"On Monday, May 17, 2016, Justice Sonia Sotomayor spoke at the national convention of the American Law Institute. She engagingly walked around the huge conference room, answered questions, and made observations. Cameras in the courts? Well, “It is a much more complex question than I thought,” she said, while suggesting that cameras in the Senate were responsible for the Senators’ lack of collegiality.
She also volunteered that she favored mandatory pro bono—requiring lawyers to perform legal services for reduced or no fee to help people of modest means in civil cases. (The government already provides free counsel in criminal cases, as required by the Sixth Amendment.)
Sotomayor said, “I believe in forced labor,” and. “If I had my way, I would make pro bono service a requirement.” If the government required lawyers to work for no pay, she said that there is no risk that they “may not give their best effort,” because the ethics rules require them to give their best effort. She cited approvingly a New York bar rule, instituted in 2012, that requires applicants for admission to the New York State bar to perform 50 hours of pro bono services. Like many rules, this one grandfathers in those already admitted to the New York Bar, so that financially secure law partners do not have to worry about this burden."

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