Who Says Pro Bono Doesn’t Pay?

by Steve Simpson

It is a misconception that taking on pro bono work requires one to give and get nothing in return. In fact, participating in the Human Action Network is an effective vehicle to acquire valuable skills and know-how while making a contribution to the cause of liberty. HAN member Mark Chenoweth, currently an associate at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in Washington, D.C., is an excellent case study in the give and take of the HAN experience.

Mark’s association with IJ began in 1997, when he attended our annual law student conference as a second-year law student at the University of Chicago. He left inspired and immediately set to work applying the ideas he learned. With fellow Chicago student and HAN member Jim Ho, Mark developed the idea for IJ’s enormously successful Clinic on Entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago.

Now in private practice, Mark has not let the rigors of a big-city law firm keep him from continuing work with HAN. As Mark put it, "I’ve participated in just about everything that IJ has had to offer."

Mark’s first pro bono matter through HAN was an offshoot of our federal court challenge to the State of New York’s oppressive eminent domain laws on behalf of several property owners. St. Luke’s Church in North Hempstead was condemned and bulldozed because the land had been designated a redevelopment area years before St. Luke’s purchased the property, but neither St. Luke’s nor the previous owner had been notified of the planned condemnation. When St. Luke’s settled its part of the federal lawsuit, Mark and two colleagues at his firm agreed to represent the church in an ensuing challenge to the condemnation in state court.

For Mark, the most rewarding and challenging aspect of representing St. Luke’s was the hands-on work with the client and others associated with the case. "Junior associates don’t always get a lot of direct contact with clients, so I learned a lot about client relations," Mark said. He also gained valuable experience in the nuts and bolts of litigation, including the difficulties of dealing with unsympathetic individuals on whose knowledge a client’s case can depend. "It was a real education in some of the realities of litigation," he said. "I was exposed to a lot of things they don’t teach you about in law school."

Mark also helped represent the American Education Reform Council in an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court defending Cleveland’s school voucher program. The experience put him in close contact with top Supreme Court litigators Louis Cohen and C. Boyden Gray, which was a "tremendous learning experience," according to Mark. "It was really nice to be able to hone my brief-writing skills under their supervision while working on the right side of an issue like school choice."

Aside from the professional experience, one of the big selling points of HAN pro bono work is the satisfaction of advancing a cause you truly believe in. "Law firms typically don’t view pro-free-market cases as pro bono work, so anytime you can convince them to support an economic liberty issue, it’s very satisfying," says Mark. It also doesn’t hurt that IJ has had a positive impact on both the law and the lives of its clients. As Mark says, "IJ improves the lives of real people."

As an attorney who formerly worked in private practice, I can attest to the unparalleled benefits of working on a pro bono case with IJ. I took a one-month sabbatical from my firm in January 2001 to work on IJ’s appellate brief in the Tennessee casket case. It was an immensely satisfying change of pace from my work at the firm—so much so that I ended up working here.

While we can’t guarantee everyone a job, we can say that HAN pro bono cases provide great experience for young lawyers, a departure from some of the more mundane aspects of legal work for seasoned lawyers, and meaningful, gratifying work for all. We can always use the efforts of more dedicated professionals like Mark Chenoweth—and so can the cause of liberty. Please contact us if you’re interested.

Steve Simpson is a Dunn Foundation Fellow in Constitutional Litigation at the Institute for Justice.