(Image via Getty)
“We are passionate about the intersection of technology, law, and volunteerism.”
Those are the words of Sarah Baker, president and executive director of We The Action, a free digital platform that connects lawyers with leading nonprofit organizations across the nation in need of pro bono legal support.
As Pro Bono Week kicks off in the United States, We The Action offers an example of how technology can be used to encourage pro bono work by lawyers, by connecting the lawyers who want to volunteer their time with the organizations that need them — at no cost to either the lawyers or the nonprofits.
Since its launch in July 2017, We The Action has grown to more than 8,000 lawyers nationwide and more than 200 nonprofits, including Rock the Vote, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, Transgender Law Center, Justice for Military Families, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
Together, these lawyers and nonprofit partners have completed more than 3,000 pro bono projects valued at over $6.6 million in free legal services.
The organization launched at what Baker describes as a challenging time in our nation’s history, when a lot of people, including lawyers, where saying, “What can I do? How can I help?”
She was one of those. A lawyer whose past jobs include working in President Obama’s Office of White House Counsel, as senior policy director to Dr. Jill Biden, and as the senior pro bono associate at Hogan Lovells, she was one of the many lawyers who went to an airport to help after President Trump imposed his travel ban.
“It was an inspiring response, but also frustrating, because it was difficult to connect all those lawyers with actual client demand,” she recalled.
But her experience then and as pro bono coordinator at Hogan Lovells underscored for her the need for a better method to connect pro bono lawyers with clients who need them. When the board of directors of We the Action reached out to her, she jumped at the opportunity.
Initially, Baker focused on assembling a team and then building and testing the platform. Now, the organization is entering a new phase, in which it wants to expand awareness of its work and further grow its network of attorneys and nonprofits.
We the Action now has lawyers in every U.S. state. Of the 8,000 lawyers who have signed up to take cases, at least half have handled at least one project.
“It’s an active and engaged community,” Baker said. “The people who come have come for a reason. Our volunteer rate is higher than you might see elsewhere.”
For the nonprofits, the platform is appealing because it gives them access to lawyers and helps them ease off the administrative burden of managing their cases.
While We the Action has a broad progressive mission of defending the nation’s values and protecting its democracy, Baker says it is not a political organization and has no litmus test for the nonprofits it will help. Her organization does vet nonprofits before allowing them to join, and will not accept any that do not align with its core values.
Funding to incubate We the Action was provided by the Emerson Collective, the social-impact philanthropic organization founded by Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple cofounder and former CEO Steve Jobs.
Besides the We the Action site, the organization is involved in other projects at the intersection of law and technology. For example, to help the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law manage its election-protection work, it built the site 866ourvote.org, which helps recruit and train lawyers to volunteer at polls on election days.
Going forward, Baker’s goal is to build We the Action from the marketplace it is now into more of a community.
“At base, we are a two-sided marketplace, but we would also like to be more of a community that helps connect lawyers to other lawyers as well as to nonprofits,” she said.
One sign that is already happening is We the Action’s Facebook page, which has nearly 12,000 members.
Baker says the organization encourages lawyers and nonprofits to share stories of successful projects accomplished through the site. I asked her if she has any favorites.
“Some of my favorite stories,” she answered, “are the small nonprofits that say, “But for you guys, we wouldn’t exist.’”
Robert Ambrogi is a Massachusetts lawyer and journalist who has been covering legal technology and the web for more than 20 years, primarily through his blog LawSites.com. Former editor-in-chief of several legal newspapers, he is a fellow of the College of Law Practice Management and an inaugural Fastcase 50 honoree. He can be reached by email at ambrogi@gmail.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@BobAmbrogi).