The next time you tell a lawyer joke, you might want to consider the other side of the story.

In the five years that the Charleston School of Law has been in existence, its students have donated more than 100,000 hours of free legal service to people all across South Carolina and the nation.

That’s equivalent to 50 people working full time for a year. Which is what the Charleston School of Law is all about. Its motto, in fact, is “pro bono populi,” which means “for the good of the people.”

Each law student at the Charleston school is required to complete at least 30 hours of pro bono service in order to graduate. But most of the 600 future lawyers enrolled here contribute much more than that, according to Michelle Condon, director of public service and pro bono at the school.

“Our pro bono program is a win-win-win situation for everyone involved,” Condon said. “Our students get valuable legal experience; the sites win because they get much-needed legal help; and the community wins because it gets an increased amount of services.”

[Post and Courier]