By the Numbers: “Dedicated Pro Bono Lawyers”

In the 2014 National Law Firm Pro Bono Survey of Australian firms with fifty or more lawyers, firms were asked how many ‘dedicated pro bono lawyers’ and other staff were assigned to their pro bono practice. For the purposes of the Survey, a ‘dedicated pro bono lawyer’ was defined as a lawyer, either part-time or full-time, whose key responsibility is undertaking or managing pro bono legal work.

48.4 FTE ‘dedicated pro bono lawyers’ were reported across 23 respondent firms, with 11.8 FTE other staff dedicated to the firms’ pro bono practices.

Interestingly, there was a spread of ‘dedicated pro bono lawyers’ across all levels of seniority. Only 12 percent of firms ‘always’ regularly rotated graduates through their formal pro bono practice, with 20 percent ‘sometimes’ doing so, depending on size of intake, capacity or other factors.

For a comprehensive breakdown of these figures, including by size of firm, please refer to pages 50-52 of the Fourth National Law Firm Pro Bono Survey of Australian firms with fifty or more lawyers. For all individual response refer to pages 86.