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25 January 2013
Over 60 percent of the pro bono work undertaken by large law firms is for organisations rather than individuals, according to the Final Report on the National Law Firm Pro Bono Survey 2012. Four of the five areas of law and practice where most pro bono services were provided are only relevant to the legal needs of organisations: governance, DGR applications, commercial agreements and incorporations.
Partner and management support was nominated as the most crucial factor in the success of a pro bono program. Other factors identified as crucial included effective coordination of the program within the firm, strong commitment of individual lawyers to the pro bono ethos, and the capacity of the firm to undertake the work.
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5 November 2012
Analysis of recent survey data from the National Association of Community Legal Centres and the National Pro Bono Resource Centre reveal a ratio of 7.2 between the total number of hours spent by the staff of Community Legal Centres in supervising and training volunteers, and the total number of hours contributed by volunteers and pro bono partnerships with law firms.
The analysis also shows that individual volunteering by lawyers provides at least two thirds of the pro bono legal support provided to CLCs. The other third is contributed through law firm/CLC pro bono partnerships.
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25 October 2012
The Fourth National Access to Justice & Pro Bono Conference is being held in Melbourne on Thursday 21 and Friday 22 March 2013, hosted by the Centre, The Law Council of Australia and the Law Institute of Victoria. See the website for details and bookmark it for the latest program and papers.
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4 October 2012
Australian law firms have continued to increase the amount of pro bono legal assistance they provide, despite the significant structural change that has taken place in the law firm sector over the past two years.
These findings come from the National Law Firm Pro Bono Survey, which is conducted every two years by the National Pro Bono Resource Centre, and the fifth annual performance report on the National Pro Bono Aspirational Target, also released today. Thirty-six of the 51 Australian firms with more than 50 FTE lawyers, including all of the large national firms, responded to the Survey.
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26 June 2012
A new research report prepared by the Centre identifies the need for lawyers to be better equipped to assist people experiencing disadvantage to participate in ADR. The research indicates that considerable variation still exists among legal professionals in their level of knowledge about ADR and their confidence to assist parties experiencing disadvantage that are participating in ADR processes.
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1 June 2012
The National Pro Bono Professional Indemnity Insurance Scheme was officially launched in Victoria yesterday, together with a new guide to in-house pro bono prepared by law firm DLA Piper. The Scheme’s terms and conditions were approved by the Victorian Legal Services Board on 14 May 2012 as an appropriate PI insurance policy for corporate legal practitioners under the new amendments to the Victorian Legal Profession Act.
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5 April 2012
The National Pro Bono Resource Centre welcomes the passing of legislation in Victoria which will allow in-house lawyers to undertake pro bono legal work in the same way as their private practice counterparts and in-house lawyers in other parts of the Australia.
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29 March 2012
An easily navigable and searchable directory of over 500 reports and submissions relating to social need in Australia has been created by the National Pro Bono Resource Centre in collaboration with the Australian Council of Social Service and is now available at www.socialneeds.net.au. It will be launched today at the ACOSS National Conference in Sydney.
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5 October 2011
The Fourth Performance Report on the National Pro Bono Aspirational Target was released today, showing that an average of 39.8 hours of pro bono work was undertaken in the last financial year by lawyers who have signed up.
The Target has seen a growth in the number of signatories from 58 to 66 at the end of the last financial year and now covers approximately 5,900 lawyers across Australia or 11 percent of the Australian legal profession. Solicitors, Barristers and Law Firms can find more information on the Target or sign up here.
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23 August 2011
The National Pro Bono Resource Centre has released its research report Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Planning for the Legal Profession in Australia which is endorsed by the Law Council of Australia, and includes a step by step guide on how to create a disaster response plan.
The report calls on Australia’s state and territory legal communities to adopt disaster response plans to deal with emergencies such as those which decimated parts of Queensland and Victoria earlier this year. A media release can be found here.
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