New data suggests that in-house counsel and their departments (that are signatories to the National Pro Bono Target) remain well behind their private practice counterparts in the undertaking of pro bono work.
The Australian Pro Bono Centre (APBC) has published the 18th Annual Performance Report of the National Pro Bono Target, a voluntary target that law firms, incorporated legal practices, solicitors, barristers, barristers’ chambers, in-house lawyers, and legal teams can adopt to provide at least 35 hours of pro bono work each year (20 hours for in-house teams and lawyers).
The number of practitioners covered by the Target (either as individual signatories or as employees of organisations that are signatories) is now 19,973 lawyers, accounting for around one in five lawyers nationally.
This year’s report shows a “significant” 8.11 per cent rise in pro bono hours in the last financial year, with 333 signatories having undertaken a combined 844,999 pro bono hours, for an average of 42.3 hours per lawyer – the highest ever recorded under the Target.
Findings
However, while individual solicitors and barristers, volunteering in a personal capacity, reported an average of 98.58 pro bono hours in FY2024–25, smaller firms saw an average of 51.35 hours per lawyer, and large firms delivered an average of 41.75 pro bono hours per lawyer, in-house teams and lawyers have a way to go.
According to the latest report, seven in-house teams reported on the pro bono hours of 68 full-time lawyers, who undertook a total of 619.5 hours of pro bono work (down from 666.8 hours in FY2023–24).
Those in-house team signatories reported, on average, 9.11 hours of pro bono work per lawyer in the last financial year, which was up slightly from the 8.19 hours undertaken per lawyer in FY23–24. However, only one in-house team met or exceeded the Target, down from three last year.
Five in-house teams reported that they expect to meet the Target in FY2025–26.
The 11 individual in-house lawyers who reported on their work undertaken contributed a combined 104 hours of pro bono work, for an average of 9.9 hours in FY24–25, which was down from 10.69 hours in the previous financial year.
Two individuals working in-house met or exceeded the Target, compared to four last year, and five of the 11 reporting individuals expect to meet the Target in FY25–26.
The Target of 20 hours of pro bono services per in-house lawyer, per year, was first introduced on 1 July 2020.
Last year, at the release of the previous report on the National Pro Bono Target, APBC chief executive Gabriela Christian-Hare (pictured) said that ensuring in-house legal teams can better manage the duty to undertake more pro bono work against the workloads and obligations being imposed upon them by their businesses/organisations, means pro bono “being prioritised … in a way that is formalised, recognised and actively encouraged by the general counsel and other senior management”.
“Legal pro bono is impactful and measurable and can make an enormous contribution to the social impact of those organisations,” she said at the time.
However, she added, “it won’t get off the ground by accident”.
“An organisation needs to take active steps to appoint an in-house lawyer – and for a larger team, ideally a network of pro bono ‘champions’ – to oversee and drive forward the program, assess the expertise, skill sets and interests of the legal team, and find opportunities to develop meaningful long-term partnerships with pro bono beneficiary organisations,” Christian-Hare said.
“We have seen very busy in-house teams manage this well.”
Jerome Doraisamy is the managing editor of Lawyers Weekly and HR Leader. He is also the author of The Wellness Doctrines book series, an admitted solicitor in New South Wales, and a board director of the Minds Count Foundation.
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