PRO BONO WEEK OCT. 24-30
A ‘big fish’ with a big heart By Tom Howard
Twenty-five years ago, Gary Connelley had built a reputation as a staunch advocate for farm workers, victims of elder abuse and other lowincome clients through his work as an attorney for Montana Legal Services Association. But when a friend called him to see if he was interested in coming to talk with the partners at Montana’s largest law firm about a pro bono project, he wasn’t sure what to think. “I thought it was a prank call at first,” Connelley recalled. Connelley learned that partners from the firm, now known as Crowley Fleck PLLP, had been discussing a plan to offer a pro bono law program to better serve clients who can’t afford legal representation. The idea behind hiring a full-time pro bono attorney was to explore how the firm could fulfill its professional responsibilities and ethical obligations, Connelley said. While that initial meeting in the spring of 1996 was by no means a job interview, the partners started picking Connelley’s brain for ideas on what a pro bono program might look like. One discussion led to another, Connelley was offered a position, and the program officially launched on Oct. 1, 1996. Although lawyers have long been offering free legal help to low-income clients, the program that the firm began was unique within the Rocky Mountain West. At the time the firm was the proverbial big fish in a small pond with about 50 attorneys working from offices in Billings and Helena. “They were by far the smallest firm undertaking anything like this. I investigated fairly closely to see what our chances were of being successful in something that was really unique. I
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MONTANALAWYER
Photos by Casey Page
WWW.MONTANABAR.ORG
