The findings

As reported last week, Australian lawyers have set a new record for the volume of pro bono work undertaken, going from 700,910 hours completed in the 2022–23 financial year to 781,596 hours in the most recent financial year, for an 11.5 per cent increase.

The data comes from the Australian Pro Bono Centre’s (APBC) 17th Annual Performance Report, which analyses the pro bono work being undertaken by signatories to the National Pro Bono Target, a voluntary benchmark of 35 hours per lawyer, per year.

For in-house lawyers and teams, the Target is set at 20 hours.

Signatories to the Target, from sole practitioners to global law firms, report annually to APBC on their performance against that benchmark. The annual report anonymises signatories.

On average, lawyers covered by the Target completed 39.6 hours of pro bono work in FY2023–24, marking the highest hourly average since 2021 and an increase of 1.3 hours on last year.

Underperformance by in-house teams

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As noted by APBC chair Phillip Cornwell, there has been a “slow take-up” of adherence to the Target’s obligations by law departments, to whom the Target has been open since 1 July 2020 and at the lower benchmark of 20 hours.

In FY23–24, just nine in-house teams reported on their pro bono undertakings, with a total of 667 hours being completed (down from 851 hours in FY22–23).

In-house signatories completed an average of only 8.2 hours of pro bono legal work per lawyer in FY23–24, down from the average of 10.4 hours last year.

Of the in-house teams reporting, just 37.5 per cent met or exceeded the 20-hour benchmark.

APBC is keen, Cornwell stressed, to “boost participation” in the Target by in-house teams of all stripes, “and the centre will continue to support in-house lawyers through tools, resources, and connections to encourage greater engagement in pro bono”.

Moving forward

When asked how in-house legal teams can better manage the duty to undertake more pro bono work against the workloads and obligations being imposed upon them by their businesses/organisations, APBC chief executive Gabriela Christian-Hare (pictured) reflected that Australia’s largest corporations have well-established social impact policies and programs, and that ultimately, it is a question of legal pro bono “being prioritised within those broad programs in a way that is formalised, recognised and actively encouraged by the general counsel and other senior management”.

“Legal pro bono is impactful and measurable and can make an enormous contribution to the social impact of those organisations,” she said.

However, she added, “it won’t get off the ground by accident”.

“An organisation needs to take active steps to appoint an in-house lawyer – and for a larger team, ideally a network of pro bono ‘champions’ – to oversee and drive forward the program, assess the expertise, skill sets and interests of the legal team, and find opportunities to develop meaningful long-term partnerships with pro bono beneficiary organisations,” Christian-Hare said.

“We have seen very busy in-house teams manage this well.”

Looking ahead, on the point of why how law departments must view pro bono as increasingly central to their duties in the profession against the backdrop of ongoing market turbulence, Christian-Hare submitted that while capacity constraints can sometimes hinder pro bono participation, as pro bono practices become more formalised, “busyness plays less of a role”.

Businesses and legal teams that have strong pro bono cultures, she proclaimed, “prioritise it regardless of market conditions by strategically planning, maintaining a steady pipeline of opportunities, and ensuring senior leadership fosters a culture that encourages and rewards participation even in turbulent times”.