Canadian Lawyer 4Students

SHOULD IT BE MANDATORY? But should pro bono work be mandatory? How can we get law students to do it without making it a requirement? "If we create this climate where public interest and pro bono is seen as being this vital part of your legal education, students will do it," says Nikki Gershbain, national director of Pro Bono Students Canada. The discussion shouldn't be focused on whether or not to make public interest work mandatory, she says, instead, it should be focused on changing the culture to foster this kind of work in the law school community. "Creating a climate where public interest activities are widely available and considered to be an important part of the law school experience actually bypasses all of the negatives of mandating public service but it achieves all of the same goals," she says. Nathalie Des Rosiers, the new common law dean at the University of Ottawa and former general counsel of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, agrees it shouldn't be about making pro bono mandatory. "What is important in the context of this discussion is not to overemphasize whether [pro bono is] mandatory or not, I think we're beyond that. I think we're now at the stage of saying — and I would have the same reflections when we're looking at the profession more generally — certainly I think you aim to have the largest number of people within your profession to do pro bono, the question is what are the best tools to do it to accomplish your goal. We want to move to a position that it's not only how much pro bono you're doing, but how well you are doing [it]," she says. "It's not only about counting hours, but mostly about doing something meaningful that addresses serious problems." In Sossin's view, public interest work is a necessary component of legal education. "If you really see [public interest work] as All types of students volunteer at the Access Pro Bono Society of B.C. essential to legal education, how can you say someone could graduate who's never taken part in this, who's never been in the community, never given back, never had that experience of seeing law in action in that way?" he asks. However, he admits there is a downside to making it compulsory. "I think you lose something when you make public interest or pro bono work mandatory. You lose that sense of this is being done out of a value and belief in law as a helping profession in the public interest mandate of lawyers and law schools," he says. "A perfect system is a system in which it's optional and 100-percent take-up." Gershbain also identifies some risks associated with forcing students to do something. "If you make it mandatory, you do run the risk of creating resentment on the part of maybe a small number of students," she says. Stevens agrees that making it compulsory could backfire. "We're running the risk of undermining this sense of volunteerism at the heart of public interest work …and if you force someone to do something that they don't want to do, maybe it'll actually decrease the likelihood of them doing it down the road." However, he also says sometimes you have to be forced into trying something new to realize you're passionate about it. "Some of my most pleasant experiences have come out of me being placed in a situation that I didn't really want to be in and then it broadens your horizons and exposes you to something that you didn't realize you needed exposure to. By exposing people to the public interest and exposing people to how they can use their law degree in a way that helps vulnerable members of our community, the hope is that down the line they're going to remember that experience and they're going to remember having an impact on people, and they'll continue to do it throughout their career." Gershbain points out studies have shown that if students are reached while in law school, their eyes are often opened to problems they might not otherwise have been aware of. MANDATORY ISN'T NECESSARILY NEGATIVE In Finkelstein's opinion, making something mandatory isn't necessarily a negative thing. The pro bono requirement at Penn Law has "become so embedded in the culture that it's a part of our student life, it's a part of our experiential opportunities for students, it's just woven into the fabric of the law school," she says. In fact, more than 92 per cent of Penn Law's graduating class in 2013 exceeded the 70-hour pro bono requirement. "Pro bono can enhance every student's legal education and can enhance every lawyer's professional practice," says Finkelstein. Osgoode's public interest requirement falls in line with the school's emphasis on experiential learning, says Kimberley Bonnar, manager of experiential education and career development at Osgoode, the first Canadian law school to require students to participate in experiential learning in order to graduate, starting with the 2015 graduating class. Other law schools in Canada and the U.S. are also creating more opportunities for students to get practical, hands-on experience. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching's 2007 report on legal education helped kick-start this trend after it found North American law schools were teaching students too much theory and not enough ethical and practical skills. C A N A D I A N Law yer 4 students fall 2013 21 ANGELA FAMA generation of pro bono lawyers that will be really active and helpful in increasing access to justice and keeping the pro bono culture alive and well. The earlier that law students accept and understand that there's a professional responsibility to provide some level of access to justice for people who can't generally afford legal counsel or even access the justice system in a meaningful way the better."

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