Law firms in Canada lag the UK, the US, and Australia in pro bono engagement
Canadian law firms are steadily reducing their pro bono work and have cut their contributions in half since 2020, a recent survey shows.
TrustLaw’s Index of Pro Bono shows that Canada's average number of pro bono hours per fee-earning lawyer fell to 9.9 hours in 2024, down from 11.5 in 2022 and 20.8 in 2020. The downward trend remains clear even when excluding the pandemic-era peak in 2020.
The report also tracks the percentage of fee-earning lawyers who completed more than 10 hours of pro bono work annually, revealing a decline from 44 percent in 2020 to 24 percent in 2022 and further down to 19 percent in 2024.
Kathryn Beck, head of legal at TrustLaw, says the decline follows a global trend, with 2020 seeing pro bono activity peak. She attributes the “high-water mark from 2020” to the slowdown of commercial legal work during the pandemic and a surge in lawyers wanting to contribute during a crisis.
While fluctuations in the firms reporting data each year could partially explain the 2024 decline, Beck notes that Canada continues to lag jurisdictions like the UK, the US, and Australia in pro bono engagement.
“We're not overly concerned about the slight drop in hours in Canada. But one thing that I do think is notable is that if you look across firms that have been consistently reporting into the index over the years, we haven't seen a significant growth,” she says.
Beck says there is ample room for Canadian law firms to improve their pro bono engagement.
She says one effective approach is hiring dedicated pro bono staff who can either do pro bono work or oversee and manage pro bono initiatives. Another is ensuring that pro bono work is an institutional priority rather than something left entirely to individual lawyers.
She also suggests establishing measurable goals and internal pro bono targets, adding that firms may choose to first set nonbinding targets.
“We do tend to see higher hours associated with mandatory targets, but even setting aspirational targets that are strongly encouraged across all lawyers within a firm makes a big difference,” Beck says.
She says another way to improve pro bono engagement is to introduce billable hour incentives. While Canadian firms typically allow pro bono work to count toward billable hours, many cap the number of hours that qualify.
By contrast, firms in the UK, US, and Australia often have no such restrictions.
“We’ve seen quite a lot of growth in Australia over the years because they really invested in that infrastructure,” she adds.
Beck predicts that demand for pro bono work in Canada will only grow in the coming years.
“There's a lot to be done in this space. Encouraging pro bono for lawyers, particularly those who are keen to do pro bono, and giving them the structure to be able to make that contribution is really crucial,” she says.
Beyond its social impact, Beck says that pro bono work benefits law firms on a business level by strengthening relationships with both clients and employees.
She says potential hires and current staff increasingly consider a firm's pro bono commitment when deciding whether to join or stay. Meanwhile, corporate clients – especially in the US and UK – are paying closer attention to the pro bono efforts of the firms they work with.
“Clients in the US and in the UK are increasingly demanding to know what kind of pro bono work their lawyers are doing. They also want to partner with law firms with which they collaborated on a pro bono basis,” she adds.
Beck says that law firm support should be the foundation for expanding pro bono work in Canada.
“There is not one thing that needs to be done to grow pro bono, but institutional support and the taking of responsibility at the institutional level is what tends to support the growth in other jurisdictions,” she says.
