Legal Writing and Faculty Pro Bono

Abstract

Legal writing teachers today face an array of questions about what they value and how to spend their professional time. Although scholarship has addressed facets of this exploration, one question that hasn’t been deeply probed is what role pro bono should play in the legal writing community. But faculty pro bono in many ways aligns with existing strengths and values in the legal writing community. The legal writing community cares deeply about spearheading best practices in legal education, modeling professional values for students, crafting true-to-practice assignments for students, publishing scholarship informed by the realities of the legal system, and pursuing equity for colleagues and others. Faculty pro bono helps legal writing professors pursue those commitments and expand them in new and different directions.