Rachel Power is PILA Coordinator.
One of the most remarkable developments in the practice of law over the past number of years has been the significant growth of pro bono practice around the globe, not least in Ireland where PILA has been actively promoting it since 2009.
In December 2014, we asked solicitors, barristers and law students to participate in PILA’s first national pro bono survey to provide insight into how much pro bono is happening across the country, while identifying factors that encourage or discourage pro bono service. The survey drew 464 responses from all but one county in Ireland. The results not only reveal encouraging levels of pro bono work across Ireland, they show significant appetite in the profession taking a leadership role in using pro bono as a vital adjunct in meeting unmet legal need. Almost three-quarters of practitioners have engaged in pro bono during their career, with 38% doing so on a regular basis. Of the lawyers who have never taken on pro bono work, 65% would like to in the future. With a mere tenth of practitioners not inclined to participate in pro bono, there is an abundance of skill to be leveraged for good.
Barristers, solicitors and law students are united in a common sense of purpose when it comes to pro bono. While there is certainly evidence that pro bono is good for business and skills development, most lawyers are motivated to take on pro bono work because they enjoy it (76%) or feel it is their professional responsibility (65%). Few see no value in pro bono work (0.5%) or believe it has the potential to take work away from colleagues (0.5%).
For practitioners who have never engaged in pro bono but would like to, and for those who would like to do more, the emphasis needs to be on opportunity development through professionalisation of pro bono delivery. The pro bono movement has made great strides in recent years, transforming from loosely organised activities undertaken on individual initiative to structured practices that are beginning to resemble any other client-focused practice area. This can be seen particularly in the growth of formal pro bono programmes within law firms and in-house legal teams where 41% of solicitors undertake pro bono work as part of an official scheme within their place of work, while 43% to do pro bono in their own personal capacity and 16% doing both. Likewise, for barristers pro bono requests are increasingly streamlined through NGOs and independent law centres (43%), the Voluntary Assistance Scheme (21%) and PILA (19%). Institutional commitment is the key to making pro bono a permanent part of legal culture and ensuring it gets to those most in need.
A strong indicator of institutionalisation is the level of partner take-up within law firms, the argument being that a pro bono culture can only become truly ingrained if there is clear leadership from the top. Similar logic can be applied to senior barristers who have the potential to create opportunities for those coming up behind them. The survey results were certainly promising in this regard with half of both solicitors at partnership level and Senior Counsel doing pro bono regularly, and 21% doing more than 100 pro bono hours in the previous 12 months. Improved structures may assist in channelling more frequent pro bono work to junior lawyers, who find identifying pro bono work a significant obstacle. This will be particularly valuable for future practitioners who believe workplace support for pro bono to be very important, with 86% of law students hoping to do pro bono once they qualify.
Other obstacles benefit from this concept. For instance, time constraints are a major impediment to pro bono for 74% of solicitors within law firms. Having the right policies and incentives in place help by ensuring lawyers are clear about when they can do pro bono so it is not pushed to the bottom of a long list of priorities. There is also a need for greater coordination between law firms and barristers, with many barristers seeing the development of such relationships as key to progressing pro bono.
While there is likely to be a natural bias towards doing pro bono work amongst respondents who take the time to complete a survey on pro bono – generating predominantly enthusiastic results – a number of practical and realistic concerns arose. Pro bono is limited in what it can do for access to justice and is not a panacea. The value of legal services must not be undermined, and coordination must be effective in ensuring pro bono is addressing solely unmet need. There was also emphasis on the importance of real pro bono work that is valued and effective, and not merely for ‘optics’.
In all, the survey reflects the admirable commitment to pro bono that PILA sees in its everyday work. The focus now must be on honing the quality and impact of pro bono services, while providing the chance for more practitioners to contribute and to contribute regularly. We hope this will be the start of an interesting conversation, and perhaps provide a yardstick by which to measure pro bono progress in Ireland.
Click here to read the full PILA Pro Bono Survey 2014.