Speaking at Clayton Utz’s office in Eagle Street, Brisbane, at the Queensland Young Lawyers’ Pro Bono Information evening, Chief Justice Paul de Jersey AC said generation Y was invigorating attitudes that overrule those widely held by the profession.

This includes a re-think of working through the night when a big case comes around, being seen not taking lunch breaks, and believing that not being made associate partner is the kiss of death to professional fulfilment.

He told the young lawyers that in encouraging such change they were “positive agents” and that the change they are promoting is “plainly very beneficial”.

Chief Justice de Jersey said that juniors in larger firms have embraced pro bono work. This comes, he said, despite many large firms’ exposure of young practitioners to the prospect of burnout. He said this eagerness may come as pro bono work can be more diverse, because there is no need for timesheets, and for the chance to meet real people, “rather than forever review endless swathes of documentation”.

See what tactics firms use to implement pro bono in the News Review on page 14.