Pro bono work will increasingly become a part of every lawyer's practice. This is, in part, because it will be driven by the attitude of many Gen Y lawyers who want a diverse legal career which is meaningful to them. More in-house corporate and government lawyers will join in.

The level of structure and co-ordination of pro bono work will increase and continue to spread into the mid-tier firms, which will need well run pro bono programs in order to compete for the best new talent.

Following the lead of Victoria and the Commonwealth, other state and territory governments are likely to adopt pro bono incentive schemes, thus coercing all firms who wish to act for government to have well-run pro bono programs. More corporate clients will be inquiring about their law firm's pro bono program.

Overall, the amount of pro bono legal work undertaken by lawyers will rise as unmet legal need increases. However pro bono is a limited resource so saturation points will be reached among key providers.

It will be important for government to meet its side of the bargain and adequately fund Legal Aid - particularly community legal centres and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services so they are best equipped to leverage pro bono assistance from individual lawyers and law firms.

All this will hopefully lead to a pro bono culture that the whole legal profession will be truly proud of, by helping those who couldn't otherwise obtain legal assistance receive the legal help they need.

John Corker is director of the National Pro Bono Resource Centre