Pro bono: The gift that keeps on giving

For many marginalised people across the world, having access to legal expertise can be transformative. It can help protect their rights, offer hope, and even contribute to local economic growth and empowerment.

Of course, the reality is that many communities don’t have the privilege of legal representation, leaving them vulnerable to injustice. At A4ID, we aim to help by matching pro bono international legal expertise with local need.

This is a huge positive for the communities we’re able to support, improving access to justice, and helping strengthen the rule of law and promote legal reforms in their regions, while also bolstering human rights across the globe more broadly.

But it also brings strong benefits for legal professionals and law firms undertaking this vital work. Here, I explain why.

Pro bono work helps with professional and personal growth

There’s no greater way of expanding legal knowledge or learning how to react in any given legal situation than through direct experience. And there are few better opportunities to achieve this rich and varied experience than through pro bono work.

Your firm’s people might be connecting with NGOs, governments and social enterprises in emerging economies to work on matters of public health or human rights, or capacity building in disadvantaged areas by offering training or mentorship. Their expertise may help shape fair legal systems, challenge unjust policies and promote legal reforms.

This work provides a clear pathway for professional growth, skill enhancement and gaining new perspectives. The lawyers A4ID work with consistently tell us that pro bono work has been instrumental in significantly improving their problem-solving abilities and cross-cultural communication skills.

The result of this is that more young legal professionals than ever before are looking to work at firms that have a strong pro bono culture. And for the firms themselves, the benefits are also great.

How law firms benefit from pro bono work

Engaging in pro bono work is a clear way of boosting reputation. It demonstrates a commitment to ethical practices and emerging economies beyond profit-driven motives — a crucial touchpoint for firms, where ESG goals are now a vital part of operations.

At A4ID, we encourage all our pro bono efforts to align with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a way that helps to provide a meaningful framework for action. This means lawyers from various backgrounds can play a transformative role in tackling poverty, inequality and injustice on a global scale in line with meeting various SDGs. It also means the firms they’re associated with are better placed to meet the ‘environmental’ and ‘social’ parts of their own ESG goals.

Of course, firms must maintain the right balance between pro bono and billable work — but by putting aside even a small portion of time and expertise to work on some of the world’s most pressing challenges, we believe firms get back just as much as they put in.

Putting pro bono at the heart of legal

By playing a part in addressing everything from vulnerability in global communities to challenges in areas such as world health, the environment and human rights, we believe lawyers can help bridge the justice gap across the world and contribute to making tangible improvements.

But pro bono work is not just about giving back; it’s an opportunity for firms to boost their reputation, attract purpose-driven talent and support their professional growth. We believe it will therefore increasingly become a core — and meaningful — aspect of legal practice.