Pro bono body LawWorks is to create the first-ever set of UK pro bono league tables, ranking law firms on their commitment to providing free legal advice.
LawWorks chief executive Robert Gill said the body, the UK’s main pro bono organisation, was gearing up to publish the league tables later this year.
The first rankings will feature more than 100 firms and in-house teams that the charity currently works with. However, the organisation, formerly known as the Solicitors Pro Bono Group, plans to roll out the programme next year to include all UK law firms.
Gill told Legal Week that creating comparative league tables was an important step towards raising the profile of pro bono work in the UK.
“The idea is still under discussion between LawWorks and the firms,” said Gill. “Some firms do not want to be seen to be beating their breasts about the work they do but we think it is important for the rest of the world to see how much pro bono work lawyers do in comparison to other professions.”
The criteria firms will be measured on have not yet been decided but Gill says LawWorks will take into account size of firm, hours spent on pro bono work and type of work undertaken.
He added: “There are different ways to measure things and we do not want to compare apples with oranges. We will look at a range of criteria applicable to both big and small firms.”
The league tables will mark the first rankings of UK firms’ pro bono contributions. Legal Week’s sister title The American Lawyer counts pro bono as one of four professional values on which it assesses firms for inclusion on its list of the US’ top 20 firms, underlining US support for disclosing pro bono commitments. Last year New York firm Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler was given the highest ranking for pro bono work in the survey.
LawWorks last year increased efforts to get more in-house legal teams involved in the body, signing up several of the UK’s largest companies.
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