The Firm has publicly backed Raymond Mclennan’s idea that a mandatory 20 hours of pro-bono be introduced as a component of a solicitor’s renewal of their practising certificate each year. We did so without hesitation.

The idea of course needs due consideration, consultation and a good deal of refinement, but at its heart we believe the idea is good in principle, noble in intention, and completely workable in practice.

The best intentions of many young lawyers are often stifled in working reality by the limitations of the jobs they ultimately secure. Therefore whilst, as Peter Nicholson observes in the Journal, “there is a real momentum building behind pro bono at all levels from law students upwards, and a great resource of goodwill waiting to be tapped,” I would argue that this is simply not enough. Goodwill needs to be applied, and that goodwill is unlikely to be channelled where it is needed if the willing young lawyer is obliged to work every hour of their life in a successful commercial law firm, with no available time during their working week to undertake pro bono work.

Goodwill has been there since time immemorial, but the relative amount of pro bono work undertaken by lawyers has nosedived over the last two generations. Any elder statesmen solicitors will confirm that pro bono work was just something they did routinely to assist more needy clients coming through the doors of their practice every week, almost without thinking. It is simply no longer done in these commercially focused days, and it is naïve at best to hope that the pro bono need will be met by the charity of a very few or the resources of our overstretched law centres. The pro bono need is greater than ever. It isn’t being met. And isn’t going to be on goodwill alone.

Introducing a compulsory element to this sticks in the craw for obvious reasons, and I rail against compulsion instinctively. No one wants pro bono work to be undertaken like National Service. But in reality, every lawyer every year undertakes mandatory CPD without a grumble, and if everyone is prepared to be honest with themselves, they’ll admit that they hardly do it all with their heart and soul. Plenty will sit through well intentioned management lectures simply to tot up the required tally of hours. This does not make them less capable lawyers in practice, but we are kidding ourselves if we assumed that every hour of the current mandatory annual training was undertaken with any real passion. This is one area where the goodwill that is presently squandered could be properly harnessed.

I agree firmly that there is a genuine deep well of willingness amongst solicitors to undertake pro bono work. They simply lack the structure to be able to undertake it. And this can easily be provided. Ray McLennan’s proposal could easily be adapted and incorporated into current CPD requirements, and in my view would have the more subtle long term outcome of ensuring young and future lawyers see that pro bono is something to value, that is prioritised by their peers and colleagues, and is the necessary duty of solicitors to undertake.

The greater the talents, resources, opportunity and ability of the individual, the greater the duty on that individual to apply it to the greater good. Solicitors used to do it without thinking. These days, it is the sole preserve of the very dedicated. Goodwill needs a structure and a support network if it is to be channelled correctly.

I believe solicitors would accept a pro bono element to their annual training. I believe they would welcome it. I believe they would do more than what is asked, given the structure, support and opportunity.

Steven Raeburn
Editor