Law Firms Embrace Illinois District’s Trial Bar Pro Bono Duties

A court-mandated requirement for Illinois trial lawyers to represent indigent litigants for free is helping newer attorneys gain valuable courtroom skills.

Many of the largest law firms have Chicago offices, and Big Law trial bar members said their firms not only embrace pro bono work generally but gladly accept the court-ordered representations. The cases provide younger associates with real trial and case management experience they’d otherwise miss, and keeps older partners exposed to trial work at points in their careers when trial appearances may decrease.

The program provides lawyers an “opportunity to do the right thing for a client or a principle,” District Court Judge Gabriel Fuentes said in an interview. The courts try to be flexible when requesting pro bono service: judges may allow lawyers to participate in mediations or settlement proceedings instead of cases heading to trial if the work will be overly time consuming.

“I did not have the opportunity to first chair a deposition before working on these pro bono cases. And I’ve done eight now in the pro bono context, and that directly then equips me with the skills to be able to do my first billable client deposition,” said Banner & Witcoff Ltd. attorney Christian Wolfgram, whose client prevailed in a court-mandated representation in June alleging prison officials violated her religious-practice rights.

“In Chicago, people don’t view this as an unnecessary burden. They view it more as a part of being part of the ecosystem that we all contribute to and don’t really blink when we get an appointment,” King & Spalding LLP partner and trial lawyer Lazar Raynal said.

Trial Bar

The US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in 1985 created a separate trial bar, a move a court spokeswoman said may be unique in the federal courts. In exchange for admission—which us required to appear as lead counsel in testimonial proceedings—trial lawyers are expected to accept court-ordered “recruitments” to represent formerly pro se civil litigants, many of them individuals alleging civil violations while incarcerated.

In 2023 the court appointed approximately 200 pro bono cases to sole practitioners and lawyers in small, medium, and large law firms, court spokeswoman Julie Hodek said in an email.

“They call it a recruitment. Essentially, you get an order from the judge that says, ‘Hey, we’re asking you to take on this case,’ and it’s kind of one of those things where you don’t have a lot of options to say no. So you’re essentially appointed,” said Winston & Strawn LLP chief pro bono officer Greg McConnell.

No trial bar member gets assigned more than one case each year, according to the rules, but cases can last for years. In cases where plaintiffs prevail, the federal Prison Litigation Reform Act allows lawyers to collect fees of up to 150% of a damages award, with a maximum of 75% paid by defendants.

Fuentes said the program helps younger lawyers hone their trial work skills; if mistakes are made, more senior attorneys leading the trial team can correct them before presented to the court, he said.

Pro bono trial work offers less-experienced attorneys both challenging and mundane courtroom tasks that can validate them as trial lawyers and give them the benefit of learning from more senior attorneys leading the trial team, Fuentes said.

“Before this, I’d never argued a motion in front of a sitting federal judge or magistrate judge, and I’ve argued at least three or four now, and so having experience for the first time on these cases has certainly led to increased opportunities within my firm,” said Wolfgram, a 2019 law school graduate whose billable work focuses on intellectual property law.

Jenner & Block LLP partner Andrew Vail, a member of his firm’s pro bono committee, is currently working on a recruitment pro bono case involving alleged civil rights violations of a prisoner. “Part of my team, they’re getting some of their first opportunities to take depositions and be the primary drafters of motions. Definitely, the junior associates are getting very good experiences on this case they wouldn’t otherwise get,” he said.

‘Proves the Point’

McConnell said his firm has “maybe half a dozen” active recruitment cases, which is manageable for his law firm. But he and others said cases requiring greater effort, or more of them, could be difficult or impossible for smaller firms to accept.

For instance, the court assigned Duane Morris LLP lawyers to a case involving John Taylor, an inmate who alleged he received inadequate medical care at state correctional facility. The firm achieved a $750,000 verdict for Taylor in a seven-year litigation requiring between 2,500 and 3,000 hours of work.

While her firm’s size and pro bono commitment meant it could accept the case, the amount of resources required “would have been devastating to a smaller firm,” Duane Morris partner Rosanne Ciambrone said.

Duane Morris partner Richard Darke, who participated in the Taylor case, agreed a need for trial teams to help plaintiffs who can’t afford a lawyer exists. “Our case, I think, proves the point.” Others agreed. “They’re not getting lawyers at all. There is no one there to help prisoners with their claims, however valid or frivolous they might be,” Wolfgram said.

“They take on the work willingly. It can give them satisfaction taking on something greater than themselves,” Fuentes said.