The Pro Bono Institute’s mission is to explore and identify new approaches to - and resources for - the provision of legal services to the poor, disadvantaged, and other individuals or groups unable to secure legal assistance to address critical problems.

Attorney General Holder told the audience of a key premise important in his vision and career. He explained: “Chesterfield Smith, {a former president of the American Bar Association,} often argued that a lawyer’s skills and training must be used not simply to make a living, but also to make a difference. Throughout his career, he seized every possible opportunity to remind his colleagues that justice is not a special privilege of the rich. It must be the right of all.”