LegalCORPS is a Minnesota nonprofit organization that aims to expand access to the legal system by providing free legal assistance in transactional matters to low-income entrepreneurs and innovators and small nonprofits in Minnesota.
It does so exclusively through the services of volunteer business lawyers. Midway through 2015, LegalCORPS had approximately 550 attorneys on its volunteer roster.
They volunteer for a variety of personal and professional reasons — but a unifying motivation is Rule 6.1 of the Rules of Professional Conduct, which expresses the legal profession’s aspiration to serve those in the community who cannot afford access to the legal system on their own. Pro bono legal assistance is the kind of volunteer community service that only attorneys can provide.