National Pro Bono Target

You can sign up to the National Pro Bono Target quickly and easily online. All you need to do is:

1. Read the Statement of Principles that is relevant to you
2. Click on “I agree”
3. Provide a few simple contact details

You will then be added to the Register of Target Signatories and sent a welcome email and certificate.

If you have any further questions please contact the Centre or refer to:

• the FAQs on the Target or
• the FAQs on the Target for in-house corporate and government legal teams and lawyers.

Further information specifically for in-house legal teams and individual in-house lawyers can be found here.

The Target was launched on 26 April 2007 with the aim of raising the profile of the professional responsibility of lawyers to:

• enhance access to justice for people who would not otherwise have access to legal assistance;
• work for the public good; and
• highlight the shared nature of that responsibility across the legal profession.

The Target amount of 35 hours for law firms, incorporated legal practices, individual solicitors, individual barristers and barristers’ chambers was chosen in consultation with the legal profession. It reflects what many lawyers in these practices are already doing and represents the minimum number of hours of pro bono legal services that all lawyers should aspire to undertake.

The Centre opened the Target on 1 July 2020 to in-house legal signatories who will be committing to using their best endeavours to achieve at least 20 hours of pro bono legal services per in-house lawyer per year. The Centre, in consultation with the In-house Pro Bono Steering Committee, has decided to take a staged approach and will review whether this hourly target should be raised to be aligned with other legal professionals in the future. The 20-hour benchmark reflects what many in-house lawyers are already doing and takes into consideration the unique context for in-house legal professionals.

For further information on how the Target was developed, please refer to Development of the Target. A brief history of the first five years of the Target can also be found in the Fifth Performance Report of the National Pro Bono Aspirational Target from 2012.

Only pro bono legal services can be counted for the purposes of the Target – please see our definition of pro bono for further information.

While other community service is important and applauded, the Target is focused on encouraging lawyers to undertake the legal work that only lawyers are qualified to do and which directly remove barriers to accessing justice.

For further guidance on providing pro bono legal services to small businesses impacted by environmental disasters, please see the Centre’s Climate Initiative page.

You can also refer to the Guidance Notes for more detail on what can be counted.

When you become a Target signatory, you become a member of the Target community. With this, you receive:

• a welcome email, with extensive detail about resources available to support you on your pro bono journey, and information about your obligations as a Target signatory
• unlimited support from the Centre, including access to one-on-one meetings with our staff to provide tailored advice to your circumstances
• promotional material to make you easily identifiable as a Target signatory, including a Target logo you can display in your email signatures (and on your website, if relevant)
• a social media introduction on our various social media channels, if you would like your involvement publicised.

All Target signatories are required to report on their performance against the Target each financial year, by completing a brief form provided by the Centre (online). All signatories’ responses are kept confidential.

Templates of the Target Reporting Form can be viewed here (please do not print and complete, these are templates only):

• Template Target Reporting Form for Firms and ILPs
• Template Target Reporting Form for Individuals (Solicitor or Barrister)
• Template Target Reporting Form for Barristers’ Chambers
• Template Target Reporting Form for In-house Teams
• Template Target Reporting Form for In-house Individuals

The Centre then uses this data to produce an annual Performance Report on the Target. This report is de-identified and does not include information on the performance of individual signatories.

• 18th Performance Report of the National Pro Bono Target (2025)
• 17th Performance Report of the National Pro Bono Target (2024)
• 16th Performance Report of the National Pro Bono Target (2023)
• 15th Performance Report of the National Pro Bono Target (2022)
• 14th Performance Report of the National Pro Bono Target (2021)
• 13th Performance Report of the National Pro Bono Target (2020)
• 12th Performance Report of the National Pro Bono Target (2019)

Page last updated November 2024.