CBA Record September-October 2026

THE YOUNG LAWYERS SECTION

A Pro Bono Odyssey: One Attorney’s Journey toward Serving at Scale By YLS Editorial Staff A ttorney and author David A. Baker has dedicated a signifi cant portion of his legal career to

pro bono work. In his largest pro bono accomplishment, he funded, and now volunteers with, the Anti-Bullying Proj ect at the Civitas Child Law Center at Loyola University Chicago. The devel opment of such an extensive project did not happen overnight. Rather, it resulted from Baker’s career-long, progressive dedication to pro bono service. When Baker began practicing law roughly 47 years ago at McDermott Will & Schulte (previously McDermott Will & Emery), the firm lacked a formal pro bono program. Instead, the firm’s scores of lawyers acquired discrete pro bono matters through personal contacts, then searched for attorneys to staff the cases. At that time, Baker took matters involving probate estates, guardianships, mental health cases, and related litiga tion, but sourcing proved difficult and inconsistent. When a law school class mate joined Chicago Volunteer Legal Services, Baker finally had a pipeline for sourcing pro bono matters. He began taking cases from CVLS. These included domestic relations, small probates, guardianships, and related litigation. Some years later, Baker advanced to managing an internal, firm-wide pro bono program. Assuming control of a pre viously unstructured program consumed a great deal of time, as Baker personally fielded the calls from CVLS, ran conflict checks, found volunteers to staff the cases, and often personally handled cases. Through working on domestic mat ters, including routine divorces, orders From Individual to Firm-Wide Pro Bono

of protection, and disputed child custody cases, Baker witnessed first-hand just how heated some of the issues can be. In one of his more vivid memories, a defendant in an order of protection case entered his clinic while allegedly wearing a vest packed with explosives. Although it was later discovered that the disgruntled man simply wore a weighted jogging vest, the experience highlighted the risks of taking on such emotion ally charged work. Regardless, Baker chose to continue it. His efforts helped hone his practical skills, which in turn attracted more paying cli ents and yielded more court appointments and more varied opportunities. As his skills advanced, his cases became more complex. In disabled adult guardianship cases, for example, he encountered troubling scenarios in which people took advantage of elderly, and often cognitively challenged, victims. In one memorable case, his client, who suf fered from Alzheimer’s disease, was held hostage by people who wanted to keep him out of guardianship as they drained his finances. Baker became embroiled in a daunt ing but successful police rescue of his client but then was mistakenly held in contempt

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