One area that demands urgent attention, APBC submits, is the battle against climate change.

Lawyers who undertake climate-related pro bono work will not only be able to help mitigate the risk or impact of such environmental challenges, it says, but also adhere to the aforementioned underlying duty of legal practice: to improve access to justice.

“Lawyers have the skills, opportunities and resources to tackle this challenge. While our individual actions may seem small, collectively the legal profession can show leadership – and have a substantial impact on the climate crisis,” APBC wrote in its newly released “Pro Bono Guide to the Climate Crisis”.

“Lawyers with a wide range of skills and experience can get involved in climate-related pro bono work. This is not just an opportunity for lawyers with knowledge of environmental and planning law – there are many ways that lawyers can use their existing skills and resources to work towards climate justice.”

APBC outlined 15 key ways that lawyers, and their employers, can roll up their sleeves with pro bono work that serves to combat the climate crisis:

1. Running strategic climate litigation;
2. Working on law reform activities;
3. Offering commercial legal advice to not-for-profit organisations and social enterprises;
4. Establishing a climate justice clinic in collaboration with a university;
5. Providing a secondee to a civil society organisation working to combat climate change;
6. Providing legal assistance to Indigenous peoples who are disproportionately affected by the climate crisis;
7. Conducting legal research about the intersection between human rights and climate change;
8. Providing legal advice, information and advocacy to those fighting climate change;
9. Providing legal information and advice to those affected by a natural disaster;
10. Offering immigration law advice to people displaced by the effects of climate change;
11. Giving legal support to NGOs and developing country delegations in international climate change negotiations;
12. Providing community legal education;
13. Providing legal assistance to communities particularly affected by the climate crisis;
14.  Delivering training to community lawyers; and
15. Expanding the role of the pro bono lawyer by embedding climate transition and environmental factors in commercial decision-making.

“The severity of impact on the safety, health and livelihoods of our global population is also apparent and climate change is increasingly being characterised as a human rights issue,” she submitted.

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Perceived commercial conflicts of interest, Ms Christian-Hare continued, have traditionally made many firms “reluctant to take on climate-related pro bono work”.

“It's pleasing to see this is gradually changing and we have sought to provide advice on how to mitigate or eliminate these conflicts,” she reflected.

“In fact, the increasing importance of [environment social governance] (ESG) factors to commercial work represents an opportunity for pro bono lawyers to play an expanded role, advising on the interplay between the ‘E’ and ‘S’ in ESG and [helping] shape the strategic direction of their firms and legal teams.”

APBC chair Phillip Cornwell added that it is “remarkable” how climate change and biodiversity loss concerns have finally become “mainstream” in Australia.

“Those concerns were building strongly with Greta Thunberg and the Extinction Rebellion movement, and, in the commercial context, the Business Roundtable announcement of the switch from ‘shareholder primacy’ to ‘stakeholder capitalism’,” he said.

“Now, the unprecedented scale and ferocity of the Black Summer of Fire has put in sharp focus on our world-leading per capita carbon emissions, and our world-leading mammal extinction rate.”

Environmental causes, Mr Cornwell noted, have “long been a part of many pro bono practices, but rarely a prominent one”.

“So, at the [centre] we thought it was time to help harness these growing concerns by developing this [guide] for pro bono lawyers on how to deploy their skills in elping]fight global warming and biodiversity loss,” he said.

The guide is available for download from APBC’s website.