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prepared to make pro bono and community service a part of their everyday practice. It [also] provides law students with really important practical experiential learning opportunities while they're in law school," she says. "That provides them with training that in turn makes them more prepared to practise law." Wela Quan, a Canadian law school grad and an associate in Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP's New York office, says the New York bar's requirement will be good for U.S. law graduates since students are not required to complete articling there. Graduates are asked to pick an area of practice to work in without having done any practical legal training, she adds. Pro bono work "is an integral part of legal education because what you learn on the books and what you learn while you're studying is so different from the actual practice, and you are missing a very, very big chunk coming out of law school not having done any actual legal work," she says. Quan sees the growing desire among students to do pro bono work as an overall shift taking place in the profession. "[B]y influencing and affecting students coming out of law school, future generations of lawyers will be more attuned and have more of a focus on [pro bono]. I think already the younger generation of students and people coming out of law school are very sensitive to that." A CHANGE IN PERCEPTION Maclaren also predicts a change in the near future on how pro bono work is regarded in the profession. "There will be a culture shift that's led by the newer generation of lawyers around pro bono services," he says. "It'll help the whole profession and give more credence and establishment to organized pro bono services." Older lawyers never had a system of organized pro bono services but younger lawyers and new grads are surrounded by it and therefore much more attuned to it. In fact, Maclaren says he is already seeing higher engagement levels from younger lawyers as Access Pro Bono's sign-up rate for new and junior lawyers is much higher than senior 13_1417_SMBG_StdntRec_OT_Ad_Cndn_Lawyer_FA.indd 1 lawyers. The law schools encouraging students to do pro bono work is definitely a contributing factor, he says, as there are more opportunities now to get involved. Natalie Zinman, director of student programs in Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP's Toronto office, says the firm encourages all of its professionals to work on pro bono files, including its students whenever possible. "If students come into the practice of law having already had the benefit of doing pro bono work and seeing the value that it can provide — not only to them from a learning perspective but also to the clients that they help support — then I think that that can be very valuable," she says. At this year's annual PBSC national training conference in Toronto in May, Matt Cohen, director of litigation projects at Pro Bono Law Ontario, said in order for pro bono work to be truly embraced law firms need to get onside, which is happening but at a slow pace. If students really get on board and do more public interest work, they can help create the change that is needed in the profession. ■ C A N A D I A N Law yer 4 students F a13-07-231 35:11 PM ll 20 23

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