Is there such a thing as free legal advice? Edward Goldsmith, Liverpool Law Society president and senior partner of Goldsmith Williams, says there is -- but lawyers should be modest about giving it, or be more frank about why they are giving it.He highlights the divide between provincial practices and the large London firms, which have the resources to appoint full- or part-time pro bono co-ordinators, and says he is sceptical about the reasons behind why large City firms are the greatest supporters of the Solicitors Pro Bono Group (SPBG), which holds its annual conference this month.He admits his 'jaundiced view' is that those City firms support it for the wrong reasons: 'To provide young lawyers with an opportunity to meet a real human being and help them, rather than spend months doing research and paper work.' He continues: 'Essentially, pro bono work in a City firm gives the younger lawyers a chance to meet and mix with the real public, rather than the heads of banks in leveraged buy-outs, or it is used as a recruitment tool for those partne rs who still have a smidgen of social conscience.'He says the problem is that high-street practitioners have Ta natural reluctance about publicising their pro bono work.

They believe that voluntary work should be without ostensible reward, and that is the whole basis of doing pro bono work -- the concept of marketing such advice and assistance is anathema to their professionalism'.Sue Bucknall, director of the SPBG, partly agrees with Mr Goldsmith.

She says: TIt is healthy to have some scepticism when you look at the motives why firms are getting involved in pro bono work.

And there is a view that it could be provided for the wrong reasons, but the plus side is still that it helps raise confidence and self-esteem in the lawyers who are given the opportunity to do pro bono work, and they are meeting "real" people.

And the real pro side is that people are getting help, whether it is just advice -- or physical help -- when they need it most.'She concedes: 'From the firms' perspective, it is obviously also useful as a recruitment tool -- in fact, we encourage students to do pro bono work when they are studying, and to view whether firms to which they apply do pro bono work as one of the factors to consider in their choice of applications.

And for the firms, there are wider benefits in terms of how they are viewed in the marketplace.'That is confirmed by recent moves by in-house legal departments to use their corporate clout to encourage their external legal advisers to do pro bono work with them.In 1999, BAE Systems (formerly British Aerospace) became the first in-house legal team -- under solicitor Terence Black, who is now treasurer of structured finance at BAE Systems -- to gain a Law Society waiver to conduct pro bono work.Mr Black says: TIn-house lawyers are able to encourage the firms that they work with to develop their pro bono practices.

Often, law firms do not realise that the pro bono work that they do may be considered by clients to be an important feature of that firm's overall professional profile.

In-house lawyers may well consider a firm's record on pro bono as part of their decision to retain external counsel.

The trend is for businesses to participate in local communities, not just as employers but also as good neighbours.'More recently, the in-house legal team at Ford Credit, the banking arm of Ford Motor Company, encouraged two of its external firms, City firm Lovells and Essex-based Wortley Byers, to sign up to its pro bono scheme (see [2000] Gazette, 22 Feb, 8).

Ford Credit's in-house team will run half-day seminars to advise start-up businesses under the Prince's Trust, and the external firms will provide free help and advice on legal issues during the first year of those start-ups running their businesses.Christopher Makin, Ford Credit's director of communications, said that although a commitment to pro bono would not be a 'sticking point' when using external firms, it would be a relevant factor.

This trend may confirm Mr Goldsmith's view about the mixed motives that the larger commercial firms may have for doing pro bono work -- that it is as much, if not more, about the bottom line, than any simple altruistic motive.Another area of pro bono that has courted controversy is the suggestion -- mooted last year by the Law Society -- for aspirational targets for solicitors to carry out pro bono work.To many solicitors this seems a way of recognising formally the amount of pro bono work done by lawyers .

But others are concerned by the situation.Reginald Le Pla of Bradford firm Simpson Duxbury Ro oley Temple-Milnes says: 'Most lawyers have done pro bono work over the years, and I'm all for placing it on a more formal basis to co-ordinate such work.'However, Mr Le Pla foresees difficulties with targets, even if they are voluntary.

He adds: 'Having aspirational targets is exactly the type of development I most deplore.

Some solicitors would fulfil their targets, others would not have the opportunity to, others would fail to.

However, this insidious creeping development would lead ultimately to compulsion.'The real danger, he fears, is that compulsion would lead ultimately to solicitors having to fulfil quotas to qualify for legal aid contracts.On a more practical level, how firms outside London use their pro bono activities, and whether they publicise them, may have to change soon.Mr Goldsmith recently wrote an article in the Liverpool Law Society's monthly magazine,The Bulletin, asking members 'whether pro bono work should be on a more formalised basis'.In the meantime, a questionnaire has been sent asking members for details of the pro bono work they do, and the next move will be to consider whether that should be publicised more widely in a bid to improve the image of the profession locally.Liverpool is not alone in making moves in the pro bono sector, and London firms are not alone in formally co-ordinating the pro bono work.National firm Addleshaw Booth & Co will shortly be appointing a part-time co-ordinator for its pro bono activities.

Partner Andrew Chamberlain says: 'The firm has had a number of initiatives on an ad hoc basis, but we have seen the need to bring those together so we have an idea of the time spent, and how the work could be run properly.'Having a co-ordinator also means that we can answer the questions asked by the outside world.

We are aware of corporate client's policies on pro bono, but we were doing pro bono work anyway.'However, Mrs Bucknall appreciates that the work of the SPBG could be seen as London-centric, and stresses: 'There are many different ways of doing pro bono work.

The large City firms, which have larger resources, inevitably can carry it out in a more co-ordinated, organised way -- and in a manner that raises their profile.'In practice, there are obvious logistical problems in providing pro bono advice and assistance to the more remote parts of the country, and the SPBG is also working on setting up a Web site, which will enable lawyers to give pro bono work via the Internet.Recently, Mrs Bucknall has been visiting local law societies to check on initiatives, and says that at the first joint solicitors and Bar Pro Bono conference on 17 March 2001, the workshop on regional initiatives will be chaired by the group's president, Lord Phillips of Sudbury.The workshop will highlight the different initiatives in the regions.

In Birmingham it is mediation, in Manchester, there will be an extension of LawWorks -- through which solicitors assist local advice centres -- and Bristol has been running courses for litigants in person.Mr Goldsmith concludes: 'There seem to be two different perceptions of pro bono -- one inside and one outside London.

The reality is that lawyers do pro bono work every day, by taking a simple phone call which they don't charge for, or going to a local citizens' advice bureau.Whatever lawyers' motives for doing pro bono work, the public would be surprised how much is done across the profession, and in every city and town.

Perhaps a statistical report about this work done nationally would help to counter the image portrayed by Home Secretary Jack Straw and his attacks on 'greedy lawyers'.