Singer: Listing push
Demand for, and provision of, pro bono legal services are both increasing, it was reported this week to mark the 23rd annual Pro Bono Week.
There is a multitude of events to mark the week, including the launch at Parliament of an updated signposting guide for MPs to assist with constituency casework, published on a new website by the pro bono committees of England and Wales, which includes the Attorney General’s Pro Bono Committee.
This year’s Pro Bono Week theme is ‘The Power of Pro Bono’, with a focus on three specific topics:
- Barred from justice – the powerful, everyday stories of the impact of lawyers and law students who give their time to protect the rights of those most disadvantaged in society.
- Embedding pro bono in your organisation and career – placing pro bono at the heart of everyone’s practice and hearing from those at the forefront of establishing business structures for pro bono within law firms, chambers, in house, universities and charities.
- How technology can enhance access to justice – existing and new tools to ensure pro bono is innovative and effective.
Advocate, the Bar’s pro bono charity this week reported a 25% increase in applications for help in its core casework service in the year to September 2024, while figures from the Bar Council showed that around half of barristers actively participate in pro bono.
More statistics, published by the UK Collaborative Plan for Pro Bono, a group of law firms that collaborate with each other and aspire to 25 hours of pro bono per lawyer each year, showed that 78 member firms collectively provided over 609,000 hours of pro bono during 2023, a 5.7% (or 33,000 hours) increase. That translates into an average of 18 hours per lawyer.
This year, the Pro Bono Recognition List was launched, honouring 3,266 solicitors and 483 barristers who participated in at least 25 hours of pro bono legal work in 2023.
Law Society president Richard Atkinson said: “We are proud to be celebrating all the incredible and selfless work lawyers do to help vulnerable people access justice when they need it the most. We would also like to encourage further members of the legal profession to consider more ways they can help make a real difference in people’s lives.
“Everyone has the right to access to justice, but pro bono work and other volunteer projects cannot help everyone. Likewise, lawyers who volunteer their time to do this work should not be taken for granted. Whilst pro bono can truly change lives, it is not and can never be a substitute for legal aid and a properly funded justice system.”
Sam Townend KC, chair of the Bar Council, added: “Pro bono not only plays a significant role in reversing miscarriages of justice and helping many through difficult stages in their lives, but also benefits the lawyers who undertake the work.
“I gained invaluable experience on tribunals at the beginning of my career working for the Free Representation Unit and I encourage all barristers, at any stage of your career from second six to silk, to consider making pro bono part of your practice.”
Meanwhile, the Bar Council’s pro bono and social responsibility committee hopes to roll out the guidance on pro bono advocacy and judicial liaison, which was launched in May as a joint project of the judiciary, Mr Townend, Advocate and the committee
This provides that, where consistent with the overriding objective and otherwise appropriate, hearings will be listed for pro bono advocates’ “reasonable convenience”, and also urges each court centre to appoint a a pro bono liaison judge.
Committee co-chair Samantha Singer said “the work and energy involved in matching pro bono client and pro bono advocate is considerable [and] it is an affront to the mission of the pro bono Bar for court listing to be the crack through which potential representation falls”.
Writing on the Bar Council website, she explained that the first liaison judge, Her Honour Judge Orchover at the Central Family Court (CFC): “It would be tempting fate to say the problem has completely evaporated at the CFC since Her Honour took on the role but it has… The next step is to seek to roll out the pilot and raise its profile.”
A full calendar of Pro Bono Week events can be found here.
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