<p>there a big salary difference?</p>
<p>Um I think your thread title alone should give you the answer to that. Half these question you are asking are completely obvious. I don't mean to sound rude or anything though.</p>
<p>"Pro bono" is short for "pro bono publico," Latin for "for the good of the public."</p>
<p>Attorneys don't charge for working pro bono. There are a few organizations that pay attorneys to appear pro bono virtually all of the time, at salaries far lower than what corporate lawyers receive.</p>
<p>basic reality -- no matter how wonderful a lawyer you are, your wages have to be paid by someone. the money doesn't just materialize.</p>
<p>big corporate clients can afford to pay more in legal fees than average individuals or small businesses.</p>
<p>people who need "pro bono" legal assistance are by definition not paying for it. someone else in essence is. the someone else can be (1) a government agency funding, (2) a not for profit, or (3) a lawyer/law firm volunteering their time who otherwise makes their living from paying clients. the former two are not known for generous salaries. as for the latter, what you earn depends on what you would otherwise be earning from your paying clients/firm salary.</p>
<p>so if you are an attorney working at a big corporate firm that makes its attorneys available for pro bono work, you could end up doing pro bono work and earn the big corporate pay check -- but don't expect that to be the main portion of your work (though if i recall correctly, way back when i was practicing, i think there were some big firms that had a couple of lawyers they let work full time on pro bono, but i think that was only allowed to be an assignment for a limited time period.) and don't expect to be able to choose the pro bono matters you get to work on in such a setting.</p>
<p>Back in the day, the large law firm that I worked at had a full time pro bono coordinator, who also worked on pro bono cases. You need to have a lot of prior experience to get a position like that, since it does pay well above the norm for pro bono type work. In general, to start out in pro bono, I would think that the salary is comparable to a lower paid government entry level lawyer. Hardly enough to cover the loan pay back, if any.</p>
<p>just a reminder that the top law schools and some others offer loan forgiveness programs for those who go into public interest law.</p>