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New data has found that in-house legal teams and individual in-house lawyers who are signatories to the National Pro Bono Target continue to fall short of their pro bono commitments.
The Australian Pro Bono Centre has published the 19th Annual Performance Report of the National Pro Bono Target, with in-house teams averaging just 7.1 hours per lawyer against the annual 20-hour target, and only one individual in-house lawyer exceeding the target in FY2025–26.
This comes after the report also found that Australian boutique law firms’ pro bono work declined in FY25–26, with average hours falling from 51.4 to 44.2 per lawyer due to increasing pressures from AI adoption, anti-money laundering reforms, and economic issues.
Yet, as a whole, Australian lawyers delivered a record 887,910 hours of pro bono legal work in FY25–26, averaging 43.2 hours per lawyer and exceeding the national target of 35 hours, emphasising the profession’s continued commitment to improving access to justice.
On a national basis, it was found that NSW had undertaken the most pro bono hours, totalling 352,736 hours.
This was followed by Victoria at 281,075, Queensland at 123,332, Western Australia at 71,335, ACT at 32,492, South Australia at 19,611, with Northern Territory and Tasmania totalling 6,057 and 1,274 hours, respectively.
In FY25–26, the National Pro Bono Target covered 20,685 full-time equivalent (FTE) lawyers across its signatories, including a small proportion of in-house legal teams and individual in-house lawyers.
According to the latest report, six corporate legal departments recorded pro bono service across 62 FTE practitioners, logging a combined 438 pro bono hours throughout FY25–26, representing a decrease from the 620 hours recorded during FY2024–25.
Only two in-house teams met or exceeded the target, an increase from one team in FY24–25, although overall participation declined from 47 per cent to 32.4 per cent.
Nine in-house lawyers reported a combined 157 hours of pro bono work, averaging six hours per lawyer, with one individual exceeding the target.
This was an increase from 104 hours of pro bono work in last year’s report, but a decrease from just under 10 reported hours per lawyer in FY24–25, to six hours per lawyer in FY25–26.
It is apparent that in-house legal teams are facing mounting pressures, with a survey of 510 in-house legal leaders and CFOs revealing that 83 per cent expected legal budgets to increase in 2027, but rising staff salaries, law firm fees, and unplanned AI costs continue to strain resources, with legal teams increasingly turning to alternative legal service providers to manage workloads and expenses.
This year, paralegals were included in the target report, with three FTE paralegals undertaking pro bono work totalling 20 hours.
One-third of reporting in-house teams met or exceeded the target, which was up 14.3 per cent on the previous year.
The findings ultimately suggested that increasing participation and embedding pro bono work within in-house legal team operations remains a key priority.
Yet, the small number of reporting teams and minimal response rate from individual in-house lawyers highlight that the results should be interpreted with caution.
Given that the contribution of in-house lawyers totalled 157 pro bono hours, the report shows that the group certainly lacks in the area of voluntary legal work, even despite the increase in hours from FY24–25.
