indepth
It can be incredibly challenging to combine commercial work with pro bono work” Anne CregAn, pArtner, BlAke DAwson
which offers a free consultancy service to firms setting up a pro bono practice. “I contacted the centre to see if I could just get a bit more education because part of being a pro bono coordinator is making sure you can refer the work that you can’t take,” she says. From there, Arvidson saw the practice’s health and disability focus emerge from a combination of the work the firm was already doing in the area, the strength of the firm’s existing health practice, as well as her own passion for supporting individuals and organisations exposed to disability services. “The intention is certainly to create a health and disability focus, but I don’t want to overstate that and say we do it exclusively, because we certainly don’t,” she says.
Hitting target According to Corker, the NPBRC’s aspirational target – a voluntary one which has now been running for four years – was set up to raise visibility of the profession’s pro bono contributions and to provide a useful benchmark for firms. With 66 signatories covering approximately 5,900 lawyers, or 11 per cent of the Australian legal profession, the target provides a useful incentive for lawyers and firms to increase their contribution. “Many signatories exceed [35 hours] and some even double it,” says Corker. Most of Australia’s large law firms, such as Blake Dawson and Clayton Utz, are signatories to the target, despite having much higher internal targets. “We have an internal target of 52 hours per lawyer, per year, which we don’t expect to meet this financial year but expect to meet next financial year,” says Blake Dawson’s national pro bono head, Anne Cregan. “The internal target was arrived at
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in April of last financial year … We knew that 35 hours was less than the number of hours we could contribute, but then we needed to work out what we thought was the number of hours we could actually achieve.” According to Cregan, while Blake Dawson has had a formal pro bono program for 12 years, its strategy and target areas have remained the same. “We’ve had the three same target areas for assistance for those 12 years and we’re getting to the point now where we’ve developed some expertise and some credibility and some real understanding of some of the needs in those areas,” she says, adding that the practice is currently looking to recruit another full-time lawyer, adding to the three full-time lawyers already on board. “In the next two to three years, we’re looking to do some larger transformative projects in those target areas and some additional law reform and policy work.” Like Blake Dawson, Freehills has been running a formal pro bono program since the early 1990s after years of running pro bono on an ad hoc and unrecorded basis. Today, Freehills lawyers average approximately 44 hours of pro bono per lawyer, per year, with an overall firm contribution of approximately 43,000 hours. But in contrast to many of the larger Australian firms, Freehills is not a signatory to
Pro bono beginnings 1989 – First pro bono clinic established in Perth by Freehills 1991 – Law Society of NSW develops its first pro bono policy 1992 – Public Interest Law Clearing House (PILCH) was established in NSW; Law Access service was established in Western Australia & Law Council of Australia published its first definition of pro bono 1993 – Freehills established the Shopfront Youth Legal Centre in Darlinghurst, Sydney, in partnership with Mission Australia to provide legal services for homeless and disadvantaged youth 1994 – PILCH Victoria was established; NSW Bar Legal Assistance Referral Scheme was established 1996 – Gilbert + Tobin appointed the first firm pro bono coordinator in Australia 1998 – Order 80 Federal Court Rules Scheme commenced (court-appointed referral for legal assistance) 2000 – First national pro bono conference was held; the Law Institute of Victoria Legal Assistance Scheme was established 2001 – Queensland PILCH and Homeless Persons’ Legal Service (HPLS) was established in Victoria 2002 – National Pro Bono Resource Centre was established 2003 – The second national pro bono conference was held in Sydney 2004 – ACT pro bono clearing house was launched; HPLS established in NSW 2006 – Clayton Utz became the first firm to appoint a pro bono partner; the Human Rights Law Resource Centre was established in Victoria; HPLS was established in SA 2007 – National Pro Bono Aspirational Target of 35 hours per year was introduced; Blake Dawson appointed a pro bono partner 2008 – Gilbert + Tobin appointed a pro bono partner Source: National Pro Bono Resource Centre www.nationalprobono.org.au
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