In his years at Cooley Godward, and later at the Legal Strategies Group, Jeffrey Hyman did fair housing and consumer fraud litigation on the side. In one case, he defended and won a settlement for an HIV patient whose positive status the hospital illegally disclosed to the patient's family.

He felt he made a difference. And it was easy.

"I was a full-time practicing litigator, so it was an extension of my day job," he said. "I had all the software tools and local court rules expertise right at my fingertips. I could do a complex pro bono case just as readily as a complex commercial case."

Then he went in-house.

One of the first things Hyman realized when he got to Intel Corp. in 2000 was that it would not be easy to continue to do litigation. In-house, he didn't have a litigation secretary at hand, and no support for preparation and filing of court documents.

"Lawyers in-house feel just as much ethical obligation to do pro bono legal services for the poor as lawyers in firms, but they face a number of hurdles," said Hewlett-Packard Deputy General Counsel Bruce Ives, who is also pro bono chairman of the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel.

Hyman approached Intel General Counsel Bruce Sewell, and with his support, developed the company's first pro bono program, which he leads.

Worries over malpractice insurance coverage and proper legal skills have made it tough to get started down the path, in-house attorneys say. Traditionally viewed as a "cost center," Hyman said in-house lawyers are not usually encouraged to prioritize volunteer work. What's more, the most easily available pro bono opportunities are often litigation work, and most in-house lawyers are not litigators, he said.

Law firms have established pro bono cultures and clients, offer training, and provide the firm's own malpractice insurance coverage.

"Most in-house legal departments don't have those structures," HP's Ives said.

But that seems to be changing. The Association of Corporate Counsel has created a regional program to help in-house lawyers get pro bono projects off the ground. Together with the Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County and the Silicon Valley Law Foundation, the association will host a legal services clinic Nov. 17 at which volunteer lawyers will be able to work directly with people in need.

The ACC's program was designed with the help of the Pro Bono Institute, which has worked with law firms and corporate legal departments for years. The Legal Aid Society will assist volunteer attorneys in working with children's relatives to help them gain legal guardianship. The Law Foundation will offer training and support for lawyers working with low-income residents with AIDS, helping them with estate planning and health care forms.

"It's pro bono on a silver platter," Ives said. "All you have to do is show up. We'll feed you, we'll train you, we'll bring the clients to you."

Ives, who helped spearhead ACC's program, said HP was exploring ways to build a pro bono program, but that it "made sense for [the association] to build a regional program that companies could plug into, rather than each company reinventing the wheel," he said.

In addition to the clinic, the association is rolling out two other incentive programs. One will give legal services organizations $50 for each hour of pro bono time an attorney donates. The association will also use the interest income generated by an endowment fund of $100,000 to fund a grant for select legal aid organizations.

"Some legal departments are creating their own signature projects," said Esther Lardent, president of the Pro Bono Institute. "The level of interest is much higher than last year."

"We did a survey in our department in January about interest," Hyman agreed. "We got very strong feedback that people really wanted to do this."