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Introduction

Canadian Lawyer is surveying the legal community on Canada's 5-Star Pro Bono Firms. No matter how much Pro Bono work you do, we'd love to hear from you.

The 5-Star Pro Bono Firms, proudly supported by Pro Bono Ontario, will be published on Canadian Lawyer's website in April.

Please take the time to fill this survey in. This will allow us to disseminate valuable pro bono data for the legal community. Each year, Canadian Lawyer will publish this data along with recognising and awarding the firms and individuals that go above and beyond in the pro bono arena.

Canadian Lawyer and Pro Bono Ontario will keep the details submitted by all firms strictly confidential, and it will only be used to help determine winners. Any information published will only be presented in the aggregate, apart from the names of the winning firms. We will notify winning firms in advance of publication.
 


Survey closes on February 3rd, 2023. 

Definition of pro bono work
Pro bono is defined as the provision of legal services without a fee being charged to low income and disadvantaged individuals and charitable organizations, or to clients whose case raises a wider issue of public interest affecting such individuals. The fundamental purpose of pro bono work is to increase access to legal services and to justice for those who do not have the means to purchase legal services or qualify for legal aid.

Examples
Examples of pro bono work include, but are not limited to:
  • Provision of summary legal advice to an individual or charitable organization without expectation of a fee.
  • Provision of legal representation (full or unbundled) to an individual or charitable organization without expectation of a fee.
Examples of pro bono work DO NOT include:
  • Writing off uncollectable amounts or discounting fees for lower-income clients.
  • Other volunteer activities (e.g., sitting on a non-profit’s board of directors). 

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* 1. Your details:

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* 2. Name of law firm/legal department

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* 3. Do you have a pro bono coordinator?

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* 4. Total number of lawyers in Canada (head count, not FTE)

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* 5. Total number of pro bono hours by lawyers in all Canadian offices during the 2022 calendar year.

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* 6. What percentage of lawyers in your firm undertook 10 hours or more of pro bono work in 2022?

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* 7. Were any pro bono activities conducted in conjunction with or through any of Canada’s provincial pro bono organizations (e.g., Access Pro Bono BC, Pro Bono Law Alberta, Pro Bono Law Saskatchewan, Pro Bono Ontario, Justice Pro Bono Quebec and Legal Information Society of Nova Scotia)?

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* 8. Do pro bono hours count towards associates’ billable hour targets?

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* 9. Does the firm donate cost awards from pro bono files to access to justice organizations?

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* 10. Does the firm direct any charitable giving to access to justice charities?

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* 11. What percentage of your partners added to your total pro bono hours for 2022 and what was their percentage contribution?

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* 12. What percentage of pro bono hours has your firm engaged in against the total practice hours for 2022

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* 13. Does your company set targets for pro bono?

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* 14. If you answered yes to the above question,  what were they for 2022

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* 15. What are the main challenges that face your firm in terms of doing pro bono work? Please rate the following challenges on a scale of 1-5 where 1 is low and 5 is high

  1 (low) 2 3 4 5 (high)
Firm Capacity/Availability of lawyers
Insufficient expertise in relevant area of law
Concern of conflict of interest with current client (s)
Lack of available opportunities

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* 16. What do you believe is a key success of your pro bono program?

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* 17. What are the main sources of your pro bono work? Please apply an approximate percentage to the following areas

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* 18. Do you have any comments about your law firm’s pro bono activities?

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* 19. Is there a lawyer who has gone above and beyond who you think should be recognized? Please use the following space to tell us about them.

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