TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Kate Prince on Dec 6, 2022

Free Legal Answers, the virtual legal advice clinic for qualifying users to post civil legal questions at no cost, last month surpassed a total of 250,000 questions answered since its launch in 2016. The program was spearheaded by former TBA President Buck Lewis, who was struck with the idea to connect pro bono lawyers with those in need of legal services after attending a series of meetings that addressed unmet civil needs around the state. “It just occurred to me that there were lawyers sitting in this hearing on BlackBerrys — they were BlackBerrys back then — emailing their clients,” says Lewis, a shareholder at Baker Donelson in Memphis. “Could we provide legal services that way for pro bono clients?” After working with his firm’s IT staff, he helped launch Free Legal Answers in 2011 and shared the code with colleagues in multiple states before working with the ABA Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service to make the program available nationwide. Since it began, more than 11,000 lawyers have registered to answer questions for users in 41 jurisdictions. The ABA Journal has more on the story.