Pro bono index launched

July 1st, 2014
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By Nomfundo Manyathi-Jele

South African law firms are reporting some of the highest average hours of pro bono work per fee earner globally. This was revealed at the global launch of Thomson Reuters Foundation’s TrustLaw Index of Pro Bono on 28 May 2014.

The index, the first of its kind, analyses the pro bono work undertaken by law firms on a country-by-country basis and identifies success stories and global trends.

At the launch, the foundation’s chief executive officer, Monique Villa, said the index was designed after months of consultation with law firms. She said it examines how much pro bono is being done as a benchmark. ‘Given the vast cultural and contextual differences around the world, average pro bono hours per fee-earner in each jurisdiction is being used as the key metric to draw comparisons. It is patently clear that this is just one measure of a successful practice and that this metric does not take into account the impact of the work being done. In spite of that, the creation of a robust database that quantifies the pro bono hours and engagement within firms, along with analysis of the pro bono ‘infrastructure’ within those firms, will help foster the development of the sector and will also feed into the discussion around measuring the impact of pro bono work,’ she said.

The Foundation’s head of legal, Nicholas Glicher, told De Rebus that the law firms were asked to provide information on how they organise their pro bono practice and how much pro bono they do in the different countries and jurisdictions they operate in. Mr Glicher said that 103 firms in 69 countries provided information adding that, of those, 77 submitted very detailed data about how much pro bono their lawyers are doing.

South Africa’s profile

According to the index, South Africa has a good track record in pro bono and the Law Society of South Africa spearheaded the requirement – implemented by the provincial law societies – that all attorneys should provide 24 hours per year of free legal advice to members of the public who meet a means test.

‘On average, lawyers in South Africa performed 32,7 hours of pro bono per year. This is one of the highest averages globally and is significantly higher than the regional average. Seven firms with offices in South Africa responded to the index, five of whom provided data about the levels of pro bono performed over the last 12 months,’ the index states. To put this into perspective, the 32,7 hours is lower than the United States, at an average of 74 hours, but higher than England and Wales at 21 hours. These two countries are recognised as global leaders in pro bono.

The index further states that a number of South African law firms have pro bono or public interest law teams that perform a significant proportion of the firm’s pro bono work. ‘The knock-on effect of this is that fewer lawyers within the firms are involved with pro bono matters than one might think given the high average hours of pro bono. The percentage of lawyers performing 10 or more hours of pro bono is 40,1%, which is again high regionally, but far nearer the regional average of 37,3%.’

South African law firms which participated in the survey displayed among the highest percentages globally – at 40% in terms of partners working on pro bono matters over the last 12 months.

‘Interestingly, not all the firms have a requirement that lawyers perform a minimum amount of pro bono, a third of the respondents indicated there was no requirement. For the other firms, the requirement ranges from the law society mandated 24 hours up to 32 hours, with a further aspirational target of 50 hours per lawyer per annum at another. Thirty-three percent of respondents also indicated they did not factor pro bono into compensation for either lawyers or partners,’ the index states.

The vast majority of South African respondents (80%) indicated that they work on access to justice matters and 60% work on economic development, microfinance and social finance.

The law firms that participated in the survey in South Africa were Hogan Lovells, White & Case, Norton Rose Fulbright, Webber Wentzel and Bowman Gilfillan Inc.

Other findings

Miss Villa said that one of the key findings of the research was that pro bono is global and thriving. ‘Firms with just one lawyer and firms with over 1 500 responded, providing an array of fascinating insights into the pro bono sector at large,’ she said.

According to the index, other findings included –

Almost 36 000 lawyers work at the firms that responded to the index and on average, these lawyers have performed 43 hours of pro bono each over the last 12 months.

There is no strong relationship between the number of fee-earners at a firm and the amount of pro bono being done. However, larger and smaller legal teams in each country tended to do more pro bono than middle-sized firms. Firms with more than 100 fee-earners in a jurisdiction perform on average of 34,2 hours of pro bono, while the number of those with 20 to 99 fee-earners drops to 15,8 hours. Firms with less than 20 fee-earners average 22,4 hours.

Factoring pro bono into compensation for lawyers has a dramatic impact on the amount lawyers do. Those lawyers for whom pro bono does count as part of their compensation perform on average 39,5 hours of pro bono per year, compared to 23,5 hours for those that do not have the same incentive.

Lawyers at firms with pro bono coordinators in place do 34,4 hours of pro bono on average, compared to 23,6 hours at firms that do not have a co­ordinator. This sizeable difference seems to show that the presence of a pro bono coordinator is an important factor in strengthening pro bono practices. When this coordinator is full time, the difference is even greater as firms with a full-time coordinator in place average 44,8 hours of pro bono per fee-earner per year, versus 20,3 hours for those with a part-time coordinator.

There is also a big difference in the proportion of lawyers doing ten or more hours of pro bono at firms with coordinators compared to those without (48,3% compared to 23,6%).

The presence of a pro bono committee also has an impact on the average number of pro bono hours undertaken. Firms with a committee reported an average of 34,8 hours compared to 28,9 hours at firms that do not. Interestingly this has less impact on the proportion of lawyers performing ten or more hours of pro bono. With a committee in place, that proportion stands at 44,8%, as opposed to 40,7% without.

Firms with a pro bono requirement in place, either encouraging or requiring their lawyers to do a minimum number of hours of pro bono each year, do on average, more pro bono work than those without. Those with this requirement in place did an average of 42,7 hours compared to 29,3 hours for those without.

While many have traditionally viewed pro bono work as providing assistance to individuals in need, charities and non-profits are the most commonly supported pro bono clients. Rather than working with individuals, 87,6% of firms said they support non-profits and registered charities, with 73% working with social enterprises. Only 67,4% work with individuals. The most commonly supported development fields are access to justice, selected by 62,4% of respondent firms, economic development at 43,5% and human rights at 41,1%.

Only 21,4% of firms have a pro bono target or requirement in place for lawyers (non-partners) in their firm. Approximately 55% of those have a mandatory, as opposed to aspirational requirement in place.

Firms with targets do on average 42,7 hours of pro bono per fee-earner, compared to 29,3 hours at those without.

Approximately half of the respondent firms compensate lawyers for the pro bono work they do. Most of the firms structure their compensation such that pro bono hours are rewarded and count towards billable-hour targets up to a maximum threshold. This thre­shold ranges from 21 to 100 hours. Other firms indicate that lawyers are unable to qualify for bonuses unless a minimum pro bono hours threshold is met. In all cases where pro bono hours are considered as part of the compensation process, they are treated in exactly the same way as hours recorded on fee-earning transactions for both performance ratings and for compensation calibration.

Ms Villa believes that, over time, the index will become a hub for information about trends in the pro bono sector. ‘Through the layers of data gathered each year, the index will be able to monitor trends, not only in terms of how much pro bono is being done, but also any evolution in the way practices are managed.’

The full index can be found at: www.trust.org

Nomfundo Manyathi-Jele, nomfundo@derebus.org.za

This article was first published in De Rebus in 2014 (July) DR 9.

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