Steven Schulman Discusses Pro Bono Metrics, Work and Tips with MCC

Akin Gump pro bono partner Steven Schulman was interviewed by The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel for its July/August issue.  Among the topics discussed by Schulman:

• How to measure success: “[W]here I think we will be looking for success is how many clients we can serve, what innovations we can bring to pro bono legal services and what successes we can have in given practice areas or affecting particular policies.”
• Working where it matters: “[T]he bread and butter of our pro bono practice is representing individuals in asylum cases, in social security disability cases and in landlord-tenant cases. It’s important to us that we continue that work. My partner Vernon Jordan often says that that is the most important work that we do: the work for individuals, the work that doesn’t get headlines.”
• Death penalty defense: “[M]y partner Mark MacDougall has won the ABA Death Penalty Award [for his] long-standing commitment to represent individuals in capital murder trials. This is a pro bono practice unique among large law firms: representing individuals not because they are innocent, not on appeal because something has gone wrong at the trial or in an earlier proceeding, but rather to ensure, when the state decides it is going to seek the ultimate penalty — death — that that individual has as good a representation as someone should have when her life is on the line.”
• How to build a pro bono practice: “I think the biggest tip for somebody running a pro bono practice is to get out there, get to meet people both within the firm and within the community. That helps to match people and to bring together different ideas among different practice groups, different offices and different levels of attorneys that won’t happen if you just send out emails and sit in your office.”

To read the full interview, please click here.