Solicitors reported providing nearly 52,000 hours of pro-bono services in FY2022-2023
Pro bono commitment from NSW solicitors has been ticking up, according to the 2023 Annual Profile of Solicitors NSW.
According to NSW Law Society President Brett McGrath, 42% of about 13,600 solicitors who finished the 2023 Law Society’s Practising Certificate survey conducted pro bono work in the last financial year, “a second successive 2% rise”.
“On average they provided 69 hours of pro bono service in the year, up four hours and close to double the annual target of 35 hours”, he said.
The total hours reported for FY2022-2023 nearly hit 52,000 working days.
“At an assumed $300 per hour (slightly less than the rate the NSW Government allows for external legal advice from solicitors), these practitioners delivered $117m worth of pro bono work. However, these results can’t capture the unpaid legal work of the two thirds of the profession that didn’t complete the voluntary survey”, McGrath pointed out. “I’m convinced that more and more solicitors are seeing pro bono work as a core value of their professional lives”.
This, he said, was “evidenced by a surge of more than a hundred new firms that have signed up to the Law Society’s Pro Bono Scheme since the beginning of this year”.
The 2023 Profile was put together by consulting firm Urbis. In addition to the voluntary survey, it also incorporates data obtained from the Law Society’s solicitor database last October. During this period, the number of solicitors was at 40,052.
The Pro Bono coordinates access to legal advice and representation for qualified clients in fields like family law, criminal law, wills and estates, and immigration.
