One of the primary aims of providing pro bono legal services is to improve access to justice for individuals experiencing disadvantage. When developing a pro bono practice, a firm will need to make decisions about the kinds of legal needs its pro bono practice aims to address. It will then need to develop strategies for identifying and sourcing pro bono legal work in those areas.

This chapter provides information about unmet legal needs in the community and discusses strategies firms may use to source pro bono legal work. It suggests that developing partnerships with community legal organisations is one of the most effective strategies for a firm to ensure that its pro bono legal services are effectively targeted to the areas of need that it considers it is best suited to prioritise.

For more information about collaborative pro bono partnerships, see Chapter 1.7 Current models of pro bono legal work, and What Works, Part 4 Models of pro bono legal assistance.

• 1.6.1 Unmet legal needs
• 1.6.2 Sourcing pro bono legal work

1.6.1 UNMET LEGAL NEEDS

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Although there are a range of publicly funded legal services to assist those who cannot fund their own legal representation, what government funded bodies provide is insufficient to meet the legal need in the community.  Pro bono legal services fill a little of this gap.

Pro bono legal services should generally be regarded as a last resort for people with unmet legal needs because of  the ad hoc nature of pro bono services, the fact that often the areas of law in which there is significant unmet legal need do not neatly correspond to the skills present in the large law firms that undertake most pro bono work^[1] and the fact that the work is done voluntarily by private laws firms and barristers. Nonetheless, pro bono legal services play a crucial role in improving access to justice, and when provided, should also be provided to the standard of care one would when providing paid legal services.

Apart from the scarcity of publicly funded legal services, other major obstacles to accessing legal advice and representation are both people’s lack of recognition that the difficulties they face may involve legal problems and the lack of awareness that free legal assistance may be available.

The Law Council of Australia canvassed unmet legal need in some detail in its 2018 Justice Project Final Report. This is a useful guide to the state of access to justice in Australia for people experiencing significant disadvantage.^[2]

The Final Report focuses on the following 13 priority groups, highlighting the justice issues and unmet legal need experienced by these groups:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
• Asylum seekers
• Children and young people
• LGBTIQ+ communities
• Older persons
• People experiencing economic disadvantage
• People experiencing homelessness
• Survivors of domestic and family violence
• People who have experienced trafficking
• People with disability
• Prisoners and detainees
• Recent arrivals to Australia
• Rural, Regional and Remote (RRR) Australians

The Justice Project Final Report found that ‘people experiencing disadvantage are often more vulnerable to legal problems and frequently have greater, and more complex legal needs than the general population’. The report noted that people experiencing disadvantage are disproportionately represented within the justice system, and experience ‘formidable barriers’ in accessing justice.^[3]

LAW Survey 2012

Another (but older) resource that can help pro bono lawyers understand the legal needs of people experiencing disadvantage in Australia is the Legal Australia-Wide Survey: Legal Need in Australia (LAW Survey)^[4], a major research project conducted by the Law and Justice Foundation of New South Wales in 2012. The LAW Survey assessed the prevalence of legal problems across the community, and the vulnerability of various demographic groups to different types of legal problems.

The LAW Survey’s major findings were consistent with previous legal needs surveys, confirming that:

• Legal problems are widespread and often have an adverse impact on people’s life circumstances.
• Some people, most notably disadvantaged people, are particularly vulnerable to legal problems. They are also more vulnerable to multiple and complex legal problems.
• A sizeable proportion of people take no action to resolve their legal problems and consequently achieve poor outcomes.
• Most people who seek advice do not consult legal advisers and resolve their legal problems outside the formal justice system.^[5]

Some members of the community have their legal needs met by paying for legal services. However, of the respondents to the LAW Survey who sought advice to deal with a legal problem, only 21.3% used a private lawyer as their adviser.^[6]

The LAW Survey found that the four most prevalent legal problem areas were consumer (21%), crime (14%), housing (12%) and government (11%). In Australia as a whole, 22 percent of respondents experienced three or more legal problems within the 12-month reference period, with some individuals particularly likely to experience multiple legal problems.^[7]

The types of legal problems that respondents experienced concurrently or in quick succession were clustered in three combinations:

1. A combination comprising the consumer, crime, government and housing problem groups — that is, the problem groups that were particularly prevalent across jurisdictions.
2. A combination dominated by ‘economic and family’ issues, comprising the credit/debt, family and money problem groups.
3. A combination dominated by ‘rights and injury/health’ issues, comprising the employment, health, personal injury and rights problem groups.^[8]

The National Partnership Arrangement Report (the NPA Report) 2018^[9]

The NPA Report found service gaps for civil matters, including employment, equal opportunity and discrimination law, migration and refugee law and guardianship law. It reported that many stakeholders providing input into the NPA Report expressed concern that disadvantaged individuals were still unable to obtain legal assistance services to meet their needs. These concerns were most prevalent for disadvantaged groups with civil law matters, particularly people with mental illness, people with disability and people experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

Although it was beyond the scope of the NPA Report to provide specific detail about who should receive which types of legal assistance, the Report indicated that current policy settings and practice suggest that the following groups of disadvantaged Australians should be targeted for assistance:

• children at risk;
• financially disadvantaged people;
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, particularly those who are victims/survivors of family violence, those who are financially disadvantaged and/or those who are living in remote communities;
• people facing serious criminal charges; and
• people experiencing or at risk of domestic violence.

Drawing on the findings of the LAW Survey, which found that a small proportion of the population (8.8%) accounted for 64.5 percent of the legal problems experienced, the NPA Report recognised that for many of the most disadvantaged Australians, it is the multiplicity of legal problems facing them that results in a substantial and negative impact on their lives and reinforces their disadvantage. Accordingly, the NPA Report’s key findings were focused on improving the coordination of legal and related support services provided to clients with complex needs, particularly preventative and early intervention efforts, to reduce the impact that legal problems have on their clients’ lives.

National Law Firm Pro Bono Survey

The Centre’s biennial National Law Firm Pro Bono Survey has consistently reported that family law (not including family violence) and wills/probate/estate are areas where firms most often reject requests for assistance from individuals. Employment law and immigration are areas where pro bono assistance is frequently provided but also frequently rejected, which may suggest that unmet legal need remains high in these areas.^[10]

Law Council of Australia’s Paper on the Missing Middle

In 2021, the Law Council published a paper on the ‘missing middle’,^[11] being those who do not qualify for legal aid (due to means testing) but are unable to afford private legal assistance.

The paper noted that groups that are overrepresented in this ‘missing middle’ are:

• Older persons;
• People living in regional, rural and remote areas;
• People living with disability;
• People experiencing health or mental health issues;
• Women;
• Single parents;
• Children and young people;
• LGBTQI+ people;
• People experiencing family violence;
• Small business owners;
• Part time, casual and temporary works;
• People from CALD backgrounds; and
• Migrants.

A number of innovative legal practices have been created as a direct response to the legal needs of the ‘missing middle’. These not-for-profit, charitable practices involve collaborations between private firms and tertiary institutions, and typically provide ‘low bono’ / affordable legal services at a fraction of standard legal rates.

Examples of such collaborations in Australia include the following:

• The Accessible Justice Project is a collaboration between the University of Adelaide and Adelaide law firm, LK Law, to offer affordable (‘low bono’) legal services in civil matters to the ‘missing middle’.
• Everyday Justice is a not-for-profit law firm owned by Mills Oakley that provides free legal advice to the ‘missing middle’ in partnership with the College of Law.
• Wallumatta Legal is the result of a collaboration between global law firm DLA Piper and Macquarie University. The Sydney-based low fee, not-for-profit law firm, provides family law services to the ‘missing middle’.

PUBLICLY FUNDED LEGAL SERVICES

For people who are unable to afford private legal services, the following publicly funded legal services may be available to address their legal needs.

Representation

The largest publicly funded legal services are the State and Territory Legal Aid Commissions (Legal Aid Commissions), one in each state and territory. The bulk of the Legal Aid Commissions’ resources are spent providing representation in criminal law matters and, to a lesser extent, family law matters where children are involved. Civil law matters represent only a small fraction of the work that Legal Aid Commissions take on.

There are also Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (ATSILS) in each State and Territory. ATSILS provide professional and culturally proficient legal services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.^[12] These services generally concentrate on providing advice and representation in criminal matters. See Chapter 1.14.2 – Clients who are Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Peoples for a list of ATSILS.

Family Violence Prevention Legal Services (FVPLS) are also located in rural and remote locations across all States and Territories other than Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory. FVPLS are community-controlled member organisations around Australia that provide legal and other holistic and culturally safe services to First Nations people who are experiencing or at risk of family violence.^[13]

Some community legal centres (CLCs) also provide representation in some criminal and civil matters, although many no longer provide full service representation.

Advice

There are many services offering legal advice: for example, CLCs , the advice services of Legal Aid Commissions (including those based in their regional offices), most ATSILS, some legal advice services offered by law societies, and other bodies such as the Citizen’s Advice Bureau in Western Australia.

LIMITATIONS OF PUBLICLY FUNDED SERVICES

In civil law matters, the availability and quality of free and affordable legal assistance varies considerably between jurisdictions and area of law. For example, most Legal Aid Commissions provide some assistance in areas of civil law governed by Commonwealth statutes (for example veteran or social security entitlements), but with respect to areas of civil law derived from State/Territory law, some Legal Aid Commissions have no capacity to assist. It is a growing pattern for services such as Legal Aid Commissions and CLCs to be able to identify a client’s legal need but unable to provide assistance. Clients can often end up being referred from one service to the other due to lack of capacity of the centres to assist, conflicts or otherwise. In many cases those clients will find no other free or affordable services.

While the legal services described above represent individual clients and some also undertake policy and advocacy work deriving from their case work, few of them have resources to act for the benefit of a group or class of disadvantaged people. Many do not assist not-for-profit organisations or charities.

In 2014, the Productivity Commission reported on the funding constraints faced by publicly funded legal services in its Access to Justice Arrangements Inquiry Report. One of the Productivity Commission’s main recommendations was the need for an injection of an additional $200 million per year in funding to the legal assistance sector.^[14] In 2022, the Law Council of Australia recommended that funding towards the Legal Aid Commissions, CLCs, ATSILS, and FVPLS should be increased by ‘at least $400 million per annum’.^[15]

These are examples of the limitations of publicly funded legal services that may give rise to the need for people to seek other sources of assistance, such as pro bono legal assistance.

 

1.6.2 SOURCING PRO BONO LEGAL WORK

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There are some tried and tested methods of sourcing pro bono legal work.  These include:

• joining a membership based pro bono referral organisation such as Justice Connect, LawRight, or JusticeNet, and/or registering with pro bono referral schemes such as the various law society schemes;
• collaborating with CLCs, Legal Aid Commissions, Indigenous Legal Organisations, and other community and NFP organisations that have regular contact with disadvantaged clients and communities, either to develop joint projects or accept regular referrals or both;
• encouraging the referral of pro bono matters through the formal and informal contacts of law firm partners and staff;
• providing assistance to organisations with which a firm has an existing relationship through volunteer work or philanthropy;
• upskilling in a particular area of legal need and hanging out a shingle (digitally or metaphorically) and taking referrals in that area; or
• accepting direct requests (cold calls) for pro bono assistance.

WORKING WITH PRO BONO REFERRAL SCHEMES AND ORGANISATIONS

Pro bono referral schemes and organisations (Referral Organisations) (in the past, also referred to as pro bono clearing houses) facilitate the efficient provision of pro bono legal services by acting as an intermediary between people or organisations in need of legal assistance and lawyers who are willing and able to assist. There are Referral Organisations in every State and Territory in Australia. For further discussion on the role of Referral Organisations in the legal assistance sector see Chapter 3.3 Pro bono referral schemes and organisations.

The various referral organisations and schemes differ in size, scale and operation.  Referral Organisations  were originally established by their law firm members, but now may have broader membership, including universities, CLCs and corporate and government legal departments. Members of a Referral Organisation pay an annual membership fee, which is typically based on the number of partners in the firm. The largest of the Referral Organisations  is Justice Connect, which operates mainly in New South Wales and Victoria, although it has some national reach. Membership-based Referral Organisations also exist in Queensland (LawRight) and South Australia (JusticeNet SA).

Pro bono referral schemes are mainly run by law societies or bar associations. Another example of a pro bono referral scheme is the Cancer Council Pro Bono practice that is managed by the Cancer Council in NSW and Victoria. For information on developing referral guidelines when working with Referral Organisations see Chapter 2.1.1 Intake criteria.

WORKING WITH COMMUNITY ORGANISATIONS AND LEGAL AID COMMISSIONS

One of the best ways to identify where legal assistance is most needed is to develop and maintain strong ties with community organisations and Legal Aid Commissions that have regular contact with people experiencing the unmet legal need.

The following are some examples of strategies to source pro bono opportunities:

• Target particular client groups and develop ties with relevant community organisations, as well as peak organisations.
• Provide assistance in a particular geographical area or community and develop links with organisations that provide legal assistance, welfare, and advocacy services in that area.
• Provide a broad range of pro bono assistance and develop relationships with a range of community organisations that will refer appropriate matters to the firm.
• Investigate opportunities to establish a practice that focuses on a particular social issue, for example, the legal needs of inner-city homeless youth (this investigation should include consultations with relevant peak and local community advocacy organisations).
• Pursue a community development approach to the legal needs of a particular region or a particular social group — the firm would undertake a commitment to the particular region/issue and over time structure and adapt its pro bono practice in light of changing relationships and increasing understandings of the needs of the client community.
• Explore options for undertaking joint projects with CLCs, ATSILS, Legal Aid Commissions, other law firms (for example, sharing a roster for court referrals for pro bono assistance), Referral Organisations, or with corporate clients.

For detailed case studies see What Works, Part 4 Models of pro bono legal assistance.

Consulting organisations with direct experience and knowledge of the issues affecting people experiencing disadvantage is a good way for firms to explore the potential for them to focus their pro bono practice on a particular area of law or social issue. These consultations could explore whether there is a need for a legal response, the ways in which the firm could contribute to addressing the need, and how the firm could work effectively with the community to deal with the specific issue.

If there is no obvious State, Territory or national peak community sector body in the area, appropriate organisations could be located through the State Council of Social Service or a CLC specialising in the area. Other relevant organisations may include migrant resource centres, health centres, financial counsellors, family support services, women’s services, housing and crisis accommodation agencies and major welfare providers, as well as CLCs, ATSILS and Legal Aid Commissions.

Practical tips for developing pro bono partnerships with community organisations include:

• Plan networking opportunities to meet potential partners. This could involve attending conferences, training or meetings to hear about what is needed, what being done to meet that need and where the experts consider there may be gaps.  Explain the possible pro bono assistance your firm could provide.
• Identify the impact that the pro bono legal assistance will have on unmet legal need or on the capacity of a partner community organisation.
• Take positive steps to increase the level of understanding between the partners about each organisation’s philosophy, objectives and how they work to ensure they are a good fit and will work well together.
• Be clear about what each partner’s interests and constraints are early in the planning process, particularly regarding any actual or potential conflicts of interest.
• Discuss and agree on the roles and responsibilities of the partners.
• Be realistic about the time it takes to manage a collaborative practice.
• Where community organisations partner with pro bono providers to deliver legal services to their clients, ensure that clients also understand the arrangement between the partner organisations. For example, who is their point of contact and who is the other party in their lawyer-client agreement?
• Think about how the project’s success will be evaluated. See Chapter 1.13 Evaluation.

For more practical tips on planning, developing and maintaining relationships with potential and existing pro bono partners, see What Works, Part 3 understanding your potential partner and Part 4 models of pro bono legal assistance.

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MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING

It may be helpful to formalise a firm’s arrangement with a community organisation or referral agency in a memorandum of understanding (MOU), although this is not essential. The document should cover both the abstract and practical issues including:

• Who is responsible for doing the work, who is supervising, and are the risk and insurance arrangements aligned with this?
• What, if any, specific training (technical/cultural) will the firm undertaken to upskill its partners and lawyers for the work and how will this training be sourced? See Chapter 1.14 Training and skills.
• What standard documents and processes can be used and who will prepare them?
• Who will pay for items such as travel costs and accommodation?

Importantly, the MOU should reflect that this is a collaborative partnership, not an arms-length commercial transaction. An MOU that is legalistic in tone or overly self-serving is unlikely to foster a successful pro bono relationship. Precedent MOUs are provided in Appendix 1 Precedents.

Referral Organisations, referral agencies, and some CLCs may have standard MOUs they use for projects, particularly those with numbers of firm participants.  They are likely to prefer to work with their own documents, rather than using different versions for each participant in a project.

The parties should periodically revisit any MOU as part of a broader project evaluation, and amend it if necessary. (See Chapter 1.13 Evaluation)

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LEGAL AID COMMISSIONS

Understanding the type of work Legal Aid Commissions do can assist firms to understand the areas of legal need that remain unmet and accordingly, the type of work a firm might consider.

There is one Legal Aid Commission in each Australian State and Territory. The Legal Aid Commissions have offices all over Australia and see thousands of clients each year. Contact details for each Legal Aid Commission are maintained by National Legal Aid^[16] and each Legal Aid Commission has its own website. The Legal Aid Commissions provide legal advice, duty lawyer services and assist in family dispute resolution. See Chapter 3.1 Legal Aid Commissions for further information.

It is useful to become familiar with the Legal Aid Commission guidelines to understand when legal aid is available and to whom it is available. Firms may also wish to contact either the head of civil law, criminal law or family law at their local Legal Aid Commission office to discuss how the firm’s pro bono practice might be able to provide assistance. The person to contact will depend on the area of law in which the firm is considering offering pro bono services. It is important to have clear guidelines on the types of cases or work the firm seeks to have referred to it, and how the firm wants referrals made. See Chapter 2.1 Casework procedures.

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COMMUNITY LEGAL CENTRES AND INDIGENOUS LEGAL ORGANISATIONS

CLCs are a good source of referrals and valuable information regarding the needs of disadvantaged and marginalised clients. CLCs see thousands of clients every year. They work on tight budgets and cannot assist all the clients who meet their criteria. They usually have a detailed understanding of their clients’ needs and can potentially assist firms by helping them focus their pro bono work on a particular area. CLCs can provide a range of opportunities for law firm pro bono practices, including referrals of cases, secondment placements, rostered participation in advice clinics, law reform and community legal education work, opportunities to assist the CLC itself with advice including contract review, lease review, governance and tax advice, as well as ideas for projects such as targeted outreach services.

To initiate a relationship with a CLC, the firm’s pro bono head should contact the principal solicitor, manager or director of the CLC and invite them to meet. It is worth noting that, although many CLCs have well developed relationships with other law firms and Referral Organisations, many will welcome a new relationship with another firm. Some CLCs work with many private firm pro bono practices and have a range of outreach clinics and ongoing projects, as well as regular referral pathways in which several firms participate. Others work with few or no private law firms.

Firms may find that even when relationships with CLCs are established, a project or referral pathway may yield fewer referrals than predicted. This may be for a range of reasons, including that a CLC may be sharing its work among numbers of firms, be wary of overburdening a particular firm. It may be that a CLC has insufficient resources to triage maters and provide warm referrals, advertise an outreach service or establish other models of pro bono practice. It may be that staff at a CLC involved in establishing a pro bono partnership have moved on and there was no handover of the relationship. It may be that early referrals or clinic work was not done to the satisfaction of the referring CLC.
Maintaining regular and honest communication channels with the CLC will assist in managing many of these issues and ensure law firm partners of CLCs can respond appropriately to the CLC’s needs and feedback. It will also assist a firm to manage its expectations of a practice or collaboration.

CLCs are part of a national association: Community Legal Centres Australia (CLCA), and also State and Territory associations that provide secretariat support. There is a CLCA Conference each year, and various State associations also hold annual conferences and get togethers. These can be a good opportunity for pro bono practices to meet and network with CLCs, and describe the services they can provide. Many CLCs are also members of subject area specific networks such as youth, welfare rights, tenancy, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, disability rights, and RRR needs. These networks undertake policy work and joint initiatives, and can be another point of contact for law firms.

For information about what drives CLCs to become involved in pro bono partnerships and how to effectively partner with CLCs, see What Works, Chapter 12 Community legal centres.^[17]

Indigenous Legal Organisations (ILOs) include ATSILS, Indigenous women’s legal services, FVPLS, and native title representative bodies and land councils. Firms might consider contacting one or more ILOs to learn more about their work and explore whether the firm could provide pro bono assistance.

For an overview of the roles played by CLCs and ILOs in the legal assistance sector see Chapter 3.2 Indigenous Legal Organisations & other legal organisations.

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OTHER COMMUNITY AND NOT-FOR-PROFIT (NFP) ORGANISATIONS

Community welfare and NFP organisations are another potentially large source of pro bono referrals. They can provide firms with information to assist them to decide how best to focus their pro bono energies. Services that might be useful for a firm to contact include: family support services, neighbourhood centres or citizens advice bureaux, disability advocacy organisations, young people’s drop-in centres, court assistance schemes, land councils, migrant resource centres, women’s refuges, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and other organisations.

Developing relationships with community organisations and NFPs is also helpful for firms wanting to assist with addressing a range of needs in a particular geographical area, for example, a RRR area of the State or a particularly disadvantaged urban community. Information about community organisations can be obtained from State-based Councils of Social Service. Contact details are available on the website of the Australian Council of Social Service. ^[18]

Many community organisations that refer their disadvantaged clients to pro bono legal services also need pro bono legal assistance themselves. These organisations are generally not well-funded and rarely have any budget for legal assistance as they focus the funding they do have on meeting their core objectives. They can benefit enormously from pro bono assistance on a range of issues including advice on leases, employment, legal structures, contracts and funding agreements, intellectual property, tax and general commercial matters.

Community organisations may also benefit from community legal education and legal training, which may address their own needs or those of their clients. For example, a firm might be invited or offer to conduct training sessions with a particular subset of community organisations about applying to the Australian Taxation Office for deductible gift recipient endorsement. This is often more efficient than individually advising each organisation.

Many parts of the community sector belong to or are supported by peak organisations at a state or national level. Examples include the Refugee Council, Inclusion Australia, COTA, National Shelter, and the Women’s Services Network.

Somepeak bodies may be able to facilitate the provision of legal assistance on matters relevant to the organisations they service. They are likely to be aware of potential public interest issues relevant to their clients, which may be pursued through strategic litigation or law reform submissions.

For information about pro bono partnerships with NFPs and charities, see What Works, Chapter 28 Assistance to not-for-profit organisations and charities.

SOURCING WORK FROM WITHIN THE FIRM

The firm’s partners and staff are often sources of new pro bono opportunities. For example, some lawyers volunteer at CLCs or have colleagues working at Legal Aid Commissions or CLCs who can identify the need for pro bono assistance. Others may be involved in the boards or volunteer workforce of community organisations and be aware of legal needs within the organisation itself or among its constituents.

The firm’s pro bono policy should encourage lawyers to bring matters that fall within the firm’s pro bono guidelines to the attention of the pro-bono manager. Some firms have developed an application form for this purpose. Pro bono legal work that comes to the firm via this pathway can build support for pro bono within the firm as partners and staff feel engaged by work they have introduced.

THE FIRM DEVELOPING ITS OWN PRO BONO PROJECT

Once a firm has developed an understanding of a particular area of unmet legal need there is also an opportunity for the firm to develop its own signature or specialist project to address that need. This may be done in conjunction with a community partner, such as a CLC or NFP, or another firm.

See What Works for more examples of innovative signature projects.

RECEIVING DIRECT REQUESTS FOR PRO BONO ASSISTANCE

For some firms, direct approaches from pro bono clients may be too onerous to assess and they may prefer to accept referrals only through referral pathways that include detailed assessment.

For others, particularly as they develop expertise in particular areas of pro bono work, direct approaches from members of the public will be welcome.

Clear guidelines on the types of clients and matters a firm will assist and the best way of requesting pro bono help will be useful for efficient screening of requests. Developing a good understanding of the legal aid system and the network of community services available in the area will also be helpful to refer clients that are not accepted by the firm.

For small firms and sole practitioners, particularly those working in rural areas, receiving direct requests is a routine part of operating their practice.

See further Chapters 1.3 Pro bono policy and 2.1 Casework procedures for more information on managing direct approaches from pro bono clients.

This chapter was reviewed in 2022 by the Australian Pro Bono Centre and the pro bono team at Allens, headed by Nicky Friedman. The Centre acknowledges and is grateful for the generous contributions of all those who assisted with the 2022 refresh of the Australian Pro Bono Manual.

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[1] Aitnuke O Adediran (2020) ‘Solving the Pro Bono Mismatch’ (2020) 91 University of Colombia Law Review 1035.

[2] Law Council of Australia, The Justice Project Final Report (Report, August 2018) <https://www.lawcouncil.asn.au/justice-project/final-report>.

[3] Law Council of Australia, The Justice Project Final Report (Report, August 2018) 6 <https://www.lawcouncil.asn.au/justice-project/final-report>.

[4] Christine Coumarelos et al, Legal Australia-Wide Survey: Legal Need in Australia (Report, August 2012) <http://www.lawfoundation.net.au/ljf/app/6DDF12F188975AC9CA257A910006089D.html>.

[5] Christine Coumarelos et al, Legal Australia-Wide Survey: Legal Need in Australia (Report, August 2012) xiv <http://www.lawfoundation.net.au/ljf/app/6DDF12F188975AC9CA257A910006089D.html>.

[6] Christine Coumarelos et al, Legal Australia-Wide Survey: Legal Need in Australia (Report, August 2012) 112 <http://www.lawfoundation.net.au/ljf/app/6DDF12F188975AC9CA257A910006089D.html>.

[7] Law and Justice Foundation, Access to Justice and Legal Needs Legal Australia-Wide Survey (Report, August 2012) <http://www.lawfoundation.net.au/ljf/site/templates/LAW_AUS/$file/LAW_Survey_Australia.pdf>.

[8] Law and Justice Foundation, Access to Justice and Legal Needs Legal Australia-Wide Survey (Report, August 2012) <http://www.lawfoundation.net.au/ljf/site/templates/LAW_AUS/$file/LAW_Survey_Australia.pdf>.

[9] Law Council of Australia, Review of the National Partnerships Agreement on Legal Assistance Services (Report, 5 October 2018) <https://www.lawcouncil.asn.au/publicassets/a10e6d48-aeca-e811-93fc-005056be13b5/3520%20-%20NPA%20Review.pdf>.

[10] Australian Pro Bono Centre, Seventh National Law Firm Pro Bono Survey (Australian firms with fifty or more lawyers), (Report, February 2021) 9-10 <https://www.probonocentre.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Survey-Report-FINAL.pdf>.

[11] Law Council of Australia, Position Paper – Addressing the legal needs of the missing middle (Position  Paper, November 2021) .

[12] Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service (Qld) Ltd, Home (Web Page) <https://www.atsils.org.au/>.

[13] National Family Violence Prevention Legal Services, Home (Web Page) <https://www.nationalfvpls.org>

[14] Productivity Commission, Access to Justice Arrangements (Inquiry Report, 5 September 2014) 30 <https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/access-justice/report/access-justice-overview.pdf>.

[15] Law Council of Australia, 2022-23 Pre-Budget Submission (Webpage) <https://www.lawcouncil.asn.au/resources/submissions/2022-23-pre-budget-submission>.

[16] For details, please see the National Legal Alliance website at National Legal Aid, Leading and encouraging a national system of legal aid (Web Page) <www.nationallegalaid.org>.

[17] Names and contact details of all CLCs in each State and Territory and details of national CLC Networks can be found on Community Legal Centre Australia’s website at Community Legal Centres Australia, Ensuring a thriving community legal sector (Web Page) .

[18] Please see ACOSS (Web Page) <www.acoss.org.au>.

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