The pro bono sector is also continuing to grow – particularly as more Australians find themselves unable to afford legal assistance in a cost-of-living crisis. Many firms have also established pro bono practices, with more than 100 new firms signing up for the Law Society of NSW’s Pro Bono Scheme in the last year alone.

Pro bono hours up almost 50% in last 5 years

Across all respondents in the profile, 389,045 hours (equivalent to approximately 51,873 working days) were reported to have been donated in the 12 months prior to the survey.

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Law Society of NSW president Brett McGrath said the reported total hours, equalling almost 52,000 working days in the 2022–23 financial year, significantly understates the pro bono commitment of the whole NSW profession – and that one of his presidential priorities this year was to “highlight the service that solicitors do provide to the community at large”.

“Of almost 13,600 solicitors who completed the 2023 Law Society’s Practising Certificate survey, 42 per cent said they’d performed pro bono work in the previous financial year, a second successive 2 per cent rise.

“At an assumed $300 per hour, these practitioners delivered $117 million worth of pro bono work. However, these results can’t capture the unpaid legal work of the two-thirds of the profession that didn’t complete the voluntary survey,” he said.

“I’m convinced that more and more solicitors are seeing pro bono work as a core value of their professional lives. This is evidenced by a surge of more than a hundred new firms that have signed up to the Law Society’s Pro Bono Scheme since the beginning of this year.”

In September last year, the Australian Pro Bono Centre (APBC) revealed that Australian lawyers had delivered a record number of pro bono hours in the 2023 financial year. Signatories to the centre’s Target completed a record 700,910 hours of pro bono work, reflecting a substantial increase of 8.58 per cent since FY2021–22.

Lawyers also reported undertaking an average of 38.3 hours of pro bono legal services per lawyer in FY2022–23, exceeding the Target of 35 hours. This was the second-highest average reported in the last decade.

While the centre isn’t collecting data until August this year, APBC CEO Gabriela Christian-Hare said that, in general, the sector is continuing to grow.

“We have witnessed an extraordinary rise in pro bono hours across the country in the last few years – in fact, a 48 per cent rise since 2019. This springs from a recognition that pro bono involvement is expected and standard practice, particularly amongst large law firms and a growing cohort of mid-size firms. Many small firms and sole practitioners also provide pro bono assistance as a matter of course,” she told Lawyers Weekly.

“It is expected that the pro bono sector will continue to strengthen and grow as the profession grows, but also as pro bono practice becomes more formalised and recognised in a range of ways internally. This includes through the appointment of dedicated pro bono lawyers to manage law firm practices – including at the partnership level.”

ESG, rising inflation and cost-of-living driving increased commitment

McGrath said that the number of pro bono hours the profession had been putting in was pleasing to see – and told Lawyers Weekly that “firms are absolutely driving cultural change within the profession”.

“People who join law and solicitors who join the profession, they generally do so because they want to make a difference in people’s lives,” he said.

“There is an altruistic side to wanting to be a lawyer and, with firms encouraging their solicitors to undertake that work, it’s part of our tradition and professional obligation.”

NSW, in particular, Christian-Hare explained, has a “mature pro bono culture” where law firms of all sizes have been “strengthening their commitment to pro bono for some time”.

“Pro bono moved from the fringes to the mainstream many years ago in the state, and it continues to be prioritised and formalised as a practice by a large cohort of firms. Access to pro bono opportunities has also been bolstered significantly by Justice Connect and the NSW Law Society’s Pro Bono Scheme – the formal pro bono referral organisations working in the state,” she said.

“To date, the majority of individual solicitors and barristers who have signed up to the Australian Pro Bono Centre’s National Pro Bono Target to work pro bono in a personal capacity are also NSW-based, reflecting the strong pro bono culture that exists in this state.

“Pro bono support is provided by lawyers when individuals cannot obtain Legal Aid or cannot otherwise access the legal system without incurring significant financial hardship. Certainly, financial hardship and disadvantage in our community has intensified through the cost-of-living crisis, and many lawyers across the profession will be acutely aware of that.”

This “increased social consciousness” is something that is driving the pro bono practice at Barry Nilsson, where the principal and head of pro bono and corporate responsibility, as well as the winner of the Pro Bono Partner of the Year at the 2024 Partner of the Year Awards, Katie Swain, said there is “an inherent desire and willingness to do what it takes to help others”.

“With the cost-of-living crisis, escalating family violence and the community legal sector being overwhelmed with increasing demand, we are seeing an increased awareness and social consciousness of the current societal inequalities at both an individual and firm level, driving an increase in pro bono legal services,” Swain said.

“We also know the government is encouraging law firms to sign up to the National Pro Bono Target and emphasising the amount of pro bono work undertaken by a law firm when allocating work to firms, which is likely also influencing the number of solicitors providing pro bono legal services in NSW.

“Our lawyers want to be involved in making an impact in the communities where they live and work, and our dedicated pro bono practice is just one of the ways they can do that. There is an incredibly collaborative approach to pro bono work with a network of firms supporting and assisting each other. Everyone is working together, no matter what firm they belong to, with the unified goal of helping clients.”

Sparke Helmore has a “dedicated, full-time pro bono team”, as well as a volunteer lawyer in a local pro bono coordinator role in each of its offices – and partner and leader of the pro bono practice Nick Christiansen said that FY2023–24 was the firm’s “strongest year for pro bono to date”.

“We completed more than 17,500 hours of pro bono legal assistance in the 2024 financial year, and with an average of 40.1 hours per FTE. Our total pro bono hours have increased by 15.5 per cent over the last two years. The community of law firms who do pro bono is a very collegiate one. Often, there are multiple law firms working with one organisation at the same time, and we enjoy working with a cross-section of lawyers from these different firms and are pleased to be an active member of a very engaged community,” he said.

“We see three key factors as influencing the increased participation in pro bono in NSW. First is the increasing emphasis on pro bono and ESG investment from government and commercial clients in their tenders and panel arrangements. Secondly, the social justice and ESG concerns of lawyers in the firm – particularly graduates and young lawyers with a high degree of social conscience – who want to use their skills to make a positive impact in our communities.

“Each year, we see increasing interest from graduate lawyers in participating in pro bono work. Finally, these factors have led to competition between firms in having a successful pro bono practice both to meet client expectations and to attract and retain lawyers with an interest in pro bono work.”

Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) has set up its practice as a legal practice team and provided 56.6 hours of pro bono legal advice per full-time lawyer in FY23–24. NRF Australia partner, ESG group chair and national pro bono team leader Chris Owen agreed that with the rise of ESG, more firms are being “mindful of their social licence”.

“We have seen a growth in both the number of dedicated pro bono partners in firms and the overall headcount of lawyers in pro bono teams here in Australia. We see pro bono as a critical part of our business: to satisfy our commercial client requirements, provide opportunities for our lawyers and as part of our strong ESG footprint and social licence,” he said.

“Government clients (and increasingly corporate clients) are requiring law firms to provide pro bono services as part of their service offering, and firms are responding. In addition, an increasing number of staff now expect to be able to work on pro bono matters as part of their diet of work.”

‘Sophisticated’ pro bono practices unaffected by market conditions

Amid cost-of-living and ongoing ESG considerations, as well as a turbulent economy, the belief that lawyers only focus on pro bono in quieter times may be outdated, particularly as more law firms develop distinct pro bono practice groups and teams.

“In my view, you tend to find that the amount of pro bono is actually directly proportionate to the busyness of the team (i.e. the adage of giving a job to a busy person is really true in this space),” Owen said.

“Also, as sophisticated pro bono practices, including at our firm, now see pro bono as an essential part of business rather than something to do in the spare hours, we are moving to a world where lawyers’ look to take on pro bono throughout the year.”

In well-established pro bono practices, participation remains consistent despite changing market conditions, Christiansen agreed.

“We find that our lawyers always make time for pro bono despite the demands of their busy commercial practice. The value of pro bono work is acknowledged by counting that work towards fee-earners billable hours targets in the same way as commercial work. This aligns with our expectation that pro bono work will be performed to the same standard of skill and professionalism as commercial work.

“We offer several pro bono programs that our people can choose to contribute to, based on what is important to them, and regularly share stories about our pro bono initiatives with our people to promote participation and engagement with those initiatives. We celebrate National Pro Bono Day by recognising our top pro bono performers,” he said.

“We aim to ignite a passion for social justice in our graduate lawyers through a requirement that all graduates take on pro bono matters, with partner supervision. Through this, our junior lawyers have greater contact with clients and exposure to everyday justice issues, giving them experience that helps in developing their day-to-day commercial practice and their advocacy skills.”

Despite capacity historically (and occasionally) standing in the way of pro bono participation in busy practices, Christian-Hare noted that in many firms, this is no longer the case.

“As pro bono practice as a whole becomes increasingly formalised and a fixture within firms, busyness levels play less of a part,” she said.

“Firms with developed pro bono cultures prioritise it regardless of market conditions and maintain thriving pro bono practices through effective strategic planning, a solid pipeline of opportunities which make it easy for their lawyers to participate, and impactful messaging from senior leadership which encourages and rewards participation.”

This is something senior lawyers at Barry Nilsson practise, Swain said – particularly as pro bono is embedded as a “core business area” as well as in the firm’s culture and values.

“Our senior leaders regularly communicate the value of pro bono work within the firm and celebrate strong pro bono performance through our annual social impact awards and equivalent recognition for lawyers’ performance. Our graduate program also instils a strong pro bono ethic in our lawyers from the outset of their careers.

“Through our pro bono practice, we have fostered partnerships with community legal centres, which have resulted in bespoke pro bono opportunities that align our lawyers’ skills with community needs and result in positive outcomes for both the firm and the wider community,” she said.

“A culture of making a positive social impact and a commitment to reaching the National Pro Bono Target has been a strong driver of our pro bono practice. Our pro bono performance is stable, even throughout busier periods, as it has been built into our core business.”