Pro bono work flourishes in spite of economic downturn

As National Pro Bono Week kicks off today, legal advice centres up and down the country – supported by private practice and law schools – will seek to showcase their work and bring on much needed new recruits. The importance of the contribution of students, trainees and lawyers to centres facing closure because of inadequate funding arrangements has been reported in this magazine before (The Lawyer, 25 May). But involvement in these organisations is just a snippet of the wideranging and meaningful pro bono schemes that are going on behind the scenes at some of the UK’s largest law firms. What is surprising is that during the recession, far from having been sidelined in favour of bringing in commercial work, pro bono actually appears to have flourished. Just look at some of the figures relating to the 2008-09 financial year. A 10 per cent increase in UK staff participating in pro bono activity at Berwin Leighton Paisner and a similar rise at Denton Wilde Sapte.

Pro bono work flourishes in spite of economic downturn thelawyer.com Mon, Nov 9, 2009