Santa Clara County Bar boosts Pro Bono

The Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal is carrying this report:

Silicon Valley attorneys will need to provide more free legal service -- a lot more -- to meet the area's growing need, according to a report by the Santa Clara County Bar Association. The report recommends its members provide 60 hours of free legal service annually as well as provide a cash donation of at least one billable hour to a local legal aid organization. Only about 15 percent of Silicon Valley's 7,000 attorneys meet the 50 hours a year guideline the American Bar Association recommends, according to several estimates. "There is a moral imperative to meeting these goals," says William Abrams, a partner at Pillsbury Winthrop's Palo Alto office and a member of the Santa Clara County Bar Association's pro bono task force. "It's a good first step; the next step is to figure out how to make it work."