The Mandarins of the Law - Pro Bono Legal Work in a Comparative Perspective

Abstract

The article provides a comprehensive theoretical and empirical analysis of pro bono legal discourse and practices in Latin America. This article seeks to describe and analyze the conceptual architecture of the transnational discourse on pro bono work. Using these theoretical tools, the article also describes and analyzes the pro bono discourse and practices developed in Argentina, Colombia and Chile. In the first part of the article, I present the elements that form the standard global concept of pro bono work. Pro bono work is a global phenomenon defined by and based on a transnational discourse. The purpose of this section is to present the categories that structure the discourse on pro bono work and that contribute to the creation of a part of the modern legal and political imagination. In the second part of the article, I argue that the pro bono discourse and practices in Argentina, Chile, and Colombia are the result of a legal transplant between the legal elites of North and South America. In this section, I also describe and analyze the reasons that explain this legal transplant, its consequences, and local adaptations. The theoretical and comparative analysis presented in this article is informed by both a cultural analysis of law, which serves as the theoretical framework, and field work done in Bogota, Buenos Aires and Santiago. During fieldwork, research teams conducted 183 semi-structured interviews with the staff of foundations that work on pro bono issues in Argentina, Chile, and Colombia, as well as with lawyers who work at the firms that created and are affiliated with these organizations. The analysis is also based on three online surveys that were sent to all of the firms affiliated with the pro bono foundations.