There’s no I in pro bono

Pro bono support for the everyday operations of charities and not-for-profits has long been a feature of many City law firms. In contrast, finding appropriate pro bono work that supports individuals, as a City firm, is not straightforward. Firms must recognise when a potential matter falls within legal aid and ensure those cases are signposted to specialists in those areas. They must understand the limits of their lawyers’ expertise and, if considering any expansion beyond this, ensure they arrange training and supervision by experts in those areas of law. That in turn requires firms to ensure they build and maintain working relationships with those experts—the not-for-profit specialists at law centres, specialist charities and other independent advice organisations—and also that they also keep up to date on wider developments that impact on potential areas of legal need. Firms must ensure that every piece of pro bono work meets the same level of quality and commitment as billable work, which requires the development of stringent internal policies and procedures, and regular engagement, monitoring and reporting across all departments in the firm.

Time to team up

In short: if a large commercial firm wants to ensure the pro bono work its lawyers do for individuals is appropriate and has a positive impact, the firm soon realises it needs a dedicated pro bono professional: somebody who can invest time in learning about and developing relationships across the advice sector; who can scope out, design and roll out legal pro bono projects with an eye across all professional and regulatory requirements; who can monitor and react rapidly to ensure projects stay on track; and who can retain insight for the firm and help it to build and expand a successful pro bono practice in the long term.

And City firms have not only learnt this lesson, but acted on it: in 2006 many firms had corporate social responsibility roles, but fewer than ten had dedicated pro bono roles; in 2021, there are over 60 dedicated pro bono roles in the UK, ranging from apprentices through to partners.

With only one person in role in many firms at the start, it was inevitable that they would find their fellow pro bono professionals to be their immediate professional peers; the people they could bounce ideas off, learn from and be supported by. Joint projects were an obvious progression from such joint discussions, with four City firms teaming up to support the Asylum Support Appeals Project back in 2009.

As that small community of pro bono professionals grew, each new arrival was welcomed into a cross-firm network that encouraged and expected collaboration on pro bono. If firms wanted to do pro bono for impact, they quickly recognised the benefit of collaboration: the ability to learn from the success and failure of previous pro bono projects by other firms; the ability to combine resources and increase the chance of projects succeeding; and the reduced demand placed on the not-for-profit community by having one firm liaise with an organisation on behalf of several.

The box below shows a small selection from many collaborative pro bono projects that firms have developed over the last 12 years, shared to illustrate the varied ways that firms have worked collectively to support the needs of a specialist advice organisation in assisting impacted communities.

The same approach is seen outside London where firms in Bristol, Birmingham, and Manchester have come together to address access to justice needs in their region as a united community; it is also seen in the in-house community where the In-House Pro Bono Group, formed in 2019 by five people, now has 128 members across 63 in-house teams all working together to understand where they can contribute through pro bono. The Chancery Lane Project was first proposed by an In-House Pro Bono Group member; since then, 1,300 legal professionals from 235 organisations have collaborated to develop and implement new practical contractual clauses that deliver climate solutions across industries and jurisdictions.

This willingness to share insight and project opportunities with other firms—of any size—is somewhat at odds with every other aspect of commercial law firm activity where firms usually attempt to distinguish their offering from their competitors. It reflects the recognition across firms that, if they truly seek to support communities, a combined effort that draws on the strongest or most relevant elements from every participating firm provides the client community with the best possible outcome.

Strengthening the foundations

Of course, the long-term relevance of such efforts will continue to depend on two crucial elements in the wider legal sector. First, a fully funded, functioning civil and criminal legal aid system: if civil and criminal legal aid are the foundations, floors, walls and roof of a house, then City law firm pro bono is a lampshade: a minor complement to the room, but not remotely intended for or capable of repairing walls that are close to collapse, a leaking roof, or holes in the floor. Large firm pro bono is only useful if the majority of legal needs are being met by dedicated specialist practitioners who are paid for every hour that a case necessitates, leaving smaller gaps outside legal aid to be addressed through pro bono. Consider the 450 welfare benefits cases each year Z2K is able now to support with the benefit of volunteers and funding from ‘plan’ firms in the context of the number of cases removed from the scope of civil legal aid since 2010 (over 140,000 per year).

And second, a vibrant and sustainable not-for-profit legal advice sector: one that has sufficiently reliable funding to ensure it retains specialists with years of expertise; one that works in and knows the communities it seeks to assist; one that can afford to advise people with multiple complex needs—especially when those needs fall outside legal aid—long before their problems reach court. The not-for-profit legal advice sector is the food in the cupboards, the heating that keeps the house warm, the lightbulbs, the water supply—all of the essentials that any home needs before lampshades make an appearance. Large firm pro bono is most successful when firms can partner with those specialist organisations to access training, supervision and the communities that they hope to assist. Without legal aid and the not-for-profit legal advice sector, there is little prospect of access to justice for millions of people, and that is something pro bono can never replace.