{ "id": "epqy3ph82d", "slug": "pro-bono-epqy3ph82d", "title": "Pro bono", "updated": "2026-10-25", "topic_path": [ { "id": "society", "label": "Society and history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society" }, { "id": "society.law", "label": "Law and justice", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.law" }, { "id": "society.law.practice", "label": "Courts and legal practice", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.law.practice" }, { "id": "society.law.practice.procedures", "label": "Legal procedure and practice", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.law.practice.procedures" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t500.society.law.practice", "label": "Western Europe · 500 BC to AD 999: Courts and legal practice", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t500.society.law.practice", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t500", "label": "Western Europe · 500 BC to AD 999", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t500" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t500.society", "label": "Society and history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t500.society" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t500.society.law", "label": "Law and justice", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t500.society.law" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t500.society.law.practice", "label": "Courts and legal practice", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t500.society.law.practice" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Pro bono (from Latin pro bono publico, for the public good) is voluntary, unpaid professional work, chiefly free legal services. Distinguished by ABA Model Rule 6.1's 50-hour aspiration, 2013 ABA Standards, and mandatory California reporting from 2026.", "snippet": "Pro bono (from Latin pro bono publico, for the public good) is voluntary, unpaid professional work, chiefly free legal services. Distinguished by ABA Model Rule 6.1's 50-hour aspiration, 2013 ABA Standards, and mandatory California reporting from 2026.", "node": "society.law.practice.procedures", "markdown": "# Pro bono\n\n**Pro bono** is professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment, most commonly free legal services provided by lawyers to people who cannot afford them. The term is short for the Latin *pro bono publico*, traditionally rendered \"for the public good\"; one legal-history treatment notes that the literal translation is \"for the good of the state\" rather than \"for the good of the public\" as is often assumed today[1](https://study.scicenter.online/professional-ethics-lawyer/history-the-provision-free-legal-services-99014.html). In modern usage the phrase refers chiefly to legal service provided voluntarily by law firms, law schools, and attorneys without monetary compensation[2](https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/pro_bono), and by extension to skills-based volunteering by other professionals, such as accountants, designers, and marketers, who donate their expertise to nonprofit organizations[3](https://capacitycommons.org/).\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Meaning | Short for Latin *pro bono publico*; in legal usage, professional service provided voluntarily without compensation[2](https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/pro_bono) |\n| ABA benchmark | Model Rule 6.1 urges every lawyer to aspire to at least 50 hours of pro bono publico legal services per year; the responsibility is aspirational and not enforced through discipline[4](https://www.americanbar.org/groups/probono_public_service/policy/aba_model_rule_6_1/) |\n| Participation | More than 75% of American attorneys provide pro bono service at some point in their careers, per the ABA's Supporting Justice V report[5](https://www.americanbar.org/groups/probono_public_service/) |\n| Law firm volume | Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge signatories (firms with 50 or more attorneys) reported 5.14 million hours of pro bono in 2025[6](https://www.probonoinst.org/media_release/law-firm-pro-bono-challenge-report-signals-stabilization-amid-evolving-landscape/) |\n| Average effort | Reliable estimates put American lawyers' average pro bono contribution at about half an hour per year, broadly defined[7](https://www.amacad.org/publication/daedalus/lawyers-legal-profession-access-justice-united-states-brief-history) |\n| Valuation benchmark | Traditional volunteer time was valued at $24.14 per hour by Independent Sector in April 2018, a baseline used when pricing pro bono projects[8](https://taprootfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Pro-Bono-Valuation.pdf) |\n| Global reach | The Pro Bono Institute and Latham & Watkins survey of pro bono practices grew from 11 jurisdictions in its first edition (2005) to 84 jurisdictions in the 2016 edition[9](https://www.probonoinst.org/wpps/wp-content/uploads/Global-Survey-2016.pdf) |\n\n## Meaning and scope\n\nThe core conception of pro bono legal activity is the provision of free legal assistance to poor people[10](https://www.supremecourt.gov/publicinfo/speeches/sp_04-09-01a.html). Definitions vary by jurisdiction. In the United Kingdom, the Joint Pro Bono Protocol defines pro bono work as \"legal advice or representation provided by lawyers in the public interest, including to individuals, charities and community groups who cannot afford to pay and where alternative means of funding are not available\"[11](https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/topics/pro-bono/pro-bono-manual/part-one-planning-developing-and-maintaining-a-programme). In the United States, ABA Model Rule 6.1 asks each lawyer to render a substantial majority of the 50 annual hours without fee to persons of limited means, or to charitable, religious, civic, community, governmental, and educational organizations in matters designed primarily to address the needs of persons of limited means[4](https://www.americanbar.org/groups/probono_public_service/policy/aba_model_rule_6_1/).\n\nRule 6.1, the no-fee-or-expectation-of-fee requirement applies only to the substantial majority of the aspirational hours; an anticipated fee that goes uncollected does not qualify, although statutory fees awarded in a case accepted as pro bono do not disqualify it[4](https://www.americanbar.org/groups/probono_public_service/policy/aba_model_rule_6_1/) • [22](https://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/model_rules_of_professional_conduct/rule_6_1_voluntary_pro_bono_publico_service/). The rule also counts reduced-fee service, work on civil rights and civil liberties matters, and activities that improve the law, the legal system, or the legal profession toward the aspirational total[4](https://www.americanbar.org/groups/probono_public_service/policy/aba_model_rule_6_1/).\n\nOutside law, the term covers donated professional services generally. Skills-based volunteerism supplies nonprofits with external expertise in functions such as finance, marketing, and technology that they would otherwise have to buy, complementing traditional hands-on volunteering[3](https://capacitycommons.org/).\n\n## History\n\nLawyers' free service has old roots but a recent vocabulary. According to the legal scholar Judith Maute, the phrase \"pro bono publico\" was historically used in a general sense, referring to the broad concept of what was within the public interest; only in the 1950s did \"pro bono\" come to refer specifically to uncompensated legal representation[12](https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9780199745173_A23609208/preview-9780199745173_A23609208.pdf). In the United States, organized pro bono programs have existed for over a century[13](https://www.americanbar.org/groups/center-pro-bono/publications/pro-bono-standards/), and in the late nineteenth century legal aid offices staffed by full-time lawyers and paid for through charitable contributions opened in many American cities[14](https://digitalcommons.mainelaw.maine.edu/mlr/vol67/iss2/64/). Reginald Heber Smith's 1919 book *Justice and the Poor*, condemning the judicial system's treatment of the poor, was a significant development of that period[12](https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9780199745173_A23609208/preview-9780199745173_A23609208.pdf).\n\nLaw students have provided free legal assistance to the poor for over 100 years. The first recorded volunteer law student group was a law club at the University of Pennsylvania, which created a \"legal aid dispensary\" in 1893; the first formal law school pro bono program came in 1987, when the faculty of Tulane Law School, led by Dean John Kramer, instituted a 20-hour pro bono graduation requirement[15](https://academic.oup.com/book/50656/chapter-abstract/421272546).\n\nThe shape of American pro bono changed markedly in recent decades. For most of American legal history it was ad hoc and individualized, dispensed informally as professional charity; within about twenty-five years before 2004 it became centralized and streamlined, distributed through an elaborate institutional structure, and emerged as the dominant means of dispensing free representation to poor and underserved clients[16](https://www.uclalawreview.org/the-politics-of-pro-bono/).\n\n## Organization in the United States\n\n**Institutional infrastructure.** The American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service works to expand delivery of legal services to the underserved through volunteer efforts, sponsors the annual Pro Bono Publico Awards, and co-sponsors the Equal Justice Conference with the National Legal Aid and Defender Association[5](https://www.americanbar.org/groups/probono_public_service/). The ABA House of Delegates adopted the revised Standards for Programs Providing Civil Pro Bono Legal Services to Persons of Limited Means at its 2013 Annual Meeting; the Standards set out the elements of an effective program, including recruiting volunteers, meeting clients' needs, and delivering quality service[17](https://www.americanbar.org/groups/center-pro-bono/resources/standards-resources/).\n\nFor large firms, the Pro Bono Institute's Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge serves as an industry benchmark for participation among firms with 50 or more attorneys, aiming to integrate pro bono into the practice, philosophy, and culture of firms. Its 2026 report, based on 2025 data, recorded 5.14 million pro bono hours from signatories and signs of stabilization, with more firms meeting the Challenge goal and increased charitable giving[6](https://www.probonoinst.org/media_release/law-firm-pro-bono-challenge-report-signals-stabilization-amid-evolving-landscape/).\n\n**Mandatory reporting.** Voluntary aspiration is distinct from mandatory disclosure. Beginning with the 2026 licensing fee cycle, California attorneys must report their pro bono and reduced-fee legal services hours to the State Bar, covering hours completed in the preceding calendar year and reported by March 30 alongside other licensing requirements. The State Bar collects the information to understand how these services are provided across the profession[18](https://www.calbar.ca.gov/frequently-asked-questions-mandatory-pro-bono-reporting).\n\n## How much pro bono happens\n\nParticipation is broad but thin. More than 75% of American attorneys provide pro bono service at some point in their careers, yet reliable estimates put the nationwide average at about half an hour of pro bono work per year when broadly defined[7](https://www.amacad.org/publication/daedalus/lawyers-legal-profession-access-justice-united-states-brief-history). Concentration explains the gap: large-firm programs account for a large share of hours, with Challenge signatories alone reporting 5.14 million hours in 2025[6](https://www.probonoinst.org/media_release/law-firm-pro-bono-challenge-report-signals-stabilization-amid-evolving-landscape/). The American Academy of Arts and Sciences notes that law firm pro bono services now exceed in value the entire federal legal-services budget[7](https://www.amacad.org/publication/daedalus/lawyers-legal-profession-access-justice-united-states-brief-history).\n\n**Valuing the work.** Programs and nonprofits routinely price pro bono engagements. Independent Sector's April 2018 estimate valued traditional volunteer time at $24.14 per hour, and pro bono valuations typically scale that baseline to the market rate for the specific professional service involved[8](https://taprootfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Pro-Bono-Valuation.pdf). Not everything a professional does for free qualifies: classification guidance prepared for the Thomson Reuters Foundation's pro bono index treats non-legal volunteering, such as a law firm partner reading to children at an after-school club, as falling outside qualifying pro bono, while legal work such as a paralegal preparing court bundles for a civil liberties case on behalf of an NGO counts[19](https://www.trust.org/documents/2020-index-of-pro-bono/submissions-guidance.pdf).\n\n## Global development\n\nPro bono practice has spread well beyond the United States and England. The 2016 survey by the Pro Bono Institute and [Latham & Watkins](https://www.edgepedia.org/latham-and-watkins) covered 84 jurisdictions across Europe, Asia and the Pacific, the Americas, Africa, and the Middle East, and found that the conversation had shifted from whether pro bono is permissible under local rules to how representations can be undertaken[9](https://www.probonoinst.org/wpps/wp-content/uploads/Global-Survey-2016.pdf). In [England and Wales](https://www.edgepedia.org/england-and-wales), the Law Society, the Bar Council, and the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives maintain guides, a pro bono manual, and a Pro Bono Recognition List to support and recognize this work[20](https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/topics/pro-bono/).\n\nInternational guidance sets a limit on what pro bono can do: private pro bono programs should not be expected to replace the national legal aid system or take over the government's responsibility for ensuring equal access to justice for all citizens[21](https://www.unodc.org/documents/treaties/UNCAC/Publications/ResourceGuideonStrengtheningJudicialIntegrityandCapacity/11-85709_ebook.pdf).\n\n## References\n\n1. [History of the Provision of Free Legal Services until 1990](https://study.scicenter.online/professional-ethics-lawyer/history-the-provision-free-legal-services-99014.html)\n2. [Pro bono, Wex, Legal Information Institute, Cornell University](https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/pro_bono)\n3. [Capacity Commons, Common Impact](https://capacitycommons.org/)\n4. [ABA Model Rule 6.1, American Bar Association](https://www.americanbar.org/groups/probono_public_service/policy/aba_model_rule_6_1/)\n5. [Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service, American Bar Association](https://www.americanbar.org/groups/probono_public_service/)\n6. [Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge Report Signals Stabilization Amid Evolving Landscape, Pro Bono Institute, June 18, 2026](https://www.probonoinst.org/media_release/law-firm-pro-bono-challenge-report-signals-stabilization-amid-evolving-landscape/)\n7. [Lawyers, the Legal Profession & Access to Justice in the United States: A Brief History, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Dædalus](https://www.amacad.org/publication/daedalus/lawyers-legal-profession-access-justice-united-states-brief-history)\n8. [What's the Monetary Value of Pro Bono Service?, Taproot Foundation](https://taprootfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Pro-Bono-Valuation.pdf)\n9. [A Survey of Pro Bono Practices and Opportunities in 84 Jurisdictions, Pro Bono Institute and Latham & Watkins, March 2016](https://www.probonoinst.org/wpps/wp-content/uploads/Global-Survey-2016.pdf)\n10. [Remarks on Pro Bono Lawyering, Supreme Court of the United States, 2001](https://www.supremecourt.gov/publicinfo/speeches/sp_04-09-01a.html)\n11. [Pro Bono Manual, Part One: Planning, Developing and Maintaining a Programme, The Law Society](https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/topics/pro-bono/pro-bono-manual/part-one-planning-developing-and-maintaining-a-programme)\n12. [Pro Bono, the Public Good, and the Legal Profession (preview, Oxford University Press)](https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9780199745173_A23609208/preview-9780199745173_A23609208.pdf)\n13. [Standards for Pro Bono, ABA Center for Pro Bono](https://www.americanbar.org/groups/center-pro-bono/publications/pro-bono-standards/)\n14. [Legal Aid and Legal Services, Howard Dana, Maine Law Review](https://digitalcommons.mainelaw.maine.edu/mlr/vol67/iss2/64/)\n15. [Shaped by Educational, Professional, and Social Crises: The History of Law Student Pro Bono Service, in Private Lawyers and the Public Interest (Oxford University Press, 2009)](https://academic.oup.com/book/50656/chapter-abstract/421272546)\n16. [The Politics of Pro Bono, Scott L. Cummings, UCLA Law Review (2004)](https://www.uclalawreview.org/the-politics-of-pro-bono/)\n17. [Standards Resources, ABA Center for Pro Bono](https://www.americanbar.org/groups/center-pro-bono/resources/standards-resources/)\n18. [Frequently Asked Questions: Mandatory Pro Bono Reporting, The State Bar of California](https://www.calbar.ca.gov/frequently-asked-questions-mandatory-pro-bono-reporting)\n19. [Pro Bono Index Submissions Guidance, Thomson Reuters Foundation (2020)](https://www.trust.org/documents/2020-index-of-pro-bono/submissions-guidance.pdf)\n20. [Pro Bono, The Law Society](https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/topics/pro-bono/)\n21. [Resource Guide on Strengthening Judicial Integrity and Capacity, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime](https://www.unodc.org/documents/treaties/UNCAC/Publications/ResourceGuideonStrengtheningJudicialIntegrityandCapacity/11-85709_ebook.pdf)\n22. [Rule 6 1 Voluntary Pro Bono Publico Service, americanbar.org](https://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/model_rules_of_professional_conduct/rule_6_1_voluntary_pro_bono_publico_service/)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Law and justice › Courts and legal practice › Legal procedure and practice*\n\n*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 17, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/pro-bono-epqy3ph82d", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/pro-bono-epqy3ph82d.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Pro bono\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/pro-bono-epqy3ph82d. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Pro bono](https://www.edgepedia.org/pro-bono-epqy3ph82d)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/pro-bono-epqy3ph82d](https://www.edgepedia.org/pro-bono-epqy3ph82d). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Pro bono\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/pro-bono-epqy3ph82d. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Pro bono is voluntary, unpaid professional work, chiefly free legal services. Distinguished by ABA Model Rule 6.1's 50-hour aspiration, 2013 ABA Standards, and mandatory California reporting from 2026." }