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Pro bono work climbs but still room for improvement
The average number of pro bono hours completed per lawyer increased over 2020, however there’s still more work that needs to be done on these efforts, new research has found.
Emma Musgrave
The Australian Pro Bono Centre has released its seventh National Law Firm Pro Bono Survey, which examines the pro bono output of Australian firms with 50 or more lawyers.
In total, respondents completed 457,216.4 hours of pro bono work. This marks the highest number of total hours reported on record, equating to 254 FTE lawyers doing pro bono legal work full-time for a year.
Despite the positive results, the centre noted there is room for improvement.
While 58.8 per cent of firms reported an average pro bono participation rate of 58.8 per cent, this figure is down slightly on 2018’s figure of 61 per cent. That being said, when it comes to partner-specific participation the figures remain on an incline, with 48.7 per cent in 2020 compared to 42 per cent in 2018.
“The 2020 survey results demonstrate that the Australian pro bono community has continued to mature and grow since the previous Survey in 2018,” the report noted.
“… Pro bono legal work was recognised with full billable hour credit by 50 per cent of firms, a significant increase from the results of recent Survey years. More firms than ever before are providing pro bono secondments to community legal centres and other community organisations.
“However, there is still room for growth within the pro bono practices of large firms. In particular, the proportion of firms hiring at least one dedicated pro bono coordinator or manager has been consistently declining since 2012. Pleasingly, an increasing number of firms which appoint a pro bono coordinator are doing so full-time.
“The average pro bono participation rate at Survey respondent firms has not meaningfully increased since 2010, dropping slightly in 2020 compared to 2018.”
Further, the Australian Pro Bono Centre noted around 40 per cent of firms that set a budget for their pro bono program reported having a larger budget in 2020 than in 2018.
“However, as in 2018, just over half of all respondent firms are setting any budget for their pro bono program, despite it being best practice to do so,” it noted.
Lawyers Weekly will publish more findings from the research in the coming days.
Emma Musgrave
Emma Musgrave (née Ryan) is the managing editor, professional services at Momentum Media.
Emma has worked for Momentum Media since 2015, including five years spent as the editor of the company's legal brand - Lawyers Weekly. Throughout her time at Momentum, she has been responsible for breaking some of the biggest stories in corporate Australia. In addition, she has produced exclusive multimedia and event content related to the company's respective brands and audiences.
Prior to joining Momentum Media, Emma worked in breakfast radio, delivering news to the Central West region of NSW, before taking on a radio journalist role at Southern Cross Austereo, based in Townsville, North Queensland.
She holds a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) degree from Charles Sturt University.
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