Editors' Blog

Pro bono, pro-profile

Posted 14/11/2007 by Deal Comment

Few Legal Week stories have generated such fury as one written in June last year that noted how few of the large City firms were formally participating in National Pro Bono Week.

One partner at a magic circle firm shouted at a Legal Week reporter for about an hour before storming off, on the basis that the firm does pro bono work throughout the year so it was no big deal that nothing specific was planned.

Still, while it did not matter last year, this year it apparently does, as a lot more firms are now making considerable efforts to support (and be seen to support) the cause. While last year Legal Week had to contact firms to ask about their plans, this year the magazine has been awash with announcements about forthcoming events.

Press releases on seminars, law school initiatives, pro bono pledges and so on would make any less jaded newsroom think law firms had suddenly made the star hires of Florence Nightingale and Mother Teresa.

Allen & Overy, Linklaters and Norton Rose all held events yesterday evening (13 November) while Dewey & LeBeouf, Simmons & Simmons and Taylor Wessing are just some of the firms planning events for later in the week.

The cause for this conversion? Most prosaically, it is likely that the decision by the organisers of the event to move the week from the quieter summer month of June to November, where more students are able to get involved, has had an impact.

But probably more importantly, firms know how important pro bono is becoming to their profile for potential recruits and clients alike.

LawWorks chief executive Robert Gill says: “This year we seem to have caught the imagination of firms more. It is not necessarily because they are doing more pro bono work but because they see the importance of publicising it and using it as an opportunity to get others involved.

“Firms are reluctant to shout about good work that they do but it can be important for them to do that if they want to attract good clients, many of which want to know what a firms’ CSR policy is.”

According to Gill, the number of major firms with pro bono co-ordinators has risen from five to around 30 during the last five years. So, it seems, the firms are taking pro bono more seriously… or employing more people to shout about it at least.

Which is entirely as it should be. It has become a little too common in the cynical City legal market to decry law firms for seeking to publicise their good works. But if there is a serious feeling that law firms should be more organised and committed to the cause, then transparency and (whisper it) marketing is not only healthy but probably necessary.

As the debate over CSR showed in the 1990s, a key element of encouraging good business behaviour is openness, which can often take the form of marketing. I just hope my email can take the strain.

paul.hodkinson@legalweek.com