Three Law School faculty named National Bellow Scholars to research pro bono and access to justice

Joining forces with leading University at Buffalo Sociologist Robert Granfield, they will examine the New York State courts’ new Pro Bono Scholars Program, an initiative designed to expand free civil legal services and access to justice for low-income people while helping law students to become “practice-ready.”

“Vision and Action": Access to Justice, Professional Formation, and Employment Prospects in the Inaugural Classes of New York's Pro Bono Scholars Program is one of five research projects honored in the 2015-16 Bellows cycle announced in January at the AALS Annual Meeting in Washington, DC.

Founded in memory of Harvard Law School professor Gary Bellow, a pioneer of innovative civil legal services for low-income people in the 1960s and one of the trailblazers of modern clinical legal education, the prestigious biennial Bellow Scholars competition recognizes innovative empirical research projects aimed at improving justice for underserved communities.

Professor Connolly, Health Justice Law & Policy Clinic instructor Pelfrey Duryea, Externships Director Bauer, and Vice Provost Granfield plan to collect a wide variety of data on the state’s new Pro Bono Scholars Program.  The project will seek insight into the students who choose to participate in the Program, the people and communities that they serve, the community partners, and the effect of participation on Scholars’ postgraduate employment and pro bono volunteer work choices.

SUNY Buffalo Law’s inaugural class of Pro Bono Scholars is the state’s largest, with twelve students to be placed with five legal aid organizations. Created in 2014 by New York State Courts’ Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, the Pro Bono Scholars Program allows selected law students to spend the last semester of law school working full-time, rather than in the classroom.  Supervised by practicing attorneys, these “student-attorneys” will spend three months providing free legal help to low-income New Yorkers. Already hailed as a national model, the Program launches statewide this spring with a total of 106 Scholars representing all fifteen New York law schools.

“The Pro Bono Scholars Program is a major initiative in one of the country’s most-watched jurisdictions,” says Connolly, the Law School’s director of clinical legal education and vice dean for legal skills, who is the principal investigator for the study.  “With the New York Courts’ support, our research will not only inform those who practice and teach in New York, but also those involved in legal education reform and pro bono work across the country.” 

“It’s fitting that, as the only law school in the State University of New York system, SUNY Buffalo Law will lead the effort to assess this significant new program,” says James Gardner, interim dean of the Law School.  “SUNY Buffalo is well-positioned to understand how the Pro Bono Scholars Program fits into the history of pro bono legal work as well as into up-to-the-moment debates about training the next generation of lawyers.”

“As SUNY Buffalo’s Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs, I am pleased to support the Law School’s tradition of outstanding interdisciplinary research,” says Granfield.  “And, as a sociologist who has studied pro bono practice extensively, I’m delighted to be part of this important research initiative.”