Awards, Including 2011 Pro Bono Awards
County Pro Bono Activities and Other Pro Bono Resources
IOLTA (Interest on Lawyer Trust Accounts)
National Pro Bono Week
PBA Pro Bono-Related Committees
Pro Bono Annual Conferences and Seminars
Pro Bono News & Calendar
SeniorLAW Pro Bono Effort

The Pennsylvania Bar Association's Pro Bono Office assists local bar associations, legal services programs and other groups who offer pro bono legal services across the commonwealth to expand the access to justice for the neediest among us. The Pro Bono Office also provides direct legal help to those in need, from the poor to veterans. The links above will connect you to specific information available here on the PBA Pro Bono WebPages. Go to PALawHELP.org if you are a client seeking pro bono services; lawyers and judges interested in pro bono should check out PAProbono.net. Click here for our partners at the ABA Standing Committee on Pro Bono & Public Service. Click here for Pennsylvania county pro bono programs. For all pro bono questions, email PBA Pro Bono Coordinator David Keller Trevaskis at david.trevaskis@pabar.org or call him on his cell at (717) 571-7414.

Trevaskis has served as the PBA's first full-time pro bono attorney since 2001. In the 10 years since then, some impressive numbers have been posted through the PBA's in-house pro bono efforts, including outreach that has touched almost 50,000 people with legal aid issues; more than 300 individuals and organizations being honored with pro bono awards; nearly 200 CLE programs having been conducted locally, regionally and across the state; and the securing of $114,050 in IOLTA grant funding and more than $200,000 in direct and in-kind donations. Add in more than half-a-million miles of travel and there has been a lot of activity out of an office that is staffed by a single full-time attorney and a half-time administrative assistant.

Although there was pro bono activity sponsored by the PBA prior to the October 2001[1], with the hiring of attorney Trevaskis as the PBA's first full-time pro bono coordinator pro bono received an increased emphasis at the PBA, with the formal creation, staffing and budgeting of a Pro Bono Office. The office was created to meet the crisis of unmet civil legal needs among the poor in Pennsylvania and throughout the nation. The defining principle of our legal system is the promise of equal justice under law for all, yet, despite all of the efforts of the PBA and the thousands of lawyers and judges statewide who take pro bono cases and support legal aid, far too many of the poor and near poor never have the opportunity even to talk to an attorney while handling legal concerns. [2]

There is some type of pro bono activity in every county in the state, each county's approach to pro bono is unique. Please check out the County Pro Bono Activities and Other Pro Bono Resources area to find out what is happening in a particular county.

In January 2011, Chief Justice of Pennsylvania Ronald D. Castille joined then-PBA President Gretchen A. Mundorff in calling upon all Pennsylvania lawyers to volunteer more of their time and money to help ensure that citizens with limited financial means receive needed civil legal representation. Read the news release and Chief Justice Castille's letter to attorneys. Mundorff urged every PBA member to take on at least one new pro bono case during this bar year and to certify this action on the PBA Pro Bono Certification form. Click on the following links for the PBA-approved pro bono service recommendation of the Legal Services to the Public Committee, Mundorff's letter to the PBA House of Delegates on pro bono service and the PBA Pro Bono Certification form.