Lawyers Weekly recently invited eight pro bono lawyers to a roundtable discussion on the national pro bono target, whether pro bono belongs in a CSR program and the role pro bono plays in the tender process. As Justin Whealing discovered, pro bono is becoming more of an essential part of what a private practice lawyer does.

Proposed changes under the National Legal Profession Reform draft Bill which would provide free or low cost practising certificates for lawyers volunteering at community legal centres has drawn both praise and criticism from the National Pro Bono Resource Centre (NPBRC).

The thousands of hours and millions of dollars worth of free legal services provided by Victorian barristers were acknowledged last night at the Victorian Bar Pro Bono Awards.

The National Pro Bono Resource Centre (NPBRC), together with The College of Law and LexisNexis, has published a new guide for practical legal training (PLT) for Australian students.

The response from Australian lawyers to Lawyers Beyond Borders (LBB), an initiative of Australian Volunteers International (AVI) has been "unprecedented", program manager Emma Hess told Lawyers Weekly Friday.

The Law Institute of Victoria (LIV) has announced today that it will extend it pro bono bushfire legal service into 2010, following a contribution from the legal sector that has included 580 legal practitioners volunteering their time.

A Queensland MP and barrister provided pro bono representation which helped his client avoid conviction for traffic offences and angered police prosecutors.