Pro Bono Pledge Ireland launch 2023 Pro Bono Impact Report

On 23 November 2023, the Pro Bono Impact Report was launched by Róisín Fitzpatrick, FLAC Board Member and Deloitte Irish Corporate Immigration Lead, at the DLA Piper Ireland offices. The Chair of the Bar Council, Sara Phelan SC, and the Senior Vice President of the Law Society, Eamon Harrington, attended the launch and addressed the room. A panel discussion between Erin Brogan (FLAC Telephone Information and Referral Line Development Manager), Richard King (Project Manager within Crosscare’s Migrant Project and Refugee Service), Aoife Kelly Desmond (Mercy Law Resource Centre Managing Solicitor), Kate Mannion (Managing Solicitor of the Irish Refugee Council), Lewis Mooney BL (Coordinator of the Bar’s Voluntary Assistance Scheme) engaged the attendees of the event.

Róisín Fitzpatrick (Member of the FLAC Council) officially launches the Pro Bono Pledge Ireland Impact Report 2023 at the launch event hosted by DLA Piper Ireland LLP on Thursday 23 November.

The Impact Report 2023 provides a snapshot of the work being done by Irish volunteer lawyers to bridge the gap for those who cannot afford the legal services they require. It highlights how Irish volunteer lawyers have collaborated with each other, and NGOs, in times of crises to provide legal assistance to those most in need at vulnerable times in their lives. The Report states that 28 Pro Bono Pledge Signatories have collectively performed 42,742 hours of pro bono legal work this year. 41% of law firms said that lawyers in their firm completed over 10 hours of pro bono work on average, 47% of law firms reported that 50% or more of their solicitors participated in pro bono matters, while 35% of law firms reported a partner participation rate of 50% or higher.

The report also includes case studies, highlighting the work done by the various law firms and individuals, featuring a social enterprise for adults with Down Syndrome, Hedgerows Ireland, the Afghan community in Ireland, Kids in Need of Defence (The KIND Project), Dublin Rape Crises Centre’s ‘We speak’ platform and FLAC’s Telephone Information and Referral Line.

The Pro Bono Pledge Ireland was developed in November 2020 by an independent grouping of law firms, barristers, and in-house teams with a presence in Ireland who came together to affirm their commitment to delivering pro bono services in Ireland. The Pledge is coordinated by PILA (the Public Interest Law Alliance, a project of FLAC), and is the first collaborative effort in Ireland to highlight the shared professional responsibility of lawyers to promote access to justice and to provide pro bono legal assistance to those in need. Since its launch in 2020, the Pledge has secured the support of 51 law firms, 40 barristers, 2 in-house legal teams, and 8 individual solicitors

The Report was launched in the context of Pro Bono Week 2023. Ahead of the week, Eilis Barry, Chief Executive of FLAC, said: “In keeping with this year’s theme of ‘Maximising the Impact of Pro Bono’ we hope to demonstrate how signatories to the Pro Bono Pledge Ireland are committing to change the existing status quo and to correct the imbalance of a justice system weighed against those who face multiple barriers to access to justice.”

Several events took place this pro bono week running from the 20th to the 24th of November. The week began with the EU Launch of Pro Bono Week, in which speakers from DLA Piper, the International Bar Association's Human Rights Institute (IBAHARI), NYU Paris and Systemic Justice, spoke on various aspects of maximising pro bono work. On the 21st November, PILA hosted the NGO Pitch Event in which NGO's were given the opportunity to make a pitch directly to Legal service providers in order to build an ongoing pro bono legal relationship.

On the 22nd November. WIlliam Fry hosted the "Day in the Life of an NGO" event in which volunteer lawyers acted out a scenario where a civil society organisation held their monthly staff meeting. In the course of the discussion, key legal issues in topics of employment law, charity law, defamation and data protection were covered. Volunteer lawyers were called upon by the moderator to intervene at key points to explain key legal considerations and why certain propsed courses of action might be low or high risk for the charity. This event illustrated the breadth of legal issues that can arise on a day to day basis for a charity and how fears of legal repercussions can impack or paralyse the decision making.

The 2023 Pro Bono Impact Report can be accessed here.