During November 2024, 58 events involving an estimated 2,500 attendees took place across the UK to encourage and discuss the role of the lawyers in volunteering to provide legal assistance to those in need. These were accompanied by various stories on legal outlets and posts on social media and websites. Law students from around the UK volunteered to act as rapporteurs to take notes at most of the events, from which the following points have been distilled to summarise some of the key topics and themes that emerged. The Great Legal Bake also took place during Pro Bono Week, raising much needed funds for advice agencies.
Pro Bono Week saw a substantial volume of media articles and social media posts. You can check out our daily Wakelets highlighting some of the best bits of Pro Bono Week 2024: day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4 and day 5.
Law students from around the UK volunteered to act as rapporteurs to take notes at most of the events, which have been distilled into a report summarising the discussions:
You can also see a summary of the key publications from legal press to the professional bodies’ websites:
You can see details of all of the events that were part of Pro Bono Week 2024:
The themes chosen for Pro Bono Week 2024 were:
- Barred from justice – the powerful, everyday stories of the impact of lawyers and law students who give their time to protect the rights of those most disadvantaged in society..
- Embedding pro bono in your organisation and career – placing pro bono at the heart of everyone’s practice and hearing from those at the forefront of establishing business structures for pro bono within law firms, chambers, in house, universities and charities.
- How technology can enhance access to justice – existing and new tools to ensure pro bono is innovative and effective.
You can also read the report on previous Pro Bono Week 2023.