hey, are nelson & murdock pro-bono like in the MCU i’ve asked reddit and google but i’m not getting any answers from any-one so i decided to ask you the expert.
The answer is: Yes, sometimes. (I'm not a lawyer, so correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think a law firm could survive if it were pro bono all the time.) In the comics, Nelson & Murdock started off with a loan from Foggy's rich parents, but it wasn't long before the duo started finding steady clients, and Matt in particular achieved rapid acclaim as a brilliant legal mind. As a result, Nelson & Murdock have a history of inconsistent but substantial financial success (I go into this a bit in this post; I'll never pass up an opportunity to show off Matt's swanky Sutton Place brownstone).
But Matt and Foggy are about helping people, first and foremost, not about making the big bucks. There are a few key examples of this. One is from the '70s, when--having gathered a good deal of success and the necessary funds--Matt and Heather (with Foggy joining soon afterward) started up what they called "the Storefront" on the Lower East Side--a reinvented Nelson & Murdock designed to be a walk-in law office offering, yes, pro bono services:
Daredevil vol. 1 #130 by Marv Wolfman, Bob Brown, Klaus Janson, Michele Wolfman, and John Costanza
(Foggy's just worried because he's about to lose his re-election campaign. Cheer up, Foggy, it's for the best.)
Another great example is from the '80s, following the Kingpin's destruction of Matt's life and Karen Page's return to the city. Matt and Karen moved into a small apartment in Hell's Kitchen, where Matt had lived as a child, and Karen--who was recovering from a drug addiction--created a community center and addiction hotline to help out people experiencing the same hardships she had been through. After some cajoling, she managed to bring Matt onboard as an under-the-table legal resource (he had been disbarred, so he wasn't technically allowed to practice law at the time), offering free consultations to anyone who needed one.
Daredevil vol. 1 #248 by Ann Nocenti, Rick Leonardi, Al Williamson, Joe Rosen, and Petra Scotese
There are other examples of Matt and/or Foggy offering free or discounted services on a case-by-case basis to people in need, but you get the general gist. The answer is an emphatic: sometimes.
Daredevil vol. 1 #312 by D.G. Chichester, Scott McDaniel, Christie Scheele, Bud Larose, and Bill Oakley
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