Pro bono, cui bono, ex fida bona Investigation on pro bono commitment of large US law firms in 1993-2007

Previous works have found the relationship between corporate philanthropy and financial performances inconclusive. This study proposes that such a mixed relationship should be better understood as a firm's instrumental motive interacts with institutional pressures for philanthropy. To do so, this study focuses on large US law firms in 1993-2007 when the US legal service industry has been transformed into a highly commercialised for-profit market (instrumental motives), while having pressured law firms to provide philanthropic legal services known as pro bono (institutional pressures). We hypothesise that law firms would engage in pro bono when it is beneficial to the firm, and disengage in it otherwise, and such tendency would be moderated by the salience of institutional pressures on pro bono. We found overall supports for the hypotheses. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed.