ARDC report balances ‘negative’ data with bar’s pro bono, legal aid efforts
The annual report of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission contains the usual “negative” features, especially for those who seek ammunition for attacks on the legal profession.
Sure, the state has 83,881 registered lawyers, 62,442 who have Illinois business addresses. Some believe those numbers are excessive, but the annual growth rate over the past decade has been only 1.6 percent on both counts.
Lawyers are gatekeepers at the doors of justice. The more that laws are passed and amended, the need for the bench and bar to interpret them must be met.
And sure, the ARDC docketed 5,897 investigations during the past reporting year, but that amounts to 7 percent of the number of registered lawyers – down from 8 percent a decade ago, and from 10 percent 15 years ago.
Moreover, 5,746 investigations were closed by the ARDC office before they reached the level of inquiry. As an end result, only 135 sanctions were ordered by the Supreme Court – numerically, just one for every 622 registered lawyers.
So much for the ostensible bad news, and refutation of it. The ARDC report for 2008 proclaims a fair share of joyous signs that lawyers are doing more than charging fees.
On registration documents, 13,929 members of the bar reported that they contributed an aggregate 2,192,345 hours of generous pro bono representation, including 1,102,907 hours of direct legal service to people with limited means.
Let’s say those hours, if billable at about $75, would be worth more than 160 million dollars. That’s not all.
The same lawyers who devoted those hours to individuals and legal service agencies also donated a total of $14,779,088 in cash to provider organizations. It gets even better.
A $42 portion of the registration fee for every non-exempt licensed lawyer is remitted to the Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois for distribution in grants to agencies that provide assistance in civil matters. The net from that source is close to $3 million.
Some of these numbers are estimates or extrapolations, but put them all together and you can be proud that the legal profession accounts for, arguably, close to $180 million toward representation of clients who can’t afford to pay fees.
Here’s another laudable contribution, one that is made possible by ethical lawyers on behalf of the defrocked who committed misdeeds that cheated their clients.
The court’s Client Protection Program, successor in 1994 to the joint voluntary ISBA/CBA Client Security Fund, in the last reporting year paid a record $1,029,220 to claimants who were defrauded by 56 dead or disciplined respondents.
The program, which bears its own administrative costs, is funded by an assessment on registered attorneys. It realized $1,553,862 from this source last year.
Keep all of these blessings in mind for the next time you are called on to defend your profession. Be proud that you are a lawyer, and prouder that you and your colleagues are healers of society’s ills in so many tangible ways.