MIAMI - Holland & Knight has overhauled its pro bono efforts to expand a program centered on litigators to all attorneys at the firm.

“What we’re trying to do now is get our nonlitigators more involved in the pro bono program,” said Peter Prieto, a Miami partner and chair of the firm’s national litigation section. “What that’s going to do is increase the number of pro bono attorneys and the number of hours for the firm.”

The initiative in the works for more than a year was announced soon after the departure of noted death-penalty litigator George Kendall and three associates, who went to Squire Sanders & Dempsey last month.

“Nobody ever likes to lose high-quality lawyers,” Prieto said. “Death penalty litigation is high-impact work, but pro bono work is larger and broader than that. We have people that have lost their homes and have immigration issues, and there’s a large number of folks that can’t afford quality legal services. Those are the folks that we want to help.”

The firm also lost Miami immigration associate Leon Fresco in March, when he was hired as chief counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration. He handled some of the firm’s highest-profile pro bono work in South Florida, including appeals that made it easier for gays to seek asylum in the United States.

The new program will bring in nonlitigators and integrate pro bono work with community initiatives involving clients, Prieto said. It is headed by senior partner Buddy Schulz in Jacksonville; Steve Hanlon, a Washington partner and civil rights attorney; and William Sessions, a former FBI director, federal judge and U.S. attorney. Sessions, who joined the firm in 2000, will practice full-time on pro bono matters along with Schulz.

“We believe that our charitable pro bono and community service activities can benefit from a closer relationship between the firm and the foundation,” Schulz said. He said he does not have projections for pro bono hours this year.

The Holland & Knight Charitable Foundation was created in 1996 as part of the firm’s commitment to pro bono work. Firm founder Chesterfield Smith was known for almost 40 years for motivating lawyers to give back to the community by providing free legal services.

The changes are part of managing partner Steven Sonberg’s initiative to improve the program.

“We have been evaluating our pro bono and community services program since I assumed the role of managing partner in March 2008 and concluded that, as good as it was, we could improve it by making a number of strategic and operational changes,” Sonberg said.

The pro bono transformation at the 1,100-attorney firm is among several structural changes at the firm since Sonberg took charge. The firm reduced associate pay by an average of 7 percent in July.

Attorneys have been reassigned to higher-demand practice areas, and staff functions have been reorganized. In February, 243 employees, including 70 attorneys, were laid off.

An earlier round of layoffs in May 2008 eliminated 70 staffers.

“The legal profession has experienced a significant decline in demand for services during the past year,” Sonberg said by e-mail in July.

The firm will continue to credit its lawyers for up to 100 hours of pro bono work toward their billable hour requirements each year for compensation purposes.

Average pro bono performance by Holland & Knight attorneys decreased 4 percent to 48.9 hours per lawyer in 2008 from 51.2 hours in 2007, according to statistics gathered in 2008 by American Lawyer, a Daily Business Review affiliate. About 39 percent of lawyers logged more than 20 hours of pro bono work last year, down slightly from 40 percent the year before. The firm ranked 89 in Am Law’s Pro Bono 100.

The firm plans to donate about 3 percent of its billable hours, an average of 50 hours per lawyer, to pro bono, according to its Web site.

“This is consistent with Holland & Knight’s commitment to provide pro bono services to represent the less fortunate and ensure equal justice for all,” said Jordan Dresnick, a litigation attorney in the firm’s Miami office who has done pro bono work.