By the Numbers: National Pro Bono Aspirational Target

As reported elsewhere in this issue of Australian Pro Bono News (“Target continues to drive pro bono performance“), the Centre recently published its Eighth Annual Performance Report on the National Pro Bono Aspirational Target, for the 2014/2015 financial year.

Of the 34 large law firms (with 50 or more lawyers) that reported to the Centre this year and last year as part of the Aspirational Target reporting process, 21 did more pro bono legal work than last year. Thirteen firms reported doing less.

In last year’s Fourth National Law Firm Pro Bono Survey, the Centre was able to compare the responses of firms with 50 or more lawyers that were signatories to the Target with those who were not. Lawyers at signatory firms that completed the Survey performed an average of 34.6 hours of pro bono legal work in 2013/2014, while lawyers at firms that were not signatories performed an average of 14.5 hours.

For more information on this year’s results, including a direct comparison of individual firms’ pro bono hours per lawyer in 2013/2014 and 2014/2015, please refer to the Large Firms section of the Eighth Annual Performance Report on the National Pro Bono Aspirational Target (pages 11-14).

For more information on the comparison of signatories and non-signatories in 2013/2014, please refer to pages 70-72 of the Fourth National Law Firm Pro Bono Survey of Australian firms with fifty or more lawyers.