Starting in 2015, a new state rule will require all New York state lawyers to perform 50 hours of pro bono work before receiving license to practice law in the state.

The ruling, made by Jonathan Lippman, chief judge of the state of New York, will take effect for all first and second-year law students next year.

Associate Judge Victoria A. Graffeo, who co-chairs the Advisory Committee on New York State Pro Bono Bar Admission Requirements, developed the recommendations upon which Lippman acted.

“[Judge Lippman] is deeply concerned with the lack of legal resources for the poor and under-served in the state,” Graffeo said. “There’s hundreds of thousands of underrepresented litigants who have no representation in the court system at all.”

Judge Gerald Lebovits, a full-time judge in the New York City Civil Court and an adjunct professor of law at NYU, applauds the new requirement.

“There are simply not enough lawyers for the poor,” Lebovits said. “Middle classes who work and for whom paying for a lawyer is a substantial hardship.”

Lebovits believes the new ruling not only helps society but also helps students learn by giving them substantial responsibility.

“Nothing is better for a student, in terms of doing, than representing a real client,” Lebovits said. “They learn that doing clinical work is a way of contributing, and it’s actually helping people.”

Elizabeth Vasquez, a third year law student at NYU, said though she will not be affected by the mandate, she believes the new requirement absolutely essential.

“It would get a lot of people into the public sector of law and really help the system,” Vasquez said.

Garen Marshall, a second-year law student at NYU, said he was more than happy to spend his first year as a student advocate for Iraqi refugees coming to the United States. There, he worked to provide free legal aid to impoverished families and charitable nonprofits. Even though he thinks Lippman’s law is a great idea, he does not find it
entirely necessary.

“Probably 90 percent of my peers are already involved in pro bono groups… so I doubt it’ll have that much of an effect,” Marshall said.

David McCraw, an adjunct professor of law at NYU, shared Marshall’s concerns.

“I also think many, many students are already doing good and useful pro bono work…the focus [needs to be] on getting more practicing lawyers involved in pro bono,” McCraw said. “That seems, to me, to be where the real need lies.”

A version of this article appeared in the Oct. 1 print edition. Andrew Karpman is a contributing writer. Email him at [email protected].