23rd Annual Pro Bono Week: Celebrating UK Volunteering Initiatives

Annabel Millar

The 23^rd Annual Pro Bono Week in November 2024 rejoiced in the strong endeavours of law firms and organisations to increase access to justice. From artificial intelligence to pro bono litigation support, this article will unpack firm achievements and proposals for the future of pro bono that were highlighted in this annual celebration.

For the UK legal community, November hails the arrival of Pro Bono Week, an annual commemoration of selfless souls contributing their legal craft for the social good. Taking place just recently on 4^th– 8^th November, the 23^rd Annual Pro Bono Week could not have engaged with its theme The Power of Pro Bono better by beginning with a note of upward pro bono activity. According to Advocate, the England and Wales Bar pro bono charity, from September 2023 to 2024, not only did pro bono support applications see a 25% increase, but pro bono hours, totalled by the 78 participating firms in the UK Collaborative Plan for Pro Bono, also hit 609,000, a record 33,000-hour increase from 2022.

Celebrations aside, encouraging pro bono action is as important an agenda. Neatly packed under three key sub-themes — Barred from justice; Embedding pro bono in your organisation and career; and How technology can enhance access to justice, here are a few highlights to share.

Pro Bono Week 2024, in its 23rd running, celebrates pro bono achievements within the UK legal circle from 2023 to 2024.

Source: Pro Bono Week

Pro Bono Endeavours

Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) makes a strong contender for innovative breakthroughs in justice. In a pro bono project with charity Save the Children, the firm deployed its own artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted e-discovery platform to sort and prioritise thousands of documents, giving the solicitors ‘the best chance of getting the most important evidence as quickly as possible,’ said David Wilkins, e-disclosure technical lead at NRF. It is evident that AI with its current capacities can be a facilitative, time-saving tool enhancing the quantity of pro bono work firms are able to undertake in a given period and consequently bring justice to a broader community.

Pro Bono Expert Support

While developing and leveraging AI may be a tall and expensive order, the Pro Bono Expert Support (PBES) shows that roadblocks to justice can also be cleared by more humane and down-to-earth means. Launched in the previous annual Pro Bono Week, PBES offers pro bono litigation support by connecting lawyers with specialists who may be needed on such cases free of charge. One example is the provision of a consultant psychologist to provide evidence at an inquest. Partnered with four costs firms, the scheme is integral to helping litigants access specialist knowledge that may be required at the litigation stage, and pro bono lawyers obtain costs orders which allocates responsibility for payment. PBES has been seeking to broaden awareness of the availability of such orders and recruit more volunteers to the scheme, hopefully leading to a more efficient litigation process for pro bono claims.

Moving Forward

As we rejoice over the greater avenues for pro bono participation, we must also keep in mind the entrenched inequality within the legal system that stands independent from selfless devotions. Richard Atkinson, president of the Law Society, remarked, while the week celebrates the ‘incredible and selfless work lawyers do to help vulnerable people access justice’, their endeavours to help individuals secure fundamental rights ‘can never be a substitute for legal aid and a properly funded justice system’. Significant reduction of legal aid’s scope courtesy of Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 has proved a profound hindrance to accessing justice in the government’s efforts to reduce public spending. Sadly, as Atkinson underlines, however remarkable the achievements of lawyers and organisations may be, vulnerable individuals will continue to be barred from justice if legal aid is continuously not prioritised.

Written by: Annabel Millar

Edited by: Charlotte Ip (Managing Editor)