By Daniel Wiessner

ALBANY, N.Y., Oct 22 (Reuters) - Following the lead of the New York state court system, New Jersey's top judge has formed a committee to consider requiring prospective attorneys to complete pro bono work before being admitted to the state bar.

The 17-member panel, which Chief Justice Stuart Rabner created last week, will be chaired by Judge Glenn Grant, the acting administrative director of New Jersey's court system. The committee will review New York's pro bono mandate, which requires 50 hours of work, and make recommendations to Rabner.

The panel includes private attorneys, bar association officials, legal service providers and officials from the state's three law schools, as well as a third-year law student and a retired state judge.

According to an Oct. 15 letter Grant wrote inviting the officials to join the committee, 97 percent of small claims litigants and 99 percent of tenants in housing cases in New Jersey show up to court without a lawyer.

"These numbers, combined with the ongoing limits of resources for Legal Services of New Jersey, continue to cause concern about access for a considerable portion of those who could be most in need," he wrote.

When New York's chief judge, Jonathan Lippman, proposed the requirement for New York in May, he also cited the significant lack of representation for the poor. He has said the new rule will create roughly 500,000 hours of pro bono service while instilling a culture of public service in young lawyers.

The final version of the requirement, the first of its kind in the nation, was revealed by Lippman last month. It includes a broad definition of pro bono, allowing an array of existing law school programs, such as clinics, internships and judicial clerkships, to qualify. The rule applies to anyone admitted to the bar after Jan. 1, 2015.

Under the rule, qualifying service can be performed anywhere in the world and law students can receive stipends or salaries for their work, as long as their efforts are focused on the poor, non-profit organizations or government agencies.

The final draft of the mandate was largely a compromise that reflected concerns of law school officials that they would bear a heavy burden in implementing the rule.

BRAINSTORMING SESSION

Officials at New Jersey's three law schools -- the Camden and Newark campuses of Rutgers University School of Law and Seton Hall University Law School -- said they have been closely following developments in New York, where many of their students apply to the bar.

More than 80 percent of students at Rutgers-Camden already do enough work to qualify under New York's requirement, according to Eve Klothen, the school's assistant dean for pro bono and its representative on the pro bono committee.

"I don't think we're looking at any additional administrative costs" if New Jersey adopts a similar rule, she said.

Klothen and Jessica Kitson, the director of public interest at Rutgers-Newark, both said there is little in New York's rule that they would like to see changed. Kitson, echoing school officials in New York and other states, said there is some concern about part-time students, who often work and have families, meeting the requirement.

Late last month, Lippman sent details of the new rule to every chief judge in the country. He said in an interview at the time that he believed the initiative would become a national model, since many other states are grappling with a lack of legal services for the poor.

Court and bar association officials in more than a dozen states said recently that they have not reviewed New York's rule, or that their states are trying other methods to increase the amount of pro bono work, particularly among law students.

Deborah Saunders, an analyst at the National Center for State Courts, said on Monday that the group had not heard of any other states openly considering a pro bono requirement.

The New Jersey committee will meet for a "brainstorming session" on Nov. 1 in Trenton, Grant said in his letter, and the panel's review of the issue will be "expedited."

A spokeswoman for Rabner said there is no firm timeline for the review. She did not return a request for further information.

(An earlier version of this story had the wrong first name for Jessica Kitson.)

Follow us on Twitter @ReutersLegal | Like us on Facebook