About the Pro Bono Recognition List
The Pro Bono Recognition List of England & Wales is published annually to recognise lawyers who have given 25 or more hours pro bono legal assistance in the previous calendar year.
The Pro Bono Recognition List was set up under the aegis of the Attorney General’s Pro Bono Committee, with support from the Access to Justice Foundation, Advocate, Advocates for International Development, International Lawyers Project, the Law Officers, the Bar Council, CILEX, the Clinical Legal Education Organisation, the In-House Pro Bono Group, the Law Society, LawWorks, the National Pro Bono Centre and TrustLaw.
The Lady Chief Justice of England and Wales, the Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill, is the Patron of the Pro Bono Recognition List.
FAQ
Any barrister, chartered legal executive, registered European lawyer, registered foreign lawyer or solicitor, who was practising as of 31 December 2024, and undertook 25 or more hours of legal pro bono work in 2024.Those who completed their legal qualification during 2024 can include any pro bono work they undertook in the year, including as a trainee or pupil.
Lawyers who are not yet qualified by year end, including trainee solicitors, pupil barristers and paralegals cannot be included in the List. This is because until they have qualified, it is not possible to check an individual’s entries against the relevant professional register. The Steering Group will keep the issue under review. However, as stated above, pro bono undertaken as a trainee solicitor or pupil barrister can be included as long as they have qualified by year end.
Barristers, chartered legal executives and solicitors who are qualified and regulated in England & Wales, and hold a practicing certificate as of 31 December 2024, can be included in the List if they are working abroad (for example in an overseas branch of their law firm).
The
Joint Pro Bono Protocol defines legal pro bono (and sets out expectations for how pro bono work is undertaken), with a more detailed articulation found in the internationally recognised
TrustLaw definition.
- Individual solicitors, registered European lawyers and registered foreign lawyers can submit their details via the Home page of this website.
- Individual barristers can submit their details via Advocate.
- Individual chartered legal executives can submit their entries via CILEX.
- Government Legal Department lawyers can submit their entries via the GLD Pro Bono & Volunteering Network.
- Employers can make bulk submissions for all the lawyers they employ. For the avoidance of doubt, partners who are not employed by their law firms can be included in their law firm’s bulk submission. Please use the excel spreadsheet available on the Home page of this website and send it to contact@probonorecognitionlist.org.uk. Bulk submissions must be submitted in the template excel spreadsheet format. Any employer making a bulk submission should obtain consent to be included on the Recognition List from those named in their submission. Bulk submissions can only be made by employers.
Individuals can submit their details using the links on the
Home page of this website. The entries for individual barristers are collated by Advocate. Employers can make bulk submissions for all the barristers and solicitors they employ. For the avoidance of doubt, partners who are not employed by their law firms can be included in their law firm’s bulk submission. Please use the excel spreadsheet available on the Home page of this website and send it to
contact@probonorecognitionlist.org.uk. Bulk submissions must be submitted in the template excel spreadsheet format. Any employer making a bulk submission should obtain consent to be included on the Recognition List from those named in their submission.
We cannot accept submissions by voluntary organisations on behalf of their volunteers. Instead it is suggested that charities encourage their legal volunteers to submit entries themselves or via their employer.
Submissions for solicitors, chartered legal executives, registered European lawyers and registered foreign lawyers open on Monday 13 January and close on Friday 7 March 2025. No late submissions will be accepted. After this deadline, please submit in the following year for next year’s List.Barristers can submit via Advocate throughout the year in which the work is being measured, up until the 7 March 2025 deadline.
We aim to publish the Pro Bono Recognition List in April 2025.
Please name the organisation that you were working for at the end of the year in question i.e. as of 31 December 2024.
If they completed 25 hours or more pro bono time while working at your organisation then please include them. Please note that if they undertook 25 hours or more pro bono work in more than one organisation but they did not complete 25 hours at either organisation they should make an individual submission (and name the organisation they were last employed by).
Organisations that make bulk submissions are responsible for confirming the accuracy of the information submitted. Lawyers making individual submissions are similarly required to attest as to the accuracy of the information that they submit. The declaration that the relevant lawyers have undertaken the pro bono work is taken on trust. Inclusion in the Pro Bono Recognition List cannot be taken as a warranty as to the status of an individual as a lawyer or their pro bono work. The Steering Group, however, reserves at its absolute discretion the right not to include, or to remove, an individual’s name on the Recognition List.
If an employer submits an individual’s name in error, or an individual wishes their name removed, the Steering Group should be contacted on
contact@probonorecognitionlist.org.uk so the error can be corrected. If an individual is removed from the SRA Solicitors Register or the CILEX Authorised Practitioners Directory, or suspended or removed from the Barristers’ Register, then once this is brought to the attention of the Steering Group that individual’s name will be removed from the Pro Bono Recognition List. We cannot respond to any other complaints about the inclusion of an individual on the Pro Bono Recognition List.
Third parties are not permitted to use the List as a mailing list.