Pro Bono Week marks 25 years as legal volunteering continues to grow

Anna O’Boyle is acting senior content and engagement coordinator at LawCareers.Net

Reading time: three minutes

First established in 2002, Pro Bono Week marks its 25th anniversary this week, as new figures highlight the scale of free legal work being carried out across the UK and a series of events encourage the next generation of lawyers to get involved.

Pro Bono Week aims to celebrate and promote the legal profession’s commitment to providing free legal assistance. This year’s theme, ‘Celebrate a tradition. Inspire action. Shape the future.’, reflects this focus, with Monday night’s official launch looking back at the history of pro bono work and encouraging further action.

As part of the initiative, events are taking place online and across cities, including Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, London and Manchester. This year’s programme also includes three Young Lawyers events, inviting early-career solicitors and barristers to consider how they can help advance access to justice through pro bono work.

Several organisations are also celebrating milestones. The English and Welsh Bar’s national pro bono charity, Advocate, marks its 30th anniversary after receiving 5,634 requests for help in 2025/26, a 35% increase from last year. The Law Society of England and Wales is also celebrating 10 years of its Pro Bono Charter.

Elsewhere, the UK Collaborative Plan for Pro Bono revealed that its 88 member law firms completed 645,453 hours of pro bono work in 2025, up 1.29% on the previous year. The Pro Bono Recognition List of England and Wales has also grown by 16% in 2026, recognising 4,630 solicitors, 700 barristers and hundreds of other legal professionals.

For aspiring lawyers, pro bono can offer opportunities to develop practical legal skills and gain experience while helping to improve access to justice, with figures from 2025 showing the significant contribution students are making. The Student Clinical Legal Education Recognition List has recognised 1,881 law students across England and Wales who volunteered for at least 25 hours through university law clinics and other programmes.

Check out the latest pro bono initiatives you can get involved with.

Attorney General Ellie Reeves KC MP said pro bono can be “a lifeline when an everyday problem turns into a legal crisis” and called for the tradition of legal volunteering to continue to grow. Several other key figures, including Bar Council of England and Wales chair Kirsty Brimelow KC and Law Society President Brett Dixon, spoke positively about the contribution pro bono makes. However, they also stressed that voluntary legal work shouldn’t replace a properly funded legal aid and justice system; Brimelow affirmed that, while there’ll always be a place for it in society, “pro bono work is not a substitute for legal aid and should not act as a substitute for a properly funded justice system.”

Discover how to find how to find the right pro bono scheme for you with our latest LCN Says.