October 21, 2024
By Bob Glaves | CBF Executive Director
And you just might recognize that as the famous line from the venerable song Lean on Me. It not only is a great song about life, it also is a great way to think about pro bono and the special power it gives us as lawyers and legal professionals to help people in need.
The reality in our community and around the country is that it is not just that people might have a problem that we would understand. We know that many people right now in fact are facing often serious legal problems with nowhere else to turn, and we have a unique ability to help them by virtue of our license, legal training, and experience.
No matter where you are in your pro bono journey at this point, there are many great opportunities to get involved and help people in need in a way only we can.
A Song of Inspiration
As we honored seven outstanding lawyers and judges at this year’s CBA/CBF Pro Bono and Public Service Awards Luncheon back in July, we continued a recent tradition by kicking things off with a song to help set the theme.
For this year’s Luncheon, that song was the Bill Withers classic “Lean on Me” that inspired the title for this post, and we used this all-star version from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that I commend to you if you have not seen it before.
One of the stanzas in the song I bet we all can recite by memory is: I just might have a problem that you’ll understand.
Thinking about that line in our context as lawyers, judges, and other legal professionals, as noted at the outset of this post, it is not just that people might have a problem that we would understand. We know that most people in our community do have what are often significant legal problems that those of us in the legal community are uniquely able to understand and help with. Studies consistently show that more than half of the people who qualify for free legal aid are unable to get that help when they seek it because there is just not enough to go around.
In the words of the song, those people in need in our community are calling on us for help when they are not strong, and we can help them carry on in a way that no one else can.
If Not Now, When?
This year’s Luncheon honorees have been there to answer that call and again showed us that wherever we are in the legal community when people are leaning on us for help with their legal problems, we have a special power to help them.
Whether we are in private practice, full-time in public service, longtime pro bono champions, or just getting started, we can make a real difference. Wherever we are in the profession or justice system, we all have the power of our unique knowledge, training, and experience to help people in a way that others cannot. If not us, who will take the lead to do this?
The CBF is here to help you do that throughout the year, check out the Pro Bono page on the CBF website and feel free to reach out any time, there is no shortage of opportunity to make a difference in a way that aligns with your interests and schedule.