosures can be used instrumentally to increase diversity in corporate America in terms of race, gender, sexual orientation, and disability. Until recently, scholars and policymakers have underappreciated this possibility because diversity was often omitted from the larger Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) disclosures context, even though, as this Article empirically shows, public companies make diversity disclosures in that context. Diversity disclosures are important not only for shareholders’ interests in transparency, but also for the benefit of other stakeholders, including employees, customers, and the communities in which companies operate, who want to know whether companies are diverse to determine where to work, what brands to buy, and what companies value. The literature has yet to explore the significance of diversity disclosures for the benefit of all these stakeholders. This Article argues that legal reform is needed to use disclosures to improve corporate diversity for the benefit of all stakeholders. Policy-makers must go beyond the confines of the securities laws to translate disclosure into societal change. This Article examines contemporary law and policy approaches that fall short of having forward-looking provisions that would have an impact on improving diversity. It proposes disclosure rules with statistical and forward-looking provisions and mechanisms that shareholder and employee activists, and others, can use to pressure companies to improve diversity incrementally

Racial Targets

It is common scholarly and popular wisdom that racial quotas are illegal. However, the reality is that since 2020’s racial reckoning, many of the largest companies have been touting specific, albeit voluntary, goals to hire or promote people of color, which this Article refers to as “racial targets.” The Article addresses this phenomenon and shows that companies can defend racial targets as distinct from racial quotas, which involve a rigid number or proportion of opportunities reserved exclusively for minority groups. The political implications of the legal defensibility of racial targets are significant in this moment in American history, where race relations have become polarized and the conservative, pro-business U.S. Supreme Court may weigh in on the legality of voluntary goals set by some of the largest companies in the country. Large companies have historically been granted discretion to choose their strategies for paving the way toward equal employment opportunity for people of color. The Article grapples with whether this corporate-discretion ideal would inform the legal posture of racial targets

Disclosures for Equity

This Article addresses how to increase funding to nonprofit organizations that are led by minorities or serve communities of color and how to hold corporations and private foundations who make public commitments to fund these organizations accountable for those commitments. The Article makes two policy recommendations to address these problems, while engaging with Supreme Court jurisprudence on mandatory disclosures to ensure that the proposals are narrowly tailored to institutional donors and include an opt-out provision so as not to chill the constitutional protection of the freedom of association. The first is for charities to publicly disclose their institutional donors in Schedule B of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form 990. The second is to modify IRS Form 990 to include information on the race and ethnicity of top managers, boards of directors, and the communities an organization serves. These disclosures are crucial for determining organizations that are minority led or that serve communities of color and the institutional donors who donate to them annually. The Article addresses the benefits and tradeoffs of disclosure and how to use nudges—watchdog organizations, certifications, and the public—to implement disclosures to increase funding to minority-led and minority-serving nonprofit charities

Negotiating Status: Pro Bono Partners and Counsels in Large Law Firms

Law firm pro bono work provides access to justice to low-income people and other vulnerable populations. The professionals that manage pro bono programs are at the forefront of that process. The limited available research on these professionals do not often distinguish lawyers from other managers or theorize about their status vis-à-vis other law firm lawyers. Yet the status of lawyers who are also managers of pro bono programs influences both their identities and the management and provision of legal services and advocacy. Drawing on original demographic and interview data, this article shows how law firm pro bono partners and counsels navigate their ambiguous roles and negotiate their status as lawyers and managers. I find that pro bono partners and counsels navigate their ambiguous roles by striving to be perceived as “real” lawyers, reframe their roles as business generators, conform to the billing culture, and establish a common identity. They also negotiate their titles and office spaces to raise their profiles. Gender inequality influences the negotiation of office spaces and the approval of pro bono matters. These findings have implications for lawyers who manage pro bono programs and the legitimacy of pro bono work

The Impact Of Environmental Accounting On Corporate Performance In Nigeria

Companies’ approach to the environment is regarded as one of the major factors influencing corporate performance in Nigeria.  The objective of this study is to investigate if there is any significant relationship between environmental accounting and corporate performance in Nigeria.  The data for the study were collected from annual report and accounts of fourteen randomly selected quoted companies in Nigeria. The data were analysed using multiple regression analysis. The findings of the result show that there is significant negative relationship between environmental accounting and Return on Capital Employed (ROCE) and Earnings Per Share (EPS) and a significant positive relationship between Environmental Accounting and Net Profit Margin and Dividend Per Share. Based on this it was recommended that government should give tax credit to organizations that comply with its environmental  laws and that environmental reporting should be made compulsory in Nigeria so as to improve the performance of organizations and the nation as a whole. Keywords: Environmental Accounting, Corporate Performance, Corporate Report

The Racial Reckoning of Public Interest Law

This Essay contends that segments of public interest law often get a pass on questions of race because it is a field of law that is genuinely concerned with marginalized communities. But the historical record, the dearth of empirical data on race, the homogeneity of the legal profession, and the recognition that no one is necessarily immune from racial biases all demand that the public interest bar reckon with its racial character. The racial oversights of public interest law can manifest themselves in hiring, staffing, organizational mission, leadership, and the actual delivery of legal services. We argue that a racial accounting is particularly important for public interest organizations that are not explicitly organized around racial justice. Public interest lawyers are the presumed and actual allies of racial minorities, which could make detection of racial biases more elusive. Although counterintuitive, we maintain that actualizing an anti-racist society will be impossible without looking within the ranks and practices of attorneys who hold themselves out as racial allies