Pro bono lawyers do well by doing good.

When Doug Mirell was nominated to serve on the city's homeless services panel, it wasn't his routine copyright work that became an issue.

Instead, members of the L.A. City Council questioned his pro bono representation of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. Mirell had helped the ACLU win an injunction and legal settlement from the city over the Los Angeles Police Department's treatment of the homeless.

Conflict of interest?

"It's fair game to ask me, 'Why did you undertake to do this pro bono work?'" said Mirell, whose nomination by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was approved after three votes last month. "All we were trying to do was make sure the police were following their own policies."

Pro bono services (pro bono means donated, or literally given "for good") have become increasingly important marketing tools for law firms and prominent lawyers to generate name recognition and clients.

Not all pro bono work becomes highly politicized, as happened with Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts--he came under scrutiny during his nomination process for having reviewed files for a coalition of gay rights activists while serving as an appellate lawyer at Hogan & Hartson LLP in 1996. But the reasons why lawyers pick certain causes for pro bono representation are a mix of conviction and calculation.

"Part of it is skill set, part of it is interest, part of it has to do with what moves you emotionally, and part of it has to do with how you see yourself in the profession," said Dan Grunfeld, chief executive of Public Counsel, a Los Angeles pro bono legal services organization.

Less fortunate

Pro bono legal services have been around for centuries as a means to support the less fortunate. "The legal profession is unique," said Grunfeld. "We have a history of almost 400 years of having pro bono be part and parcel of how lawyers define themselves."

Law firms often consider it good for business. "Doing pro bono work helps recruit lawyers, helps retain lawyers, solidifies relationships with clients, builds new clients and can be high profile," said David Lash, managing counsel of pro bono and public interest services at O'Melveny & Myers LLP. Lash is also former executive director of Los Angeles legal assistance organization Bet Tzedek.

For younger lawyers, pro bono work allows them to hone their skills while counting toward their billable hours, which are accumulated at the end of the year for bonuses and promotions.

Two-thirds of lawyers said they provided pro bono legal services for the poor over the past year, according to a 2004 survey of 1,100 lawyers by the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service. They spent an average of 39 free hours providing those services.

The Los Angeles office of Kirkland & Ellis, which was recognized by the State Bar of California this year for its work on behalf of the Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center, logged 7 percent of its billable hours as pro bono services in the past year. "Last year, our firm had a substantial spike in pro bono hours," said Jeff Davidson, managing partner of Kirkland & Ellis' local office. "There are legal needs in the community that are being unmet, and it's that simple."

Many lawyers pick certain causes because they have established relationships with organizations or individuals--they sit on their boards, donate financially or have done pro bono work in the past.

Others pick causes that relate to their own expertise. "That's only natural--it's where they feel the most comfortable," said Lash. "But lawyers sometimes have just an interest in other areas of the law and by doing pro bono work they can pursue those other interests."

In those cases, nonprofit organizations such as Public Counsel spend hours training lawyers and providing manuals on laws with which they may not be familiar, such as adoptions, city ordinances and Holocaust restitution.

Still, lawyers have limits on the groups they can represent. A few firms direct their lawyers on what organizations or types of cases are allowed to receive free legal services. Most have a pro bono coordinator or committee made up of appointed senior partners to vet the services offered by their attorneys.

"A lot of firms encourage individual lawyers to be out in the community and making contacts and bringing to the firm interesting and worthwhile pro bono engagements, but then the firm has to pass on it," Lash said.

Most firms avoid pro bono work that would put their lawyers in a position of suing a client or former client. They also screen cases for those deemed inappropriate.

Other firms look for philosophical differences that could be used against them. For instance, if a firm presents an opinion on behalf of a real estate developer in one case but argues the opposite opinion on behalf of a pro bono group in a separate case, the two positions could be used against its lawyers, Davidson said.

Political ramifications sometimes come into play, although less frequently. "Most pro bono work is not controversial," Lash said. "Most of it is on behalf of poor people who need representation to secure for themselves the basic necessities of life."