TrustLaw Index shows global increase in pro bono with large-scale support for charities
Melanie May | 3 August 2016 | News
Pro bono is thriving internationally according to Thomson Reuters Foundation’s third TrustLaw Index of Pro Bono, despite a slight decrease in hours donated in England and Wales.
The global benchmark maps the scale and trends of the pro bono legal sector internationally, and reveals that respondents to the 2016 Index donated over 2.5 million hours of free legal support.
89% of respondents said they offered pro bono services to charities and non-profits. Overall, on average lawyers invested about one week (39.2 hours) per year of their time assisting charities, non-profits, social enterprises and individuals in need, free of charge. Small law firms performed the highest number pro bono hours, averaging 41.7 hours per lawyer each year.
Index participation among law firms with offices in England & Wales showed a significant increase in 2016, with 37 participating firms compared to 26 firms represented in the 2015 Index.There was however a decrease in the number of hours donated, as well as in the percentage of fee earners who gave more than 10 hours. Fee earners performed an average of 21.6 hours of pro bono each in the past year, down slightly from the 22.5 hours reported in the previous year, while the percentage of fee earners who did ten or more hours of pro bono work dropped from 35.8 percent reported in the 2015 Index to 27.6 percent.
The Index is compiled with data collected from over 130 law firms – both large and small – and representing 64,500 lawyers in 75 countries. It shows that 2015 saw a spike of pro bono hours for firms in South Africa and China, which reported higher average hours than any other countries, with the exception of the US.
Overall, 32.2 percent of respondent firms indicated that their fee earners averaged at least 40 hours of pro bono over the last year, and that 50 percent or more of their fee earners performed 10 hours or more.
Lawyers at small firms donated the most time, performing an average of 41.7 hours of pro bono over the last 12 months, compared to lawyers at large firms who performed an average of 35.1 hours, and those at medium-sized firms who performed an average of 27.7 hours over the last 12 months.
Close to two-thirds of respondents have a pro bono policy in place, and the Index shows that this has a significant impact on the amount of pro bono undertaken. At firms with a policy, lawyers performed 44.8 hours of pro bono, compared to 14.7 hours for lawyers at firms without a pro bono policy.
The full report can be downloaded online.
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.