In recent years, more and more Chinese students have been enrolling into the one-year LLM program or the three-year JD program for American law students. Either way, graduates from either program are generally entitled to sit for bar exams for several states of America. Since there are relatively fewer prerequisites to sit for its bar exam, New York has become the state most favored by foreign test takers and one of its prerequisites to admission might, in fact, have an impact on China’s public interest law.

The state of New York has in effect a pro bono requirement mandating that all applicants for admission by examination to the New York Bar must perform 50 hours of law-related pro bono service prior to filing their application. Under the relevant rule, pro bono is broadly defined as including but not limited to law-related work that assists in the provision of legal services without charge for persons of limited means or NPOs.

Most importantly, according to the rule, the 50 hours of pro bono service may be completed in any state of the United States or any foreign country.

What this means is that since most Chinese students return to China shortly after graduating from American law schools, especially the LLMs, might have to full fill their 50 hours’ requirement of pro bono service in China if they wish to apply for admission to the New York bar. For NPOs and organizations that provide legal assistance in China, these recent law school graduates are a resource that should not be neglected, however, a lot of these graduates still struggle to find law-related pro bono work in China.

Recently, CBCGDF’s pro bono program got into contact with a few UT law school graduates who just recently passed the New York bar exam and are finding NPOs to provide law-related pro bono services in order to fulfill the New York Bar’s requirements.

The director of CBCGDF’s pro bono program emphasized CBCGDF’s advantages that shall help those graduates seeking for a place to provide pro bono services. CBCGDF allows volunteers to provide long distance services and CBCGDF’s work is mostly international and law-related and also performed under the supervision of experienced lawyers which is also a requirement of admission to the New York Bar.

The director introduced the volunteers to some of their previous cases, such as the case that was tried in court as they speak by 5 fishermen against ConocoPhillips, the leading oil and gas supplier in China, which was held responsible and fined for a series of oil spills in the Bohai Bay. The total amount of catch in the Bohai Bay dropped significantly after the incident and even after many years the level of toxic contents in aquatic products still exceeds statutory limits. Many of these aquatic products were sold to foreign countries and continue to affect the health of consumers.

CBCGDF is recently working on the protection of bluefin tuna which is designated as Critically Endangered in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Redlist of Threatened Species but still prized by sushi lovers around the world. Several American organizations have established the Bluefin Tuna Alliance to require their government to file a motion to include the bluefin tuna into CITES' (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) list and achieve a ban on international sale. CBCGDF intends to join. 

Students seeking to provide pro bono services at CBCGDF have a variety of cases from which to choose since, in recent years, the amount of cases that CBCGDF handles has increased significantly including cases related to agriculture, climate changes, maritime, food safety, anti-trust, and labor law etc.

The director also stresses that CBCGDF hopes to maximize the public interest and welfare effects of the program and also hope that the participants can make the most out of the pro bono projects and combine this experience into their future studies and career.

For those that are interested in CBCGDF’s pro bono program, you are welcome to contact us at 010-68485952 or send us an email at v1@cbcgdf.org.Your contributions here are beyond your imagination.