The average number of pro bono hours per lawyer across the country has risen to 42.3, the highest average recorded and well exceeding the national benchmark of 35 hours.
The Australian Pro Bono Centre’s 18th Annual Target Performance Report shows that in the 2024-25 financial year signatories to the centre’s world-leading pro bono benchmarking program completed a record total of 844,999 pro bono hours.
Signatories include law firms, barristers’ chambers, in-house corporate and government legal teams, as well as individual solicitors and barristers volunteering in a personal capacity.
Those signatories report each year on pro bono work which meets the centre’s national definition of “pro bono legal services”, focused on legal assistance to vulnerable individuals, charities, other not-for-profit organisations, social enterprises, and on issues of public interest. It also encapsulates law reform and policy work and free community legal education.
The number of individual lawyers working toward the target increased minimally from 19,724 in the previous financial year to 19,973 lawyers, representing almost one in every five lawyers across Australia.
Centre CEO Gabriela Christian-Hare said this showed “those individuals and firms already engaged in pro bono have deepened their commitment”.
“The role and essence of pro bono as a crucial pillar of access to justice, central to the preservation of the rule of law and the professional life of Australian lawyers, continues to gain strength,” Gabriela said.
Centre chair Tessa Boyd-Caine said legal assistance could be the difference between people accessing their rights and remedying injustice.
“Yet for many people, legal help is out of reach, either because it is too expensive or because they don’t know how to find legal help,” Tess said.
“Pro bono legal assistance makes a vital contribution to filling this gap.
“Across the country, legal practitioners working pro bono contribute their professional skill and expertise to meet the legal needs of people, communities and community organisations every day.
“This important report shows just how significant that contribution is.”
Read the report here.
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