Commonwealth tightens pro bono reporting template

1 July 2011

Law firms that have entered Deeds of Standing Offer in the common form with Commonwealth Departments since 2008 are required, by paragraph 4.1.3 of the deed, to report to the Office of Legal Services Coordination (OLSC) within 30 days of the end of financial year the total value of work undertaken for the Commonwealth and the amount of pro bono work performed by the firm, in that financial year. 

 Based on comments from the Centre’s law firms survey 2010 and from some firms to the Department and the Centre in relation to the Commonwealth’s Legal Services Expenditure Report 2010, the Centre made representations to the Attorney-General and his Department that the template should be reviewed and in particular should not allow firms to assign an arbitrary value to non-legal community work.  This view has been accepted.

The revised template can be located here on the Attorney-General’s Department website.

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